Raymond Soneira is the creator of DisplayMate, which is an excellent program that can quickly tell you volumes about your display, whether it’s an HDTV, a computer monitor, a notebook, or even a cell phone. I used DisplayMate extensively for many years when I developed and used the display tests for PC Magazine, and they still use the program today in the product testing. While I don’t entirely agree with every conclusion Ray makes, I hold his work in the highest regard and trust his test results above all others.

Ray makes a wealth of information available for free on his Web site. Check out his mobile LCD display shoot out and his HDTV shoot out results in particular. And now he’s making his expertise and analysis even more readily available. He has started a DisplayMate Twitter account that you can follow through Twitter, or by going to the page on the Twitter Web site, or through an RSS feed. He explains why glossy screens for notebooks and mobile devices are a bad idea, and what’s wrong with local dimming on LED backlight LCD HDTVs. He explains why “dynamic contrast” is a meaningless specification. Many of his tweets include links to his Web site where you can find additional information on the subject that doesn’t fit within Twitter’s 140 character limit.

If you’re interested in displays and what really matters for image quality, you’ll want to follow the DisplayMate tweets.

Posted by Alfred Poor, January 28, 2010 5:00 AM