Other Home Theatre

[#1]

How much better are the new 120hz LCD displays?

[#2]

Hi,

Great question! The average LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) uses a 60hz refresh rate meaning it will change the image / brightness or "refresh" every 16.6ms. A 120hz monitor will change the image / brightness every 8.3ms. This means that you should notice that "ghosting", or the blurring of the images on the screen virtually disappear and video being displayed is much smoother. Watch for monitors that use this technology to come very soon. Keep in mind that response time will affect how quickly the screen can adapt to a changing picture as well.

Josh
Sales Associate
Future Shop 608 Waterloo

Message Edited by Allik on 06-20-2007 05:29 PM

[#3]

pwuerr, That's a good question to ask, for the new lines of LCD TV's specially SHARP AQUOS, Panasonic, LG and Toshiba they have new models on the market that has this 120Hz features. Regular HD television do 60Hz frame per second.This technology is a new driving features for motion blur reduction. If you don't know Television Networks are divided into two. One as SPORT network and regular TV network. Sports are fast moving video that if you look close to LCD TV there is pixelation and blurry. Now this 120hz duplicate the image close to more realistic motion on the screen. Believe me if you go to Futureshop you can see this demo in one of the LCD TV. The price is not that much compare to regular HD TV. So if you're a sports and movie fanatic this one I would say will do the job. Hopefully this will help and thank you again.

[#4]

Hi pwuerr, This is Russ from the Langley Future Shop. We are getting more and more 120hz TV's in every day. That should actually tell the story right there, LOL. I have watched the same sports scene on side by side TV's, one 60hz and one 120hz, you can see the difference in the full motion shots!! Blurr is gone, especially in the new Sharp AQUOS 86 series with the 4ms response time. So if you watch a lot of talk shows it is no big thing, but if you are into sports or action shows........then this is definatley the way to go!

Just remember though this is only part of the picture.....if you want the full experience....... remember to get your source, cables, power and sound to complete the experience!! Just stop by and see me or your local Future Shop Product Expert to try these new sets out.

[#5]

I have a question about 120Hz TV and the use of existing sources. NTSC standard is 30 frames per second and a traditional 60Hz TV shows each frame twice consecutively to achieve 60 frames per second (60Hz). Film is shot at 24 frames per second, requiring 2-3 pull-down on 60Hz TVs, which is to say it shows one frame twice and the next 3 times so that it achieves 120 frames in two seconds (60Hz). These new 120Hz TVs shows each 30 frame per second image four consecutive times and a 24 frame per second image five consecutive times to achieve its 120Hz rate. Other than eliminating the 2-3 pull-down issue, why does refreshing an identical image more times create a better viewing experience than a traditional TV?

[#6]

With digital video, you won't necessarily notice a change. A 120Hz display will however refresh faster with analog/film sources, because it is updating the pixel information mere split-seconds sooner. Some of the higher end systems have built in processors which use algorithms to determine what the picture information would look like if it was filmed in 60fps, creating a smoother transition. If you've ever used the "tweening" command in flash, you'll understand instantly - for those that haven't, well, the processor will essentially extrapolate data based on 30fps, and fill in an average of the 2 continuous frames - effectively doubling the frame rate of NTSC (29.97) and PAL (25).

As for refreshing identical images - as I mentioned, your television will show the picture about one-tenth of a second sooner. Doesn't sound like much on paper, and in fact it isn't too noticeable in person either. The reason lots of the 120Hz sets have better pictures is because of higher quality panels and processors.

[#7]

The new Panasonic 32 120hz LCD as a great demo that splits the screen in half to show you the difference between the two. Next time your in a futureshop just press the demo button on the top of the tv and take a lot

[#8]

This is something you won't see on the manufacturers' websites, but 120hz lcd panels use a process called Black Frame Insertion (BFI) - I'll explain. As was mentioned, a standard lcd has a 60hz refresh rate meaning each frame is displayed for 16.6ms as opposed to a tube television/CRT where each part of the image is displayed for less than 1ms and is followed by blackness. Most of the ghosting in LCDs with a fast response time is caused by retinal persistence, (think about what happens when you look at a lightbulb and then look away) due to the fact that the image is displayed for so long. 120hz LCDs reduce retinal persistence by halving the time each image is displayed to 8.3ms, but they are still only capable of refreshing the actual image 60 times per second, and the other 60 frames are pure black, inserted after every "real" frame. The result is a smoother looking video.

Mod Edit: Removed link to external site.

Message Edited by Crash01 on 08-18-2007 11:21 AM

Message Edited by Crash01 on 08-18-2007 11:44 AM

Message Edited by Graham on 08-21-2007 12:38 AM

[#9]

Actually, almost all of the current models on the floor DON'T do black frame insertion, but instead use interpolation to create a new frame - much like what you used to find in still image scanners.

This is new data that doesn't exist in the original source. From what I've seen, it's great for sports, but to me it looks bizarre and slightly out of place in movies (the motion is too smooth - it doesn't feel like a film.)

The best thing to do, if you can, is head into a store and take a look at it. Personally, unless I was watching sports, I'd probably keep the mode turned off. It's really up to the end user to determine if it's something they want to use.

Message Edited by Graham on 08-21-2007 12:41 AM

[#10]

If i hear one more manufacturer claim that they are the only ones that use interpolation and all the others use black frame insertion then my head is gonna pop.

Will