JVC LT-32J300 LCD HDTV Review - Color Accuracy

Color Accuracy Summary
• Average color temperature. • All three color channels suffered from peaking. • Average color gamut accuracy. • Testing done with DisplayMate.
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Color Temperature (7.79)

All light has a temperature associated with it. You probably remember learning that blue stars are hot, red stars are less hot: the same is true for TVs. The ideal color temperature for a TV is a steady 6500 Kelvin (K). If the color temperature wobbles around a lot, it'll mean certain greys will be slightly bluish and some will be slightly redish, which is bad for overall picture quality.

In the graph below, we've graphed the LT-32J300's color temperature throughout the entire greyscale spectrum, starting with white and ending at black. Any time the line creeps above the middle, it means the color is shifting towards blue; below the middle the line shifts towards red.

Minor deviations like that first initial blue shift is probably not noticeable. The subequent turn towards red and the final sudden shift back to blue are more problematic.

The below graph is a different way of showing the same information as the graph above. The red circle represents the area where your eyes can't detect a color temperature difference. The dots represent various color temperatures the screen hits as it creeps through the greyscale. If you'll notice, while a fair amount of black dots do occur within the red circle, the reds extend up and outward, with a random smattering of blues occurring outside the circle as well. 

Overall, this wasn't a terrible color temperature performance, but the LT-32J300 could've done better.

RGB Curves (5.92)

All the colors on your TV are comprised of red, green, and blue. We've graphed the TV's ability to display these three colors below, where the left side of the graph is low intensity and the right is the highest intensity. Like our greyscale gamma test, the ideal curve in this section should look like a regular, even hyperbola. 

These are not regular, even hyperbolas. The graphs start off fine, continue upwards evenly, and then start peaking, but do so in a really weird way. Typically when we see peaking, the graph just abruptly flattens towards the highest end. That means the TV hits its peak intensity before it should: if you were to look at an all-red scene on a TV has peaked-out reds, bright parts would be devoid of detail, instead appearing as flat patches of color. In this case, the colors don't actually peak – there is still some differentiation, as seen by the line's upwards slope – but instead aren't differentiated enough. As mentioned earlier, the reason these graphs are all hyperbolas is because we see colors logarythmically. Even though the RGB curves don't really peak, seeing as they don't just flatten, the differentiation between high intensity colors will be far smaller than it should be. All in all, a poor performance from the LT-32J300 here.

Color Gamut (5.11)

The color gamut refers to the range of colors the TV should be able to reproduce. The color gamut is actually set by an international guideline, Rec.709, in order to ensure everyone's TV is displaying a similar picture. Since we don't trust any manufacturer's ability to follow the rules, we test color gamut to double-check that the TV meets Rec.709 standards. Below is the LT-32J300's color gamut graphed against the Rec.709 standard.

The LT-32J300 is clearly slightly off. While this might not seem like a lot, we remind you that this is an international standard that all TVs are supposed to match. This means your LT-32J300's picture will appear slightly greener than it should.

While most HDTVs fail to totally adhere to this standard, the LT-32J300 did worse than the average TV by a small margin.

Below is a table detailing the color error seen above.