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Dynamic contrast is a practically meaningless figure promulgated by marketeers and Ben.

I think dynamic means brightening and dimming of the panel, hence darker darks, lighter lights and thus a figure of contrast ratio increased because of the dims and lighting.

So it's a false true contrast ratio and that's why it's called dynamic.

I bet they have some way of measuring this because it wouldn't make any sense otherwise.

Static contrast ratio on this is 1,000:1.

Dynamic contrast is the difference between the light of a totally dark screen and the brightest white screen. If a monitor could display a totally black screen, the dynamic contrast would be infinite. Native or static contrast is measured with a checkerboard pattern of black and white and it's much harder to maintain a dark black in this situation. The most useful measurement for comparison would be the static black level. Too bad they never list it. Dynamic contrast should only be viewed as a particular manufacturer's assesment of the differences between their own models.

Thanks for the explanation Superman. A post on this site that was actually helpful.

Actually, tho I'm no Superman, I must respectfully disagree. The purported rational for "dynamic" contrast ratio is that a mfg can brighten or dim the backlight for dark or bright scenes. The the contrast ratio would be product of the backlight modulation and the screen pixel transmissivity (the ratio, that is). (see wikipedia)

It is not hard nor even a problem to maintain the max dark to light in a checkerboard (neglecting backscatter from the front plastic) because the dark and light areas are gated by different pixels.

The issue here is defining the measurement or a standard. #3 hit it on the head- this panel has a contrast ratio of 1000:1 which is ok, but common and unimpressive. The 20,000 figure is obvious marketing hype further promulgated by Mister Ben, the click promoter.

#s 6 and 3 have a point, but that's not to say dynamic contrast by itself doesn't matter (which they didn't say, so no offense to them). But watch an LCD w/ dynamic contrast (should be all of them these days) and then turn off the dynamic contrast.

However, I'd agree that the dynamic numbers cannot be trusted for the sake of comparing between brands, and I wouldn't even trust them within the same brand for that matter.

#6 is stepping on Superman's cape.