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Lab Notes: Putting HDTVs to the Test

Someday all content sources and all TVs will be digital. And our Test Center relied primarily on digital technology in order to display identical material in side-by-side quality tests.

For our DVD tests, we played Seabiscuit and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on V Inc.'s $249 Bravo D2, using its DVI output. To test HD and standard-definition image quality, we used over-the-air broadcasts received via a set-top antenna and recorded on a PC using Macro Image Technology's $290 MDP-120, which includes a tuner and capture card, plus an $89 daughtercard to output the recordings over DVI-HD. We sent the HD and DVD signals to a Gefen 2:8 HDTV Distribution Amplifier, which fed them to the sets via DVI or DVI-HDMI cables.

We used Milori ColorFacts software and GretagMacBeth's professional-grade color analyzer to pick the preset color-temperature mode on each TV that most closely matched the TV and DVD standard of 6500 Kelvin. We then used the Digital Video Essentials DVD calibration kit.

Six judges rated recorded standard-definition, high-definition, and DVD content for color quality, detail, brightness and contrast, and overall impression. All scores were on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being best; we then converted the sum of the scores to a percentage of a possible perfect score. The highest score achieved in any of the tests was 67 out of 100.

We ran most tests under lighting with a color temperature of about 5000 Kelvin to simulate evening viewing conditions, but repeated several tests with brighter lighting from combined 5000 Kelvin and 6500 Kelvin sources to simulate daylight conditions. We also informally checked DVD image quality using analog audio and component video connections.