60Hz or 120Hz?

[TheDev]

What's the difference? Does it matter at all? Is it just a gimmick?

 

[TechFinder21]

A tv with 120hz refreshes the image twice as fast, resulting in a smoother image/less blurring. Of course, this results in a more expensive television set and is often not noticeable without placing the 120hz and 60hz models side-by-side. I would take a look at two comparable sets next to each other and decide whether the difference is significant enough to you to justify buying 120hz over 60hz.

 

[smitbret]

It was originally marketed as a way to smooth out motion blur for quick action due to LCD crystal's tendency to be slow in changing position and leaving trails of light as objects move quickly across the screen. While it does help hide the motion blur, it doesn't really fix it and advances in pixel refresh rate have really made it a moot point.

Now, 120/240Hz is used to smooth out judder when playing back media that has a 23.97/24 frame rate (Blu-Ray). 60Hz TVs have to invent every 3rd frame because 24 does not divide evenly into 60. Some people can see the judder and others can't. It is undeniably smoother, but looks unnatural to many people.

It's also necessary for 3D viewing so that it can deliver 60Hz to each eye.

Best thing to do is put a 60Hz side by side with a 120Hz and see if you can tell the difference. If you don't see the judder in the 60Hz and have no need for 3D, then I wouldn't bother.

 

[MrMuppet]

Well, my TV (Sony KDL-52HX900, known as XBR-52HX909 in NTSC land) is 240hz and I absolutely love MotionFlow - it's just great and silky smooth! As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of the "soap opera effect". Especially in anime (if you're into that) it helps a ton with all the sharp panning. But it also makes live 24p content (movies) come alive and feel like it becomes part of the room.

I have noticed the occasional artifact though (subtitles don't help, but it handles them better than I had anticipated).

A screen "stuck" at 60hz means 2:3 judder in 24p content btw, which is seriously annoying even if you hate the SOE. It's such a relief not having to watch 24p content on your 60hz monitor anymore. But you don't need 60hz for that, as long as your screen does true 48hz, 72hz or any other refresh rate that's a multiple of 24hz you won't suffer from telecine judder at least. (Beware of plasmas at 48hz though, if you're into those flickerish things.)

 

[BusyBeaverHP]

In before "Human-Eyes-Cannot-Perceive-More-Than-60FPS."

 

[BusyBeaverHP]

But seriously, The difference between 120hz vs 60hz is night and day. There is no going back after 120hz. It's so good that I had to own two 120hz monitors for both of my PC's.

 

[SithSolo1]

Just find a tv you like buy it already. Keep all the packaging and use it for a few days. If you don't like it, take/send it back. This isn't rocket science and doesn't need 6 threads in a one week period.


Yes, there is a difference but whether you notice it or like it or feel its worth the extra money is entirely up to YOU.

 

[donfm]

Just find a tv you like buy it already. Keep all the packaging and use it for a few days. If you don't like it, take/send it back. This isn't rocket science and doesn't need 6 threads in a one week period.


Yes, there is a difference but whether you notice it or like it or feel its worth the extra money is entirely up to YOU.

AMEN!!!! In the future consolidate all your questions concerning your purchase into a single thread. Now 7 threads on the same TV purchase is getting a bit ridiculous.

 

[Matt1970]

120Hz just refreshes the same picture twice. Seeing as how an LCD pixel does not change untill it is told to, it is basicly telling the LCD pixel to stay the same. 120Hz is a gimmick.

 

[mmntech]

Honestly, not a lot IMO. 120hz is not a gimmick though. It allows TVs to show films at their native 24 frames per second. You can divide 120 by 24 but you can't divide 60 by 24. Otherwise you have to use pulldown techniques which introduces judder in fast pans.

120hz doesn't really "smooth" video beyond making 24p content look better. It all depends on the frame rate of the content. 30fps will still be 30fps on a 120hz display. It just refreshes a frame four times before moving onto the next. However, a 120hz display can show 120fps content, which will be butter smooth.

With LCDs, pixel response time is much more important than refresh rate. It measures how fast a pixel can go from grey to grey, how fast it changes colours. Ghosting occurs on displays with low response time. Plasma and CRT don't have this issue.

 

[Fallen Kell]

120Hz just refreshes the same picture twice. Seeing as how an LCD pixel does not change untill it is told to, it is basicly telling the LCD pixel to stay the same. 120Hz is a gimmick.

Except for the fact that not all video formats are 60 frames per second, movies for example are 24 (well, 23.976). Since you can't evenly multiply 24 frames into 60 frame processing used by TV's, they used 2:3 pulldown processing to double certain frames and not double other frames to make playback work on 60 Hz. As said before, some people can see this and it looks like micro stuttering with the images speeding up and slowing down (since that is exactly what is happening). 120Hz fixes this since you simply play each frame in 24 frame content 5 times, and you get 120 frames. For 30 frame/sec content, you play each frame 4 times (many TV shows are filmed at this rate), for 60 frame/sec, you show each frame 2 times. The result is that the playback is all smooth, and in the same ratio as originally filmed, resulting in playback that is as originally intended. It is no gimmick.

 

[donfm]

Bottom line if you have a choice between the two refresh rates and you can afford it.....go with the faster rate. Faster is better in refresh rates and will theoretically give you smoother motion without blurring....

 

[Drako]

Better yet, go for 600 Hz.

 

[dagamer34]

60 to 120 matters, but don't by a TV just for that feature. Anything higher than 120 is meaningless if you aren't dealing with 3D content. We've gotten so used to 3:2 pull down that most people won't notice it's absence, but for the purist, it should definitely be noted that you are seeing invented frames when you pause 24fps video from Bluray movies.

 

[JackBurton]

Better yet, go for 600 Hz.

There are no TV's that refresh at 600Hz.

 

[Drako]

There are no TV's that refresh at 600Hz.

That doesn't stop companies from claiming such :biggrin:

 

[JackBurton]

That doesn't stop companies from claiming such :biggrin:

lol, very true.

 

[lamedude]

Its more of a half truth than a lie. They advertise 600HZ sub field drive as simply 600HZ usually next to the 120/240HZ TVs and they let you interpret that as 600HZ refresh.

 

[Matt1970]

Except for the fact that not all video formats are 60 frames per second, movies for example are 24 (well, 23.976). Since you can't evenly multiply 24 frames into 60 frame processing used by TV's, they used 2:3 pulldown processing to double certain frames and not double other frames to make playback work on 60 Hz. As said before, some people can see this and it looks like micro stuttering with the images speeding up and slowing down (since that is exactly what is happening). 120Hz fixes this since you simply play each frame in 24 frame content 5 times, and you get 120 frames. For 30 frame/sec content, you play each frame 4 times (many TV shows are filmed at this rate), for 60 frame/sec, you show each frame 2 times. The result is that the playback is all smooth, and in the same ratio as originally filmed, resulting in playback that is as originally intended. It is no gimmick.

The thing is most people are going to be hooking up devices that are stuck on 60Hz, cable, cable box, broadcast and anything else all boadcast ay 60Hz or less.