The default refresh rate of the Predator Z35 monitor is 144Hz, but Acer claims that it can be increased all the way to 200Hz via overclocking. Awesome! Have been sticking with TN just because I prefer a high refresh rate. Maybe now I’ll finally get some nice color with it. This is the kind of thing that still happens a little too frequently for my liking. But if you’re one of those with a monster rig and you’re planning.
What is refresh rate? CNETOriginal video frames (1 and 2) at 6. Hz and 2. 40. Hz LCDs. Duplicating the original frames is one method.
With 120Hz, 240Hz, and even 600Hz, refresh rate gets a lot of attention in the marketing of new HDTVs. What it is and how it works is interesting, but why. NVidia owners can also use CRU but have some additional options to consider. The GeForce display driver itself supports custom refresh rates, so checking how far your. We pit a 60Hz refresh rate panel against a 144Hz refresh rate panel to see if hype over the higher spec is warranted We all know how the game is played when it comes. We recently posted a hands-on experience about the QNIX 2710, and now we’ll cover how to overclock a monitor’s refresh rate to exceed the stock 60Hz.
Alternately, frames can be interpolated to fill the gaps. In this example, the TV's processor creates frame 1a from the difference between 1 and 2. This (along with 2a, 3a, etc.) makes up the difference between 6. Hz video and 1. 20.
Hz TVs. Geoffrey Morrison/CNET. With 1. 20. Hz, 2. Hz, and even 6. 00. Hz, refresh rate gets a lot of attention in the marketing of new HDTVs. What it is and how it works is interesting, but why it exists is even more so. And it can have a profound effect on the picture quality of your HDTV. Let's start with the basics.
Television is a series of images, shown rapidly enough that your brain sees it as motion. In the U. S., our electricity runs at 6. Hz, so it's only natural that our TVs run at the same rate (elsewhere, 5. Hz is common). This is largely a holdover from the CRT days, but our entire system is based on it, so there's no use changing it. What this means is that modern HDTVs show 6. Hz). For a refresher on progressive scan (7.
Upping the frame rate. A few years ago, LCDs hit the market with higher refresh rates.
These started at 1. Hz, though now you'll see 2. Hz and beyond. In this case, higher is indeed better, but to understand why it's better, we have to discuss why it exists in the first place. All LCDs have a problem with motion resolution. Which is to say, when there's an object in motion onscreen (or the whole image is moving), the image blurs compared with when the object/scenery is stationary. In the early days of LCDs this was predominantly because of the "response time," or how fast the pixels could change from light to dark. Response times on modern LCDs are quite good, and this isn't the big issue anymore.
The top is full motion resolution. The bottom half is a representation of what motion blur looks like. Notice how the dolphin on the right is blurred compared with the other three and the rest of the image.
Geoffrey Morrison/CNET. The issue is how your brain interprets motion. Because it's your brain, everyone is going to see motion resolution somewhat differently. Some people don't notice motion blur. Some people aren't bothered by it. Some (like me) notice it quite often and are bothered by it.
Others, like our David Katzmaier, know it exists but don't notice it enough in normal program material to consider it a major factor in picture quality. There are two primary ways to fool the brain into seeing better detail with LCDs: backlight flashing (also called backlight scanning) and frame insertion. Backlight flashing is what it sounds like. The most basic version of backlight flashing is the backlight going dark in between video frames.
This moment of darkness is much like how a film projector works: an image, then darkness, an image, then darkness, and so on. Done slowly, this can result in flicker.
Done fast enough, and you don't notice it. A more advanced version, called backlight scanning, dims sections of the backlight in sequence with the video. In either case, the side effect is a loss of light output (sometimes significantly), because there are sections of time where the backlight is literally off (or close to it). There is another way of doing this called black- frame insertion, which shows a black image in between the real frames, but that doesn't actually manipulate the backlight. Panasonic's "1. 92. It's like a scrolling dimming of the LED edge lighting to darken rows of LEDs in sequence.
It does this very quickly. Panasonic. With 1. Hz displays, there's another option: frame insertion. This method, also called frame interpolation, actually creates entirely new frames of video to insert in between the "real" frames of video.
With video sources, like live TV, sports, and video games, there's very little downside to this method. You get excellent motion resolution, and you maintain the light output of the display. The image at the top of this article is an example of frame interpolation. However, with film/2.
TV shows), there's an issue. The interpolated frames smooth out the inherent juddery motion of 2. On the surface this may seem like a good thing, but the resulting ultrasmooth motion makes movies look like soap operas.
Fitting, then, this is called the Soap Opera Effect. We and many TV companies call it "dejudder." Personally, I find motion- interpolated video annoying to watch. In some, it causes nausea. Some people don't mind it, which I find rather shocking. Check out What is the Soap Opera effect? Most modern 1. 20/2.
