Best TVs for deep contrast

Round-up reviews let you compare four related products and find out which one is best for you

Last updated: 19 Oct 2007

With 1080p televisions becoming more and more common and other innovations like 100Hz, 24p and HDMI 1.3 being shoehorned into most TVs, the manufacturers need something else to shout about. That's not a bad thing, because in order to shout about something, you need to have something worthy of attention.

The contrast ratio of a TV is the difference between the brightest white and the darkest black the set can produce. Enormous figures tend to be touted, and LCD TVs frequently employ a little trick called 'dynamic contrast ratio', which works by reducing the output of the backlight to increase the black levels. This is fine on a scene that is all black, but isn't helpful when there is a mixed scene.

As a rule, LCDs have a far poorer black reproduction than plasmas because of the way the technology works. Even so, plasmas aren't perfect, and as yet nothing has really matched CRT for producing deep, rich blacks with plenty of detail.

The Samsung LE52F96 is an LCD with a quoted contrast ratio of 500,000:1, a figure we'd suggest taken with a pinch of salt. That's not to say it isn't a good TV -- because it is -- and it produces excellent blacks because of its LED backlight.

Called a 'Kuro' TV -- translated from Japanese to mean 'black', of course -- the Pioneer PDP-428XD is designed to be as good at producing blacks as possible.

We've also picked the Panasonic TH-50PZ700 plasma, claiming the same contrast ratio as the Samsung. Irrespective of the number, it's an excellent TV. The Samsung PS42Q97HDX also makes the list as it offers great contrast at a sensible price.

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	Samsung LE52F96	Pioneer PDP-428XD	Panasonic TH-50PZ700	Samsung PS42Q97HDX
Review date	8 Oct 07	28 Sep 07	9 Oct 07	11 Oct 07
Editors' rating	8.1	9.0	8.0	8.3
Price range	£2,700	£1,600	£2,500	£800
Review summary	This set provides a ratings challenge because we love the styling and HD picture quality but weren't blown away by the sound or Freeview quality. At this price, we would expect a more rounded performance but this could be seen as the first step for LED backlights Read full review	A high-quality TV with the sort of black levels that we last saw on CRT TVs. It's not perfect but it does move home cinema screens up to a new level where they can offer something the LCD-based competition can't Read full review	The addition of a full HD pixel count improves the picture quality of this Panasonic model over the brand's standard HD ready models. But whether the advantages really justify the significant extra cost is open to debate Read full review	Not very long ago, the only 42-inch plasma TV you could find for under a grand would be something awful from a C-list brand. But the groundbreaking Samsung PS42Q97HDX ushers in a brave new age where we can now expect a model for a little less than £800 that gives us great features, looks and performance levels Read full review
User rating	9.0	9.0		9.0
Product Type	LCD	Plasma	Plasma	Plasma
Diagonal size	52 in.	42 in.	50 in.	42 in.
Image aspect ratio	16:9	16:9	16:9	16:9
Resolution	1920 x 1080 pixels	1024 x 768 pixels	1920 x 1080 pixels	1024 x 768 pixels
Image contrast ratio	500,000:1	16,000:1	500,000:1	15000:1
Speakers included	2	2	2	2
Sky High Definition compatible	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dual TV Tuner	n/a	n/a	No	No
Screen brightness	n/a	n/a	n/a	1500 cd/m2
	Full specification	Full specification	Full specification	Full specification