120HZ LCD - Watching Great HDTV

120HZ - The Details

Why 120hz?  

LCDs traditionally have had a noticeable fault: when used to view motion-intensive movies, LCDs have a tendency to blur images in places, creating noticeable artifacts. This has been a result of the refresh rate used by LCDs: traditionally 30 frames per second, with each frame consisting of two video fields: 60 hertz. The problem occurs when viewing movies, which traditionally are encoded at 24 frames per second. If the 24 frames/s movie was shown at 30 frames per second, the movie would end up being sped up by about 1.25 times normal speed. To prevent this, the TV actually plays back each movie frame three times in succession, and every other frame twice in succession, a technique known as 3:2 pulldown.

The problem occurs when a camera pans across a scene. Each frame consists of two video fields. But since each movie frame is displayed three times, there will be two instances where data is taken from the first and second frame, which creates a blurry, motion artifact known as judder.  

But displaying images at 60 frames per second, or 120 Hz, eliminates the problem. "120" is five times 24, which means that 3:2 pulldown does not have to be used, and the judder is eliminated.  

The end result is a much "cleaner" image and a better viewing experience. 

All the major TV manufacturers will be or have been adding the new techonology to their new releases. They all are giving the 120hz technology a fancy or catchy name but most are identifying it as 120hz.  

Due to the way Plasma's operate they will not utilize the 120hz technology.

Check out the HDTV Gear

120 HZ LCD