Why do 120hz tvs look different

First is to simply display each frame longer, this is the oldest technique in LCD tech. However, its undesirable side effects include the possibility of motion blur, or of judder. Judder is an artifact of adjusting the framerate and it looks like a sort of stutter in movement that would otherwise be smooth a slow pan, for instance. Instead of showing a bright image the whole time, they display the frame, then a short frame of either darkness or a very dimmed picture.

This alleviates much of the issue with judder and motion blur as it allows your brain to fill in the gap faster than you can consciously notice. For instance, if a ball is on the left side of the screen in frame A, and the right side of the screen in frame B, the TV could safely assume that if there was a frame between A and B, the ball would be in the center of the screen. This means there are more frames to switch between, and less time "held" on each frame.

This is called frame or motion interpolation. With video content like sports, a new frame is inserted between every original frame, and the result is less motion blur and greater apparent detail. With movies and scripted TV shows, however, there's a problem. Nearly every movie and nonreality TV show is recorded at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. This goes back to when nearly everything was shot on film.

Though the early days had a variety of frame rates, Hollywood settled on 24, and it has been that way for decades. These days very few movies or shows are "filmed," but the digital cameras are set to record at 24 frames per second.

This is perceived by the vast majority of people as "fiction. News, reality TV, sports and so on all use higher frame rates, usually 30 or 60fps. Some TVs, like this Vizio, let you separately fine-tune how much judder you want to reduce, helping to smooth out movement in the image and motion blur.

Interpolating frames increases the apparent frame rate, so 24fps content no longer looks like 24fps content, because when shown on these TVs, it isn't 24fps content. The interpolation effectively increases the frame rate so 24fps content looks more like 30 or 60fps. More like sports, reality TV or the content that gives this effect its name: the soap opera effect.

That's where our friend Tom comes in. Many people don't notice, or don't care, about the soap opera effect. Others, like Tom and me, can't stand it. The ultrasmooth motion is not just artificial-looking, but can be distracting and unpleasant. Most Hollywood creators hate it, too, because it isn't what the director intended for his or her creative vision. If they wanted to record at 48fps, they'd have recorded at 48fps, like Peter Jackson did with The Hobbit. Fortunately, most TVs not only give you the option to turn it off, but let you adjust how intense the frame interpolation is.

So instead of a created frame that's halfway between A and B, maybe it's only slightly different from A or slightly different than B. If your TV has this adjustment, it's worth playing with to see if you can find a setting that reduces motion blur enough that you're not bothered by it, but isn't as intrusive as the more intense frame interpolation modes are.

Some even separate out the processing to reduce the judder caused by putting 24fps content on a 60fps display. Fortunately for people who hate the soap opera effect, there's another method to reduce motion blur. The general term is black frame insertion, but this broadly covers a lot of different ways to produce a similar effect. At its most basic, and where the technique gets its name, what happens is, a black frame is inserted between the real frames.

A simplified illustration of black frame insertion. The original video would have 60 images per second of the fish. The TV would "insert" 60 black images in between the real images. How long this black image is shown, or whether it's completely black, varies. This, too, has its history in cinema. Though filmed at 24 frames per second, movies weren't shown at 24 frames per second.

This was slow enough that some people saw the flicker. Instead, each film frame was shown twice, with a shutter blocking the light in between. With TVs, they use a process called sample and hold , resulting in the pixels holding on to their color for a fixed period. One solution to this problem is to make the screen black in-between frames, making the color transition of the pixels much sharper and cleaner. You just need to know that some people think it can be pretty effective.

Many people get confused between television refresh rates and the motion blur that they see on screen. Progressive video recorded at 60 fps will look smoother than that recorded at 30 fps because it captures more detail in the movement.

Motion blur on a TV occurs when the image appears blurry when there is quick movement on the screen. It is a misunderstood issue because the motion blur that you see can be caused by several different factors:.

All of these can contribute to what people see as motion blur. As you can see, none of these are directly caused by a low refresh rate. While higher refresh rates can help to make these techniques more effective, they are just a small part of the whole problem of TV motion blur reduction. Motion blur on a TV can be very annoying.

However, some people are more sensitive to it than others. If you like delving into the menu and changing a few settings, you may improve performance in some circumstances. If you want some quick and simple answers to common questions, here are a few frequently asked questions about TV refresh rates. It may also show 24 Hz movies with smoother motion and reduce motion blur for some people.

The difference in performance between 60 Hz and Hz is relatively small. In some circumstances, viewers may notice smoother motion on the screen, but it will make little difference for most people.

It can be challenging to know the native refresh rate of your TV because many manufacturers quote elevated numbers.

The native refresh rate can only be 60 or Hz. Another way is to check quality reviews for that TV, and that should quote the actual number. Otherwise, it will unlikely make much difference. A 60 Hz TV can only display 60 frames per second. A 60 Hz TV can use image processing to interpolate 30 fps video up to 60 fps — but the TV cannot display more than 60 frames every second.

In most cases, the refresh rate has little effect on the performance of a TV. However, not all video footage is made for progressive scanning; many videos or films are broadcasted in interlaced form. To accommodate this, modern TVs employ a technique known as deinterlacing , which converts old interlaced footage to a non-interlaced progressive form.

See also i and p. Visual defects, such as combing, can occur when deinterlacing is used on footage that is not interlaced in the first place. If you're picky, you may often need to change your TV's settings to accommodate the range of footage it may come into contact with. All modern TVs offer refresh rates of Hz or higher, but 60Hz TVs are still around and may be two to three hundred dollars cheaper, depending on TV size. Some manufacturers now say they offer refresh rates of Hz or higher—usually for a much higher price—but in late , CNET reported that this is often just clever marketing , and that a number of Hz TVs actually have a refresh rate of Hz or lower , only with added smoothing effects.

In any case, refresh rates higher than Hz probably do not add any obvious value outside of some decrease in motion blurring. Share this comparison:. If you read this far, you should follow us:. Diffen LLC, n. Comparison chart hz versus 60hz comparison chart hz 60hz current rating is 3.

What Is Refresh Rate?