New LCD owner - put my mind at rest

[Zaichik]

Today, I took delivery of a Sony KDL-32S2010 LCD TV, mainly for use with the Xbox 360. Up until about 10 minutes ago, I was really happy with it - the picture is lovely and there do not appear to be any dead pixels. However, upon looking at the blank (black) AV input screen with the room in darkness, I noticed that the image was lighter towards the left and right edges of the screen, and the size of the patches of lightness varied depending on what angle I viewed from. I assume this is backlight leakage. I cannot see it when the room is lit, but it is very apparent when the room is dark.

Is this normal, or is my run of bad luck with electronics purchases continuing?

 

[Dorian]

I think it's hard to completely avoid the fact that the screen isn't lit completely evenly across, rather there are two backlight tubes so there will almost always be lighter and darker patches.

My mrs would have some advice here, she'd say if it looks a bit imperfect when you're sitting looking at a plain black screen, then don't sit looking at a plain black screen

 

[Dav3]

Yeah, bang on.

If you turn off all the lights in a room and look at a blank screen on any LCD you will not find uniform colouration. The backlight leakage will cause you to notice lighter areas of the screen, which usually occur in the corners. Also, the LCDs will vary when you look at them from angles due to the way they operate, but also because you seldom get a totally pitch black room, and reflection of the backlight off other objects in the room can effect the appearance of the screen. Combining these factors means you will see different lighting patterns at different angles.

Basically, it goes with the territory of LCDs and unless you notice it during dark scenes etc on a film, in which case you may have reason for concern by having more leakage than can be expected, you are fine. You said yourself the picture is lovely, so you've no reason to be concerned with it at all. Stop looking at blank screens and put on the 360 and enjoy high definition goodness!

Enjoy.

Dave

 

[Zaichik]

Thanks, guys. I thought I was probably worrying about nothing. The TV looks bloody excellent when in operation and I certainly don't plan on looking at too many blank screens in the dark!