Hz TVs have one or both versions of this technology, and it's completely selectable which to use (if at all). In some bizarre cases, like the Cinema mode in Panasonic's WT5.
LED LCDs, you're locked into the motion interpolation. The trade- off, usually, is that if you don't use motion interpolation or backlight scanning, you don't get full motion resolution.
Personally, I find the step from 6. Hz to 1. 20. Hz to be noticeable, and worth the additional money. The step from 1. 20 to 2.
Nah, let's make it more confusing. Marketing being what it is, companies are now obfuscating their TVs' actual refresh rates. Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, and Sharp have stopped being honest about their refresh rates entirely, instead adopting bespoke motion- resolution ratings called "Clear Motion Rate," "Tru. Motion," "Motionflow XR," and so on. In all cases, the company uses backlight scanning and/or extra processing to imply that their TVs have higher refresh rates than they actually do. So, for example, a Clear Motion Rate of 1.
Hz TV with a scanning backlight, or it could be a 1. Hz LCD without a scanning backlight. The spec sheets for the televisions rarely, if ever, list the actual panel refresh rate. Gary Merson did an excellent article on this at HDGuru called "Beware of phony LCD HDTV refresh rates." CNET's 2. TV reviews always specify the true panel refresh rate, not the phony one. Plasma's '6. 00. Hz'This part is complex enough that it has it's own article. For the full story, check out What is 6.
Hz? The abridged version is this: Because plasmas don't suffer from motion blur like LCDs, they don't need higher refresh rates. The problem is, all plasma TV manufacturers also make LCDs.
So you're not going to see a big marketing push from any of them saying "No, no, buy our cheaper plasmas because they don't suffer from motion blur (or poor off- axis response, or poor contrast ratios)." With the intense marketing of 1. Hz and 2. 40. Hz, many consumers assumed plasma was lagging behind, fitting into their erroneous preconceptions that plasma is somehow an "older" technology. Instead, all three plasma manufactures (LG, Panasonic, and Samsung), have adopted the "6.
Hz" claim. As Obi- Wan Kenobi said in "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi," ".. I told you was true, from a certain point of view.". From a certain point of view?" As an engineer once eloquently explained to me: plasmas create light with time. Each pixel in a plasma has only two states: on or off. In that way, they're a completely digital device, unlike LCD, which can still be analog, but that's fodder for an entirely different article.). Because plasma pixels only have two states, they create different levels of brightness by flashing more or less often.
This is where the 6. Hz comes in. In the most basic explanation, plasmas break up each frame of video into 1. Hz x 1. 0 = 6. 00). If the pixel is supposed to be bright white, it flashes once for each of those subfields. If it's supposed to be 5.
IRE, or medium gray), it flashes for half of those 1. When it's supposed to be dark, it doesn't flash at all. DLP works by a similar principle: each mirror is either on (facing the lens) or off (facing away). In reality, it's a bit more complicated than this, but this is the general idea. There are other pros and cons to this method that are beyond the scope of this article, but if anyone really wants me to dive into it, let me know. So "6. 00. Hz" is more or less a marketing thing, but it's not untrue.
The fact is, plasmas don't suffer from motion blur like LCDs do, so they don't need higher refresh rates. Source. If you're looking for motion blur in your own TV, keep in mind that in some cases, there's going to be blur in the source. This is most common with movies shot on film. Fast motion will blur on film because of its low frame rate. Personally, I notice motion blur most in close- ups.
When an actor's face fills the screen, for a moment he or she will be stationary, and you'll see every bit of facial detail. Then they'll move slightly, and the image will blur. I see this across all different types of source material. Bottom line. Refresh rate is how often the TV shows a new image. Anything above 6. Hz is entirely the invention of the TV itself. All modern video is either 2.
TV shows), 6. 0 fields per second (1. Higher refresh rates are used to increase apparent motion resolution with LCDs. The 6. 00. Hz with plasmas is largely marketing, but is technically how they work. If you're annoyed by motion blur, you're better off getting the highest- refresh- rate LCD you can get, or stick with plasma (or OLED). Though it's worth mentioning that sometimes the processing that allows high refresh rate TV to work can cause input lag.
However, not everyone notices, or is bothered by motion blur. I do/am, and it's one of the main reasons I prefer plasma over LCD (the other being contrast ratio). As mentioned earlier, David doesn't/isn't. We both have highly critical eyes when it comes to TVs, but because the perception of motion blur is so subjective, we're both right.
Are you bothered by motion blur? Comment below; I'm curious. And most important, because your source is 2.
HDMI cables with a 1. Hz TV. If the salesperson tells you that, he or she is either clueless or lying. For more on that, check out "Why all HDMI cables are the same.". Got a question for Geoff? First, check out all the other articles he's written on topics like HDMI cables, LED LCD vs.
Active vs Passive 3.