Everybody can see the difference between a good and a poorer picture quality. However, it is very hard to define for an average consumer what is picture quality. Contrast ratio is one very important element of picture quality, followed by color saturation and accuracy. Resolution should also be considered.

The ratio between the darkest and brightest color your HDTV can produce is called contrast ratio. Your HDTV has high performance if the contrast ratio is high. Low color ratio means a dull experience: pictures will be washed out and details can be lost. However, it is unlikely you will buy an HDTV with poor contrast ratio. In recent years technology has improved greatly, which means even cheaper systems have fairly decent contrast ratios. Obviously best contrast ratios are expensive, but this is also getting cheaper.

Black levels are also very important: it can be very annoying to see grayish blacks when the user expects absolute black image. Poor black levels are especially visible in dim light conditions: this is when your eyes are very sensitive to dark images. To achieve absolute black, a lot of people set black levels too low: this is a mistake, because this way black shadow detail will be lost.

High white levels make images vivid and lively, and it is also makes daytime viewing more pleasant. Just as with the blacks, it is not a good idea to set the white levels too high, because details can be lost.

Color temperature, saturation and accuracy are also important elements of picture quality. The natural light temperature is 6500K, and this is the standard for setting the color temperature. Color temperature is below this will be yellowish or reddish, if above, will be bluish. Setting color temperature correctly is important because this can influence every color on your screen.

Color saturation can be relatively easily adjusted by using the color patterns that come with calibrations discs or TV channels. Color accuracy depends on how your HDTV decodes the image data. These are pretty complicated issues. You may want to read more about this elsewhere, but if you only want to stay at beginner-level, it is enough for you to know that the decoders of your system should match the color encoding used in film production.

Color reproduction is also affected by factors like greyscale and the display characteristic (gamma) of your TV. But this is beyond the beginner-level image calibration. If you find this is an important issue, you will have learn about image calibration, or you will have to pay a specialist to do this.

The best HD resolutions today have 5 times more pixels than the old Standard Definition. The old format can not be compared to HD images: today, every detail of the image can be seen sharply. If you want to have the best technology available today, buy a 1080 capable HDTV.

Percieved sharpness also relates to resolution, and is similar to the edge contrast concept used in photography. Users can artificially sharpen the image by creating a crispier edge along the image border: this gives the impression of better image quality. Oversharpening is a mistake, because this creates halo artifacts around images.

Edward McKellen is an HDTV expert who writes HDTV reviews for HDTVreviewlab.com. To check out the latest Pioneer HDTV reviews or learn more about Plasma TVs visit HDTVreviewlab.com