TVs: new 2010 face-offs online!

They needed some new blood and now they have it: our new television face-offs are online.

They have been considerably enriched so as to offer readings and measurements that are comparable to those for computer screens.
In the near future, moreover, we’ll be offering identical tests for both types of product, seeing as the two categories are gradually coming together; more and more screens now come with digital tuners and all TVs can now be used with a PC.

This is why our TV face-offs now look like this:

• Energy consumption: identical to the old version, this graph has been reworked and honed down. It now only shows energy consumption for the TV in cinema mode. We’re also now showing the energy consumption for different sizes of the same model and not only the one tested. We extrapolate these scores from the one tested.

• Gaming: Best Result and worst: this test is unchanged.

• Input lag vs a CRT: many of you have asked us to include this reading in our articles but it’s really most important to gamers. Here it is now in our face-offs.

• Contrast measurements: we’ve redesigned and simplified the graph to give only the optimised mode. Giving default results doesn’t make much sense when it's artificially high to the detriment of image quality.

• Luminance: factory settings and cinema mode: the curve has been altered to give a more legible graph. Factory mode highlights the faults with default settings.

• Colours: factory settings and calibrated: these readings replace the gamut triangle that was a little difficult to follow. The new graph (comparable to the one for PC monitors) allows you to check a larger number of colours and not only primary and complimentary colours.

• Colour temperature: this graph replaces the old RGB graph. It is in fact the sum of three old curves. It is therefore simpler to understand: above 6500 K (the cinema reference) and greys and whites tend toward blue; below they tend towards red.

• Greys: based on the previous readings, this graph also displays the gap between ideal colours and those tested on the TV.

• Playback: 576p source: after different tests over the last few years, we have come back to a photo taken from a 576p video. The characters highlighted in this test allow you to analyse the upscaling differences between various TVs. Note however that over the last year, the differences between different brands is lessening.

• Playback: 1080p source : this test is the same as before and displays a photo of a Full HD 1080p test pattern.

• Evenness: test results: this new test represents differences in brightness measured on the surface of the panel display.

• Evenness: Subjective reading: this is the practical version of the previous test; we show a photo on a uniform orange background. Darkening of the orange circle indicates a backlighting problem with the panel.

• Viewing angles: this test, one of our oldest, continues to show results from different viewing angles. An important test if you watch TV a lot from one side of the screen, or from above (if you’re standing) or when children are sat on the floor and see the screen from below.

• Remote: photo that already existed in our old face-offs and that shows the remote of the TV tested.

So, are you salivating yet? Well, you can start familiarising yourself with the Sony Bravia EX1 and Bravia E5500 straight away. The tests are to come later today. The face-offs of the recently tested LG SL9000 and Toshiba Regza SV675 have also been updated with the new procedure.

Enjoy the new comparisons!


> Discover: the 2010 TV face-offs here
> Product survey: 40 to 49 inch TVs