Do you watch movies on your LCD flat panel in a dark room?

Why isn't this a poll?
If it's daytime, in daylight, if it's night, in partial darkness (sometimes total)

I think it's probably best to keep some form of other lighting on instead of total darkness (I think that's why some TVs - is it Philips? (might be Panasonic?) have lights around the TV that are about the same colours as what's on the TV.

No on a 2.35:1 film the black bars won't be totally black on an LCD I don't think (but can get pretty close - maybe they would be totally black on LED backlit ones?).

i watch movies on my lcd hd projector in a dark room.

They won't on most, but if there is any bright to semi bright content, the black bars will look black due to the contrast.

I like to keep some ambient lights on... it hurts my eyes if it's a completely dark room.

Where did you hear that? LCDs lose a LOT of contrast in a daylight-lit environments. Plasmas are far superior, in my experience, for high-ambient, light-level environments.

I view my LCD displays only in darkened rooms, since their contrast is significantly reduced when any ambient light is in the room, especially with those stupid "anti-glare" screens. I have a cheap, 720p plasma (with a clear, NON-anti-glare, glass screen) in my living room, where there is a lot of daylight, because it's brighter, has more contrast, and a much greater viewing angle than my expensive Sharp Aquos LCDs (Sharp Aquos 52" LC-52D64U, 65" LC-52D64U).

I watch my 40xbr4 in a relatively dark room with the dark blue curtains closed but I have a light source to the left and right of the tv and it is fine. the blacks still look black.....mostly

The above poster is the only one I've ever heard say LCDs are bad in light, claim plasmas are brighter, and to blame anti-glare screens?? LOL And bad viewing angles when LCD's are generally 170-176 degrees?

LCDs look great in a dark room, but a black won't be quite true black. For instance in a wide aspect movie that still has some black bars, if the scene isn't bright I can tell the difference between the screen's black bars and the TV's bezel. I consider myself picky, but it's still good enough for me, though some lower end TV's are too gray for my taste.

Not sure (scratching head). Guess I'm watching the movie instead of the area around it. Call me silly.

i would love to watch my tv on total darkness but i can´t, black level is not good enough to be able to watch a movie on total darkness. Actually i leave an important amount of ambient light.
as someone said, when i get a bright or semi bright scene, blacks looks good because the contrast, but for very dark scenes, i can´t stand it.

The funny thing is my tv got great reviews regarding black level. my tv is Samsung LNS-3251D 32 Inch LCD Flat Panel HDTV with a contrast ratio on 5000:1 (dynamic)

No, he isn't the only one. I have a large plasma and a large LCD TV. I would agree that contrast under high ambient lighting is better with the plasma, not by a huge margin, but noticeably. If you are dealing with direct reflections (a window on the wall opposite the TV) then the LCD is much better.

As for viewing angles, the plasma wins hands down. There really is no comparing them. You may want to think that LCD have closed the gap because all the marketing folks have claimed 170° viewing angles but side by side in a room even Stevie Wonder could tell which set is markedly better for contrast off center.

To the OP, I have an LCD in the bedroom. When I/we are actually watching something, we normally have a little ambient light as it does make the apparent contrast look better.

When she is asleep and I am just watching the news before falling asleep, I watch it with no lights on. Blacks are not bad when there is other color on the screen, but when the screen goes completely black (pause between a commercial, etc.) you can visibly notice light leaking out around the LCD elements, both as a grey screen, but more noticeable as light hitting the walls and ceiling as the light escapes out around the edge of the LCD elements.

-Suntan

I try to wait till dark to watch a movie, with a Sharp 52D62U. Blakc bars can vary pretty greatly. During the day, black bars a black, hard to tell them apart from the piano black bezel.
at night, it varies anywhere from a dark grey, to pretty close to black. I think it is highly dependant on the source. Blu-ray movies have the blackest black bars, while DVD's are a bit lighter, and anything on TV is brutal. they obviously are not sending "black" black bars, or maybe it is the TV that does not do it.

either way, very happy with the blu-ray black bars, even at night, on my 52d62u.

i think people are mistaken with this.

becuase the compression and contrast, you could "think" you get better black on BR than DVDs, but to find your "best" black on the display, use a simple black pattern and lower your brightness all the way down, even at 0, you will see your display is still showing light... this means, your display won´t go beyond that, so that black is the best black you will be able to achieve.

The point is, if you have a bad source, the compression can be bad, and the black level could be higher than your tv display but the black level of your tv don´t change.

Yeah, i agree with you, and that is what I was trying to say. Blacks are pretty good (not black, but still pretty good), just dont get tricked by something that you think should be black but isnt, such as a SD black bar.

That's simply not true. I have both 52" and 65" current-model Sharp Aquos LCDs. Their real-world viewing angles are far more narrow than their overly liberal "specs" suggest, and their anti-glare screens just diffuse the ambient light all over the screen, lowering overall contrast. My cheap plasma blows them away in those two respects.