3. Color

Best Prices ViewSonic N3760w 37" LCD TV (16:9,...

California Computer Center $871.00

Directron $939.99

EnterComputers.com $945.00

As you can see from the sample photographs, the color accuracy of the N3760w is very good, with very little adjustment needed to produce impressive results. There is a slight blue-cast which can be corrected with a few minor adjustments. Also, most displays have a small amount of blue-cast as this seems to be preferred over any warm or red-cast color temperature by most of the viewing public. Color saturation was excellent with rich, deep colors and good flesh tones with most source material.

Contrast/Black Level

Contrast performance has been the most prominent weakness of LCD television technology, and while the N3760w does quite well with live broadcasts and some film-based material, certain source material that will remind some of you instantly that you are watching an LCD and not a plasma or CRT display. Movies that contain dark scenes would result in the typical 'pasty gray' effect prevalent in LCD displays. That being said, the N3760w performed better than many other LCD's I've either seen or reviewed. It should also be noted that many viewers prefer to utilize the method I mention in the screenshot above and raise the contrast levels resulting in darker black levels while losing some shadow detail. I would say this is much more preferable to raising the brightness to get more shadow detail as most viewers will not be annoyed or distracted by crushed blacks compared to a constantly washed out image. Based on the N3760w's factory default settings, I'm guessing Viewsonic agrees.

Video Processing

The N3760w contains DNXTM image processing that Viewsonic claims to "provides superior picture quality through precision deinterlacing, advanced scaling and sharper full-motion video...". Since most HDTVs do a great job of displaying high-definition content, DVD and non-HD sources is where video processing deficiencies usually present themselves. Most non-HD signals looked relatively respectable, but of course not anywhere as good as when viewed with a traditional non-HD CRT television. The 3:2 pulldown feature worked well when viewing film-based movies with a non-HD source, doing a good job of suppressing scaling and 'jaggies' during fast-motion scenes. The N3760w also did a good job reducing video noise and artifacts with both lower quality HDTV and DVD sources. Since the resolution of the N3760w is fixed at 1366 x 768, all current video sources have to be scaled to fit the panel's display, and the video processor of the N3760w does the job well with no noticeable scaling issues. When viewing 4:3 material, the 'wide' mode does a good job in filling the screen, with most of the horizontal distortion near the edges. As expected, the 8ms response time was more than adequate as there was no sign of motion ghosting.

Viewing Position

I found the ideal viewing distance for the N3760w was 6-7 feet, and I found the picture quite good from as close as 5 feet as well, with very little signal noise or other artifacts. If you like to sit very close, this might be a good alternative over most plasmas, which usually require at least 7-8 feet viewing distance for a 'noise-free' viewing experience. Viewsonic claims a 178 degree viewing angle, but as with most other LCDs, you will see a significant drop-off in brightness at any extreme angle.