Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

[DOPPLERBOB]

Hello all,
I may suggest the answer to this question might be made a sticky.
I am looking for the nominal Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings to enable a decent picture and at the same time prevent the LED"s from premature failure. I realize all sets have different menus and settings might be variable, but hopefully someone has something to get you in the ballpark. I just don't know how low to put the backlight setting, or how high you can safely set it. And do the Brightness and Contrast settings also affect the life of the LED's as much as the Backlight setting, or are those settings just an LCD component?
A good setting might prevent a lot of the LED failures I am reading.
Thank You for the great forum
Bob

[srhofmann]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

Your question is impossible to answer, every model has a different panel and some models have multiple panels. There is no good setting that works across the board. A setting that looks good in your bedroom at night isn't going to work on your garage TV on a summer afternoon. The last thing you want to do is compromise picture quality to make things last longer, you bought it to watch it. A TV/monitor should be calibrated at a minimum for brightness, contrast, color and tint. Do a google search for AVS HD 709 and use the test patterns from the basic settings chapter.

[truep]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

the backlight control is the LED killer. I set mine to 75%. On some sets you may have to turn off the auto dimming to change the backlight setting(vizio).

[DOPPLERBOB]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

the backlight control is the LED killer. I set mine to 75%. On some sets you may have to turn off the auto dimming to change the backlight setting(vizio).

Yes I imagine that is what killed my 42" LG. I had to pull it apart and find the open LED and replace it with 5 diodes in series. But I just got a refurb 55" and I figured there was an approx. "safe" setting of the backlight to prevent the poor LED's from being overworked
I will try starting about 50% and see what I can do with the other settings to make up for the lower backlight. That is why I was asking.... is it just the backlight setting that causes the stress, or does the contrast and brightness settings also degrade the LED's?

[piomode]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

I just got a replacement slamsung under squaretrade warranty and was wondering the same thing.

Right out of the box I set the backlight to 14 / 20 (70%), but it still looks plenty bright to me. I'm pretty sure I had the last one on 20, having not ever thought about such things. That tv lasted 2.5 yrs.

I like the OP's question as to whether contrast and brightness affect led life. Peering through the back panel, maybe you'd see a difference in brightness of the leds as you adjust these settings to find out.

[truep]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

Contrast and brightness do not affect the backlight. The lower you set the backlight the better. I try not to go over 75% and usually n70% is fine.

[piomode]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

Contrast and brightness do not affect the backlight. The lower you set the backlight the better. I try not to go over 75% and usually n70% is fine.

Good to know, thanks~!

[DOPPLERBOB]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

Thanks truep that is exactly the answer I was looking for. I have mine now set at 50%. Yes I get that every set has different settings, but I was looking for the answer to whether the brightness and contrast settings affect the LED life besides the backlight setting. We'll see how long this set lasts this time.

[maxvalutech]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

My twopence worth re longevity for a tv is don't leave them in standby. Turn off at PowerPoint. I use remote controlled setup or Power board with individual switches on outlets. Save 30c a day and over 4 years that will buy you a new tv. Does anyone drive their car home then leave it outside idling in case they want to use it later!!

[srhofmann]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

My twopence worth re longevity for a tv is don't leave them in standby. Turn off at PowerPoint. I use remote controlled setup or Power board with individual switches on outlets. Save 30c a day and over 4 years that will buy you a new tv. Does anyone drive their car home then leave it outside idling in case they want to use it later!!

30c a day is about a kilowatt of power per day, approx. based on electric costs in Australia. That's about 40 watts in standby. A quick look at a couple of my Sony's show less than 1 watt of power in standby. If your TV is really drawing that much power I would suggest you disable the "Fast Start" feature of the TV, JVCs have this feature. It doesn't really turn off the TV, it only turns off the LCD and backlight, it leaves the mainboard partially running for a faster boot.

In the US, at 10c KW/h, it costs me about 35 cents to keep 5 TVs in standby for a month, it's not worth the time, effort and inconvenience to power everything down with a switch.

[maxvalutech]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

The main reason for turn off is simply exposure from just wearing out to voltage spikes lightning strike or whatever as the power circuit continues to put out a large voltage to supply 5v. On the expense side plasmas are still being used and most homes have more than one set these days.

[piomode]

Re: Backlight, Brightness, and Contrast settings

What about a small fan (like a computer fan) up top to circulate air and remove some of the heat, for longevity purposes?