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Just received a 240 Hz LED LCD HDTV, and the smooth motion technology rocks!

I just received a Vizio 55" LED LCD HDTV. It uses small groups of LEDs for the backlighting to improve local contrast, which it does nicely. But the biggest thing is the smooth motion technology. This is Vizio's latest model, and it has a 240 Hz refresh rate. With the smooth motion option turned on, it creates 3 video frames for every single real video frame, so scenes where the camera is panning or something is moving across the screen, instead of the irritating judder we are used to seeing, the motion is very smooth. Not perfect, but much, much better than just the plain vanilla 60 Hz. You have to get used to it though, because it makes the TV program look like live TV even if it is a filmed movie. The irony is that I think many of the popular TV series like CSI are shot with HDTV cameras at 24 FPS, so that they will look like film, and then we turn them back to looking like live TV with these new technologies. The modern TV programs look terrific with this technology (I am getting used to it fast), but it is a little strange to watch an old movie and have a 1940's John Wayne western looking like a live TV program.

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Permalink Reply by Kieran Coghlan on November 10, 2009 at 4:15pm: How's the picture quality otherwise? Core picture performance, etc.? I've never been terribly impressed with Vizio, even for the money. But haven't looked at one critically in about a year or more.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Heinonen on November 10, 2009 at 4:16pm: I personally have not been able to tolerate smooth motion technology when it comes to films. We were on vacation and our house had a Blu-ray player and 120 Hz Samsung LCD, and as soon as we enabled the interpolation we couldn't stand the look. For TV programs that are shot at 60 fps, I think it works well to eliminate ghosting and blur on an LCD. However, to me it makes films look like something that was shot on a cheap camcorder instead of film. I much prefer the sets that let you set 24p material to be shown with a frame multiplier, instead of interpolation. My plasma has a 96 fps mode where I get each frame 4 times so I get that film look, but without the hitching you can get when you go from 24p to 60p and have to show frames at odd intervals.

However, I do really like the LED backlit LCD TV's that I saw at CEDIA. The demonstrations were fantastic, and the blacks were far better than any other LCD I had seen.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John E. Johnson, Jr. on November 11, 2009 at 10:50am: I have not put the TV on the bench yet, but it looks good. The interpolation is much better than I have seen before with earlier models (other brands included). It looks very natural. Virtually no judder with panning. I think this is a big step forward.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by B Flo on November 12, 2009 at 7:27am: "...to me it makes films look like something that was shot on a cheap camcorder instead of film. I much prefer the sets that let you set 24p material to be shown with a frame multiplier, instead of interpolation."

Chris, I ~emphatically~ agree! I cannot stand any modification of film's temporal resolution.; ▶ Reply to This