> Part of it is the kind of glass they put in front of the LCD. Some of the 
> Samsungs, for example, go from 10,000:1 to 40,000:1 by putting a shiny 
> tinted glass in front instead of a matte glass.  You'll probably get more 
> glare with the higher contrast ratios if it's in a bright room.

What you describe is the type of anti-reflection (AR) and anti-glare (AG) 
coating that is applied to the front polariser.  AFAIK no LCD has an extra 
sheet of glass infront of the LCD, all have the front polariser exposed to 
touch if you want to.

In the past, all LCDs were designed with AR and AG coatings to stop specular 
reflections that bugged CRTs so badly.  But a few years ago some marketing 
guru realised that if you took off the AR coating some people actually 
thought it looked "better" because it looked shinier.  It didn't matter that 
you would end up seeing a direct reflection of your window or lights in the 
TV at home, it looked shinier in the shop so it sold more units.

AR and AG coatings don't affect the contrast ratio that you see quoted in 
the specs (these must all be measured in a totally black room with no 
ambient light), but in real life situations it will be different. 
Basically, if you are going to be watching in a dark room with no direct 
light sources it won't make any difference.  But if you are going to be 
watching in a bright room with a window and several lights, get the AGAR 
coating (the non-shiny one), it will look much better than a CRT under 
bright lights.

FWIW I took my LCD to my mum's house once and put it next to her CRT.  When 
there was direct sunlight shining on both of them the CRT was all but 
unreadable, but with the LCD you could hardly notice which part was in sun 
and which part wasn't, the "real life" contrast was definitely way better on 
the LCD, even if the specs disagreed.

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