Sharp has announced the development of a LCD panel with a 1,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio. This “Mega-Contrast Advanced Super View Premium LCD” will, of course, be aimed at video and film professionals, and will, of course, require that one take out a second mortgage on one’s home to afford it. And after reading “Mega-Contrast Advanced Super View Premium LCD” a few times, I think my BuzzwordParser just had a buffer overflow…

Specs are as follows:
Screen size - 37-inch
Resolution - 1920×1080
Contrast ratio - 1,000,000:1 (infinite?)
Luminance/Brightness - 500 cd/m2

For reference, “Contrast Ratio” is defined as “the ratio of the brightest and darkest images a display can reproduce”, or “the brightness of a display at full white over the brightness of a display at full black.” For instance, a 500:1 contrast ratio represents better color representation (the better the information will appear against a darker background) on the monitor than a lower contrast ratio like, say 200:1. Another way to put it is the black is 500 times darker than white on a 500:1 contrast ratio display. Getting the point yet?
Note that black value is strongly affected by ambient light, so it is common to calculate contrast ratio in darkened rooms. Also note that contrast ratio is sometimes referred to as “dynamic range”, especially in reference to film. I’ve read somewhere that 70mm film has a contrast ratio of approximately 1000:1.

Interestingly enough, startup company Brightside recently introduced a 200,000:1 “extreme dynamic range” (EDR) display. Several interesting comparison pics at that link. The Brightside display is a 37″ LCD as well, with a 3000 cd/m2 brightness rating, and 1920×1080 resolution.
Yours for a meager $49,000.

I’ll take two…