Name of this LCD effect?

[videohalp]

If you were to look at an LCD screen 45 degrees from the top or bottom, you may see a change of colors. What is this effect called?

Most LCDs have this effect. What should I look for in the specs to find out?

[hello_hello]

It's the viewing angle, or lack there-of. Various LCDs have different viewing angles, but I very much doubt manufacturers have a common method of measuring and specifying them. If they do, it'd probably be a measure of contrast, and not so much whether the colours stay consistent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewing_angle

This might be of interest.
http://www.rtings.com/info/viewing-angle-tvs

[LMotlow]

Yeah, don't know what it's called but it's an inherent problem in LCD design, which uses twisting jelly crystals to display color and other image changes. It's worse with the usual TN (Twisted Nematic field effect -- how's that for a techy term ?) old-style LCD's, less so with other designs like IPS panels. The effect can be better or worse depending on gamma and contrast settings, which usually requires a colorimeter and software kit to optimize monitor and graphics card calibration properly. It's impossible to get "optimum optimization" with the usual monitor settings or by eye alone. Typical out-of-the-box factory settings on all monitors are probably the worst setup for home viewing -- factory settings are designed for showrooms, not for living rooms. Some of the factory specs you can take with a very large grain of salt are viewing angle and contrast ratio, which are based on marketing fantasy.

The logom website is a popular place for manually checking out an LCD monitor. Has many test patterns. The test page related to viewing angles is here: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php

[jagabo]

Yes, you can't believe anything the manufactures claim about viewing angle. They measure it by whatever means gives the best number. Or they just make up a number to sound better than the competition. Just like "dynamic contrast ratio".

One of these days some marketing guru will figure out that if you walk all the way around the TV you are viewing directly from the front again. Then he'll claim a 360 degree viewing angle. The next marketing guru will realize you can walk around the TV a million times and claim a 360,000,000 degrees viewing angle.