LCD display annoying auto-dimming! Does YOUR TV do this? (1 Viewer)

This is a video I shot (sorry I can't figure out how to embed it here) displaying an annoying "feature" on my Sharp TV- as you can see, the backlight dims whenever the picture goes black or close to it. It gets really annoying during dark scenes in movies or credit sequences when text fades up and then down on a black background, as well as on the computer in a case like this (I had watched an on-line video that went to a black screen when it finished.)

For almost TWO YEARS I have been trying to get Sharp to come up with a way to defeat this, but their "customer service" people are so dense that they don't even seem to understand what I'm talking about! I've posted this video and forwarded it to them in a last attempt to get them to address this- if nothing comes of it, then I'll buy another company's TV when it comes time to upgrade this one. I chose Sharp mainly because it had both active 3D and is also fully compatible with PAL (European system) video with no conversion needed, but this auto-dimming has really gotten on my nerves. (It happens with anything connected via HDMI, Component or standard Video inputs, as well as on over-the-air TV in the rare instances those go to black. It does NOT do it when watching Netflix or Vudu through the TV's built-in apps for those.)

Strangely I've seen very few complaints from others about this. It seems to be getting more common, as before this I had a Vizio that had a setting to COMPLETELY shut off the backlight in cases like this, luckily that one was able to be disabled (but I had several more unbelievable problems with that TV that caused me to dump it and get this one.) I know the 'soap-opera effect' has been discussed a lot, where the TV processed filmed material to make it look more like video with a higher frame-rate. That's actually a bit hard to defeat on this TV as well, as the "Game" mode is the only picture mode that totally eliminates that- on all other picture modes, even if you have all the 'motion enhancement' settings turned off, there's still a bit of frame interpolation going on.

So has anyone else experienced this unwanted auto-dimming 'feature'?

So is this related to what my TV has in that I have an 'auto dim" feature that if turned on adjusts the brightness of the TV depending on high bright or dark the room is? If I do the automated picture "set-up" it always turns the feature on. I always go into the "Picture" menu and turn it off. It does offer "Off" "Minimum" and "Max".

This appears to be separate from that- this TV has another 'feature' that adjusts the picture based on the amount of light in the room, but those can be turned on or off. The dimming happens whenever the picture goes close to full-black, regardless of any of the picture settings. In 3D, it seems to take a couple frames for the backlight to kick back in, as a fade-to-black scene will dim the backlight, and then if it cuts to another scene the first couple frames are dark and you can then see the backlight come back up.

I got a call from someone at Sharp after posting the video, but they are truly CLUELESS as to how this stuff actually works. It amazes me that an electronics company would employ people to represent them who know less than I do about their products. After about an hour of verifying picture settings, they just said they'd "investigate this further."

Every LCD does that.

By the way, does that one have local dimming?As far as I know...nobody makes that defeatable.Toshiba(who created it) had videos posted online years ago from PO'd customers when they'd attach a computer, put on a dark screen...and move the pointer.Local dimming has gotten better...but...

Every LCD does that.

Click to expand...

Not EVERY LCD- my parents have a Samsung which doesn't, and the Vizio I had before would at least let you turn it off. That one had local dimming, which would've been good if it didn't completely cut the backlight during a black picture. The one I have now is just edge-lit (no local dimming) but still looks mostly better than the Vizio, the auto-dimming is extremely annoying though. In some cases you get a flicker if it isn't sure if it should be dimmed or not.

Is their Samsung CCFL?That is a trait that LED lit brought in attempting to mimic the black level of plasma.LCD work exactly like a kaleidoscope.

What you are talking about is dynamic contrast where the display will lower the light output on predominantly dark images to make the blacks look better but then the whites look gray when it first kicks in. My Samsung LED TV has local dimming that is the dynamic contrast implementation and it can be turned off so look for a setting for local dimming or dynamic contrast. My Viewsonic PC monitor has dynamic contrast that can be turned off and I have it off because dynamic drives me crazy as it is far too much change. Really good implementations of dynamic contrast will remap the image to attempt to maintain brighter parts of the image at the same brightness but then whites can get crushed rather than simply everything getting dimmer equally. My Sony 95ES has a good implementation of dynamic contrast but uses an iris to control the amount of light output rather than dimming the bulb so it is called in the world of projectors dynamic iris.