The contrast ratio is a common display parameter in the projector area. It refers to the ratio of the luminance of the brightest shade (white) to the darkest shade (black) in an image.
The bigger the contrast ratio, the better the image in terms of details and gradation.
In fact, the contrast ratio can be divided into two types, native contrast ratio, and dynamic contrast ratio.
The native contrast ratio is also called as intra-frame contrast ratio. It measures the ratio between white and black on the same image at the same time. The native contrast ratio can reflect the true contrast of the projector image.
Dynamic contrast ratio is also known as FOFO (Full On/Full Off) contrast ratio and inter-frame contrast ratio. It refers to the ratio between the entirely white screen and the entirely black screen of a projector. The measurement can only indicate that the change from the brightest image to the darkest image but can’t reflect the contrast ratio of the same image.
Native contrast ratio value is generally smaller than dynamic contrast ratio. That’s because the adjacently displayed color blocks will react with each other and cause crosstalk during the native contrast test.
Native contrast ratio can better reflect the image quality compared with dynamic contrast ratio.
However, many projector suppliers label their products with a higher dynamic contrast ratio to secure a good market position among competitors. The native contrast of a projector is seldom disclosed in the specification table.