what do the folowwing mean and are they good numbers for a 42 inch hdtv?

Question

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Aspect Ratio: 16:9
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Resolution: 1920 x 1080
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Contrast Ratio: 1500:1
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Brightness: 500 cd/m2
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Response Time: 8 ms

Answer 1

Most HDTV's are 16:9 ratio (sometimes called 'widescreen')

1080: The Resolution says it is a 1080 internal which is the highest resolution available. Some HDTV's are only 720 internal.

Contrast Ratio: To have really sharp pictures, you need one pixel to be bright white, and the next one total black. But TV's cannot do this. The contrast ratio gives you an idea how different two pixels can be. The larger the contrast, the better.

Brightness - how much light the TV can pour out. This is very important for a front projector, but not usually a interesting number for LCD televisions.

Response Time: The lower the better. Some fast-moving objects (camera panning over a brick wall, helicopter blades, etc) cause macro-blocking on LCD's A faster response time reduces the problems.

I dont keep up on the numbers for a low, medium, high cost television, but I suspect this TV is a mid-level television because of the 1500:1 contrast ratio. I think I have heard the high end TV's have 3000:1 ratio.

Answer 2

Numbers are hard to explains. Before you buy ask the shop to switch on the TV and see for yourself if the picture is okay to you.