Darin
My comments on ANSI CR vs On/Off CR relates to CRTs, and was in response to the original poster's question about CRT On/Off CR. I agree that current d-pjs have issues with black levels, and the Off measurement is important in evaluating them. I am discounting filter modifications. etc.
The manufacturers will not cheat by lying about the specs, which they already do! They will cheat by including special hardware/software, which looks for a "long†duration 0ire signal, which tells them the unit is been tested, and lowering light output. This will give great On/Off CR numbers but will not have any real world benefits!
Both ANSI CR and ANSI Lumens were designed to stress test inherent problems in CRT technologies. Those benchmarks do not stress the d-pjs in the same way. IMO they are not directly comparable. 700:1 for the 12K is very impressive given that WSR just measured a Vision 20 Matterhorn at only 150:1.
I don’t believe based on just CR numbers alone I could tell you which pj looked better. I had the opportunity to A/B compare a Sharp 10k to my Sony D50 this past weekend. The black levels were not very different, by eyeball, because I had the black level (brightness) cranked up on the D50. The D50 had a better picture, but was only apparent on critical A to B comparisons. My only issue with the sharp was some kind of flickering noise, particularly around bright moving objects (HD football telecast) my eyes kept trying to focus on the flicker instead of the image!