The RCA HD61THW263 doesn't come with the standard RGB contrast/drive and/or gain/bias controls that you'll find on many other TVs to adjust both ends of the brightness range. In the service menu, you can only change the overall x,y coordinates for the three factory color temperature settings (Cool, Normal, Warm).

In my tests, I found Cool to be so blue (>10,000K) as to be unusable. Normal wasn't a whole lot better, with readings over 9000K. The factory Warm setting was a lot better, but still too high, with an average reading around 6900K.

After calibration for best grayscale and adjustment of the x,y coordinates in Warm mode, I was able to pull that reading into the 6500K to 6600K range, and the set tracked within 207K from 20 IRE to 100 IRE. Not great, but acceptable and a lot better than where I started.

Brightness varied depending on the picture preset, from a high of 42.02 nits (13 fL) in Vibrant mode to a low of 14.4 nits (4.2 fL) in Video Game mode. In Personal mode, I measured 40.72 nits (11.9 fL), with ANSI (average) contrast at 135:1 and peak contrast at 437:1.

The biggest problem with this set is the uneven light distribution across the screen, which may not be correctable given the extremely compact mirror set-up. You will notice the brightness falling off to the edges of the screen when viewing daytime scenes or other evenly lit program material.—PP