I’ve finally given in and bought an LCD HD TV (Sony KDL-32EX503). Sitting directly in front of the set the picture is great (both SD and HD) but as soon as I move more than (roughly) 20 degrees off the centre line the colours start to fade. The picture is still visible but the colours are way off.
So the question is: is this what I’ve got to expect from an LCD set or could this particular set have a problem? I know LCDs have a reputation for problems with limited viewing angles but this is ridiculous. Effectively only two people in the room can see the best picture - and they have to be pretty cosy!
I have two brand new LCD monitors on front of me right now. When I have a blank white page up I can see some color changes when I move to the side, but when I have the wallpaper up I don’t see an appreciable difference in color(the wallpaper is a mountain range so it has a wide variance of color). It seems The best way to find out if it’s the set or not is to see another example of one, like at the store you bought it from. It’s possible it could be perfectly fine but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
They call that “torch mode”. That manufacturer purposely sets it that way to make them stand out from the others. It’s generally a good idea to adjust your TV after you buy it so you don’t burn it out early (and make the colors correct).
LCD panels are not all made equal. Different technologies will offer better/worse viewing angles. A cheap panel is likely to provide a poor viewing angle, poor color representation, and a poor contrast ratio.
Yeah, they are not all the same. My TV set is fine almost to 90 degrees off center, but my laptop monitor only about 30 degrees. FWIW, the laptop is a Sony, and the TV an off-brand semi cheap HDTV.
