Gray screen
A flat 50 percent grey field across the whole screen. This is the single most useful field on a television: Mid grey is where the dirty screen effect, image retention and colour tint all show most clearly, because there is nothing bright or dark for them to hide behind.
The test
The full screen field needs JavaScript to run. Everything below still explains what this color reveals, so the page is useful either way.
Gray screen, full screen
Fills the entire screen with nothing else on it. Press back or escape to leave. On a television, open this page in the set's own browser and drive it with the remote.
What this field reveals
Faint bands or a grubby film on mid grey. The uniformity test runs several grey levels for this.
A ghosted logo or channel bar shows most clearly on grey. Use the OLED burn-in test for the full sequence and screen wash.
Grey should look neutral. A warm or cool cast is a colour temperature setting; see the calibration patterns.
Mid grey is far kinder for a longer look than a full white field, which is worth knowing on an OLED panel.
Quick answer
A grey screen test fills the display with a flat mid-grey. It is the best single field for spotting the dirty screen effect, the faint bands that make football pitches look smeared, and for seeing a ghosted logo left behind on an OLED. It also shows tint: on a neutral grey field, a panel leaning warm or cool is far easier to judge than on a colourful picture. Some unevenness is normal on any LCD.
The other full screen colors
Each color exposes a different kind of fault:
Keep testing
Dead Pixel TestOr jump straight to another test:
Questions people ask
Why use a grey screen instead of white?
Mid grey sits where most real picture content lives, so faults that matter in normal viewing show up on it. The dirty screen effect, image retention and colour tint are all clearest on grey, while white is better for dust and dead pixels.
What is the dirty screen effect on grey?
Faint vertical or horizontal bands, or a film like the screen needs a wipe. It comes from small unevenness in the panel layers, cleaning does not change it, and it is most obvious on wide panning shots such as sport.
Can a grey screen fix image retention?
A static grey field does not, but a moving one can. Temporary retention often clears with a screen wash, a slowly moving full-field sweep, which is built into the OLED burn-in test. Permanent burn-in cannot be cleared by any pattern.
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