New LCD TV - Too dark

[QPegasus]

I recently bought a new LCD TV/Monitor, a Dell W1900 and despite many attempts in the days since I got it, have been unable to achieve a satisfactory picture.

The problem is dark scenes/blacks - No matter how the contrast/brightness is set I just cant get it to look right. Scenes which appear fine on my 14" Sony CRT - shaded but still plenty of detail, are either much darker on my LCD and sometimes just totally black.

I may have found a solution by accident though - I noticed when viewing the screen at a 45 degree angle from above or from either side, things became brighter and detail could be seen where there was none before. Not ideal I guess but I suppose you could get use to watching it from such an angle.

When using it as a monitor though the same issue applies though. Looking at this test image the 3 darkest blacks all appear as pure black unless I move above or to either side of my screen. Once again, messing around with contrast/brightness doesnt seem to fix this, and sitting at a funny angle permanently wouldnt be good for the neck.

Anyone else had similar problems - is it just something about LCD's you need to learn to deal with, or is there an issue with my screen (a prob with the backlight or something)?.

Cheers

Colin

 

[neilmcl]

I recently bought a new LCD TV/Monitor, a Dell W1900 and despite many attempts in the days since I got it, have been unable to achieve a satisfactory picture.

The problem is dark scenes/blacks - No matter how the contrast/brightness is set I just cant get it to look right. Scenes which appear fine on my 14" Sony CRT - shaded but still plenty of detail, are either much darker on my LCD and sometimes just totally black.

I may have found a solution by accident though - I noticed when viewing the screen at a 45 degree angle from above or from either side, things became brighter and detail could be seen where there was none before. Not ideal I guess but I suppose you could get use to watching it from such an angle.

When using it as a monitor though the same issue applies though. Looking at this test image the 3 darkest blacks all appear as pure black unless I move above or to either side of my screen. Once again, messing around with contrast/brightness doesnt seem to fix this, and sitting at a funny angle permanently wouldnt be good for the neck.

Anyone else had similar problems - is it just something about LCD's you need to learn to deal with, or is there an issue with my screen (a prob with the backlight or something)?.

Cheers

Colin

Does this model have a manual backlight control, if so you could try turning it up a notch.

 

[QPegasus]

Does this model have a manual backlight control, if so you could try turning it up a notch.

No, I think the contrast setting is what sets the backlight.

 

[TheBoingoBandit]

Cheapo LCD TVs generally always have viewing angle problems.

 

[featherbrain]

Odd, judging from the greyscale ramp this should easily be corrected by raising contrast and brightness to improve both white level and black detail. If this doesn't help, I'd consider returning it as otherwise it's just going to niggle until you throw it out of the nearest window in frustration.

When you're using it as a PC monitor, you can further tweak gamma and contrast settings on the video card, of course - usually for each colour channel, too. And you can adjust output on most DVD players as well (usually at the expense of detail). Doesn't help with broadcast TV, though!

If you're using scart, try using a component connection instead if the set has an input.