Plasma Displays

• Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—230:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—464:1

• Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446: 480: 450 (per picture height)720p: N/A (see text below)1080i: N/A (see text below)

• DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

• Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent): Good

• Measured Color Points: Red Color Point: x=0.652, y=0.335 Green Color Point: x=0.264, y=0.657 Blue Color Point: x=0.151, y=0.058

The left chart shows the P42HD's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the normal color-temperature mode, measures extremely cool with dark images and even cooler with brighter images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures better, within 1,167 kelvin of D6500, the accurate color temperature, across the entire range.

The right chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue phosphors. Blue is slightly oversaturated and purple, red is slightly oversaturated, and green is oversaturated and slightly bluish-green.

Using a full-field 100-IRE white (20.22 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.088 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 230:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 464:1. A 100-IRE window produced 57.4 ft-L. It is normal for a plasma to have lower light output on a full-field white versus a white window. Due to scaling errors, it was impossible to determine the P42HD's resolution with 720p or 1080i.—GM