Hi all I've had a minor hunt for this but I can't really see a definitive answer. I have a really old Panasonic TX-L32EM5B TV set - which is perfectly fine. I have noticed that if you sit almost anywhere it looks the same picture including from the side. I've since seen the modern day equivalent (someone I know has one) and lots of other modern ones and if you venture off to the side even a relatively short way it loses all colour, you can't really see the picture etc. I wondered if something's changed in tvs, or are there certain types more prone to it than others - so I know what to look for if I did decide to upgrade. Sorry if it's a stupid question - just it struck me the older one seemed so much better for this.
I have a VA panel set. These are the ones where viewing angles are "
bad". However '
Losing all colour' when a short way off axis and '
not being able to see the picture'.... that doesn't happen. You're exaggerating. The colour does diminish, but not to the point where the image becomes black & white, so let's not be overly dramatic here.
In the second image my position is at least 75 degrees off axis. You wouldn't want to watch TV at this angle, but as the image shows, there's still colour in it.
In the early days of LCD TV screens, it was common to find that if viewed from a high or low angle that the picture colours seemed to invert, almost a negative effect. Those might have been TN panels, and other than screens for cheap portable DVD players, I haven't seen any TN panels used in living room applicable sizes of TVs.
The rtings article that
@the shadow pointed to gives you the pros and cons of each tech. The alternative is to go OLED. They have the wider viewing angle and colour retention of IPS, and even better black level performance than VA. However, currently 42" is the smallest screen size. That's improved over a a couple of years ago when 55" was the smallest screen available. Now we have 46" and 42".
