Dim those LCD blacks: reducing the backlight
This tip is so simple, I almost didn't include it. But, I decided that it was disguised in such a way that it was worth giving people the heads-up about. You might have seen the "Power Saving" function already, and might well have passed it by. "I've paid over a grand for this screen, I'll run it on full power!" you think. Not so fast! Asides from using less power and making the screen last longer (I'm not sure to what extent either of these are true though), there's a better reason to use the Power Saving mode.
If you watch an LCD TV in a dark room, and watch really dark movies (or if you just happen to like watching the end credits over and over) then what is arguably LCD's biggest weakness will probably have come to your attention by now. You probably know that unlike old CRTs, LCD screens have a fluorescent lamp (called a backlight) behind the screen that make the picture visible. If any gamers out there have ever tried playing the original version of the Game Boy Advance which had no backlight at all, you'll know that the backlight is a necessary evil. While this backlight is great for making all those colours that Sony sells BRAVIA on nice and vibrant (as well as making tooth whitening commercials look geniunely scary), it also has the side-effect of lighting up the whole screen meaning that the darkest black you'll usually get is a sort of very dark grey.
Get used to this. This tip will alleviate this old flat-panel problem a little, but the black level won't reach CRT standards. (Unless you had a really cheap CRT.)
A backlight that's too high will suck up power, shorten the life of the display, prevent inky, convincing blacks, make whites unpleasant to look at, and help emphasise compression artefacts. It is astonishing that Sharp, the supposed kings of LCD technology, no longer let you adjust the backlight manually!
You can dim the backlight substantially by entering the "Features" menu and turning "Power Saving" to "Reduce" instead of the default "Standard" setting. Now once you've done this, you'll probably think that the picture is far too dark - especially if you've had the set on full Backlighting. If you think so, then go into the Picture menu and turn the backlight up a few notches to compensate. Chances are when it was in Normal mode, you had the backlight set low, so you might need to compensate for this now. You might be surprised if you put your BRAVIA TV with power saving mode turned OFF next to a CRT or Plasma set - the chances are, it will look far too bright by comparison. After using my own Sony LCD in Power Saving mode for most of its life, the "Standard" mode looks far too bright to me. In fact, since Sony are as far as I'm aware the only manufacturers that offer a backlight dimming solution like this, it's one of the reasons why I now can't accept any other brand of LCD!
Too many LCD buying guides sell LCDs on the claim that they are "amazingly bright", "the brightest TV picture ever" etc etc. As I said, this can look OK in the store, but when you take it home to a darkened room, a backlight that's set too high (or even worse, a manufacturer that doesn't even let you adjust it - I'm looking at you, Panasonic) can really pull you out of whatever you're watching by producing milky blacks and lighting the entire screen up like a Christmas tree. Movies set in pitch darkness will become messes of dark grey. By dimming the backlight, you'll lose the overwhelmingly radiant whites, but personally, to get such an incredibly improved black level, I think it's worth it. Of course, it's up to you - like any kind of TV adjustment, give it a try and see how you like it.
