What is it with 120hz TVs

[Andrew Burhoe]

yeah a feature of shit.

 

[Bob Torrance]

Two stories; just this last weekend I went over to my friends to see the families new 80 inch Samsung. Their two daughters had asked their dad why did movies look like soap operas. The are 20 and 22 years old and usually have iPhones glued to their hands. They would not watch a movie. Flipped off flow motion and they sat down and watched a movie. Next story; my wife 4 cousins (11,14,15 and 16) same thing. Avatar at 120 hrz. Looked like a game show to them. Flipped it off, they watched. Maybe there is hope for the future.

 

[Andrew Burhoe]

Bob,

That's just sad.

 

[Keith Putnam]

As much as one may wish to dismiss this, sports drives television sales. Christmas is a factor, but the Super Bowl is the real reason for the glut of new TVs (and massive TV sales at big box stores) at the end of the year. All this interpolated high framerate nonsense is intended to make fast 30-frame cadence sports action look crisper, and any deleterious effect on 24-frame material is irrelevant. The vast majority of the viewing public just doesn't see or care about the difference made to 24 frame material (a small minority aside). A painful reality I had to learn in the early years of being in this industry is that no matter how much time and sweat and effort you pour into making your images or sounds look just right, most people will say they "can't tell the difference".

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Every lay-person who I've shown high framerate material to complains it looks like "a soap opera" or "old BBC". The old BBC is surprising since BBC was shot in 25p, but just the 'cheapness' comes out for whatever reason.

 

[Andrew Burhoe]

Keith,

I think people care, but much like politics feel no one will listen.

Plus I do not need to see every frame of the ball spinning as it was intercepted by the other team as the one catching the ball falls face first into the ground. For some they do.

But sad the things that don't need to be the ones selling TVs are.

Gavin,

Exactly. People know.

 

[Marc Wielage]

The first thing I tell any of my clients when they buy a new consumer TV set or a pro monitor for the office is: "go into every setup menu and turn off every automatic control. That includes enhancement, noise reduction, and motion compensation. All off. If you have a THX mode, use it. Go with the "warm whites" control (one hopes for something close to D65). Buy an alignment disc like Digital Video Essentials, and use that to set up the monitor. Make sure the sizing controls are correct. Better still, hire an ISF technician to come in and set up the monitor from scratch."

If you do all that, there's a chance the display will approach something normal. Out of the box, they're all wrong. I particularly hate the 120Hz and 240Hz modes, which destroy any semblance of the film look into something that's artificial and weird.