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- Table of Contents
- Intro
- Test Methodology Coverage
- When It Matters
- Our Tests
- Additional Information
- Conclusion
- Comments
Our TV Picture Quality Tests
Ambient Color Saturation
Color Volume is the most important metric for judging how well a TV displays colors overall. Ideally, you want to be in a dark room to enjoy the most vibrant and impactful colors possible, but what happens to a TV's perceived color volume if you're in a bright room? Our ambient color saturation test measures this to see how indirect reflections caused by ambient lighting impact a TV's color performance.
Test results
Test Methodology Coverage
We added this test as part of our 2.0 test bench update. Before that, we had no equivalent test, so TVs that haven't been tested on 2.0 or later don't have these results. Learn how our test benches and scoring system work.
| Ambient Color Saturation | 1.11 | 2.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Low-Luminance Colors @ 1000 lx | ❌ | ✅ |
| Mid-Luminance Colors @ 1000 lx | ❌ | ✅ |
| High-Luminance Colors @ 1000 lx | ❌ | ✅ |
When It Matters
Our ambient color saturation test is designed specifically to look at how a TV's perceived color volume as a whole is impacted by the ambient lighting in a room, so it matters if and when you use your TV in a well-lit room. Combined with our Ambient Black Level Raise, Total Reflected Light, and Direct Reflections tests, you can see how different models perform in a bright room.
Our Tests
To see how ambient lighting impacts a TV's perceived color volume, we look at the final result of low-luminance, mid-luminance, and high-luminance colors. We don't score the amount by which color volume decreases since some TVs that show a large decrease in color volume still have more saturated colors than a TV that doesn't have a big decline but has poor color volume to begin with.
This test is done following our normal SDR Color Volume test, but it's performed with the TV's brightness set to maximum. We set up our ring light parallel to the screen at a calculated distance of 21.5 cm (8.46") from the screen. We then make sure that it's centered to the screen with our Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter perpendicular to the display. With all other lights off, we measure at the center of the area of the screen within the circular reflection of our ring light. Once we collect the objective Cube, Target, and Intersect data in Calman, we generate the final graphs that show the results.
Our scores are based on an indirect illumination of 1000 lux, which is roughly equivalent to a brightly lit room during the day. However, our test measures up to 3000 lux, so we can get a fuller picture of how much ambient light impacts perceived color volume on each model we test.
Low-Luminance, Mid-Luminance, and High-Luminance Colors @ 1000 lx
Looking at the two graphs below, you can see the difference between a TV with excellent perceived color volume in a bright room and one with disappointing results.
| LG UT7570 Ambient Color Saturation | Samsung S95D Ambient Color Saturation |
 |  |
On the left side is the LG UT7570, and ambient lighting doesn't impact its colors very much. However, the TV has poor SDR color volume in a completely dark room (0 lux), with a total CIELAB BT.2020 Color Volume coverage of 46.49% when set to its maximum brightness in SDR. Despite the TV's total coverage only dropping to 45.93%, it still has disappointing colors in a bright room.
On the right side is the Samsung S95D. At 0 lux, the TV has 83% coverage of CIELAB BT.2020 when set to its maximum SDR brightness, but you can see a pretty steep decline in perceived color volume as more light is added to the room. Despite this decline, it still has a total coverage of 77.49% at 1000 lux, which is excellent overall.
By looking at each individual line, you can see exactly what happens to low-luminance, mid-luminance, and high-luminance colors. For example, the Samsung TV has 84.26% coverage of low-luminance colors in a dark room, but that coverage drops to 67.97% in a bright room. However, it has 79.46% coverage of high-luminance colors in a dark room, and that only drops to 76.98% in a bright room.
Additional Information
Display Technology Plays A Role
Since we run this test with TVs set to their maximum brightness, some models will typically perform poorly. For example, WOLEDs usually have solid reflection handling, but they use their white subpixels to boost brightness, which has the negative side effect of desaturating colors. On the other hand, QD-OLEDs usually have worse black level raise, but since they don't rely on a white subpixel to boost brightness, they can display saturated colors much better at high levels of brightness.
Measuring Your Room
Gauging the overall brightness in your room can be difficult, especially since it varies daily and depends on the weather outside. Normally, a simple lux meter is needed to precisely measure your ambient lighting conditions. If you want to get a rough idea of what to expect, there are apps available that use your smartphone's front-facing camera and a homemade diffuser to give you an approximate measurement of the ambient light in your room. They're not perfect, but they'll give you a rough idea of what to expect.
Conclusion
Colors are a very important aspect of a TV's picture quality, but our perception of colors changes in a bright room. By testing the impact indirect lighting has on color performance, we can see which models display impactful colors in a bright room and which don't. This is very useful if you want a TV with solid overall picture quality in a bright room. Our ambient color saturation test is one of our first steps into evaluating a TV's bright room performance, and we're looking to further expand our testing in this area. If you have any feedback or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out!
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