The off-axis viewing angles on the VCMM-122D were excellent. It is one of the best screens I have used when viewed at its horizontal viewing angle. Even at extreme left- and right-sitting positions, the picture maintained its color and brightness integrity. Though not a class leader, the VCMM-122D's vertical viewing angles were also very good too. With the ability to adjust the screen position from the wireless remote, you can get the perfect vertical angle at the touch of a button.
In the darkly lit Lemony Snicket's-A Series of Unfortunate Events, the widescreen version, the flesh tones were really nice, not too red or pale. All of the colors looked wonderful and the clothing textures and details were equally so. I even really like the way the VCMM-122D handled extreme light: The windows poured light into the dark rooms without blowing out the picture quality. Good job.
I finished off with The Fifth Element. During the opening credits you have a black background with bright white lettering. The white looked great with crisp edges and no blooming or blurring into the deep, dark black background. The Earth from outer space was a pretty blue covered with puffy bluish/white clouds. It looked realistic without any tiling or screen door effect.
In the next scene, the mountains in the middle of Egyptian desert were dark and dull-not quite right. But inside the temple, the sandstone and flesh tones were excellent. Straight lines were sharp and I did not see any blooming or ghosting along them. I really liked the way the VCMM-122D reproduced the blues, oranges, reds and greens.
ConclusionSoundstream has a lot to be very proud of in its 12-inch, all-in-one video system. It looks great from the outside and the inside. It has one of the best picture qualities we have tested here at CA&E and is very easy to set up and use. There really isn't much more you could ask of an in-car video system than what Soundstream has provided with the VCMM-122D, except headphones and that they fix the FM modulator polarity problem, because everything else on this unit is exceptional and well worth the money
Explaining Test PatternsThe first test pattern is the "Needle Points and Steps" screen. This is used to adjust the white level, or contrast setting. The contrast adjustment sets the overall light output and the brightness of the color white. This pattern contains moving white bars on a white background: One bar is white and one bar is slightly less than white. The object of the test is to get the white bar to blend into the background to where it is just barely visible and the slightly-less-than-white bar should be just slightly more visible.
The test pattern for setting the black level, or brightness, is called the "black bars + half gray" pattern. Half of this test pattern is black and the other half is gray. Within the black section are two moving black bars: One bar is black and the other bar is slightly less than black. The object of this test is to get the brightness control set to where the black bar is just barely visible and the slightly less than black bar is just slightly more visible. The brightness adjustment sets the overall appearance of the color black and not the overall light output. The black level affects the transparency of images and the visibility of details within the shadows. Too high of a black-level setting will leave the image washed out and foggy. Too low of a black level will cause shadow details to be lost as black and on many LCD-type displays will increase the chance of seeing the "tiling" effect. Correct black level preserves shadow detail and avoids washout.
The sharpness pattern has a series of different thickness of lines that you adjust to get nice clean lines while avoid blooming along the edges of those lines. Finally we finish with the saturation (color) and hue (tint) test pattern. Both of these settings use the same test pattern, which is nice because they interact with each other. Every time you change the color, you need to make sure the tint is still correct. This final test pattern consists of a color bar pattern with inset, flashing color squares. You view this pattern through a blue gel. The object is to get the flashing squares to appear to stop flashing and match the color of the main color bar that it is inset into.