Whats better, 500 cd/m2 or 2,000 contrast ratio?

Question

Whats better for an lcd monitor, 500 cd/m2 1,000 contrast ratio, or:

300 cd/m2 2,000 cotrast ratio???

Answer 1

It depends on what you will be using the display for. cd/m2 stands for candela per square meter, it refers to the brightness of the screen.

Contrast ratio determines how white/black the screen can get. If you are buying the display for DVDs, games ect, I would think the contrast ratio is more important. The blacks will be very black and smooth with no texture look to it...you may have seen this on other LCD screens.

Here is a quick tutorial on the two:

http://www.screentekinc.com/resource-center/brightness-and-contrast-ratio.shtml

Answer 2

The cd/m2 is the brightness while contrast ratio is how many steps there are for the display from being completely black to completely white.
It's hard to say really. You'd have to look at them, but I would go with the higher brightness. Otherwise the picture might be dull and dark. Look online at reviews of the product. Usually http://www.newegg.com has pretty good reviews.