Page 1 of TV refresh rate advice?

Could someone tell me whether i should be concerning myself with refresh rate whilst buying a new LED 40" TV? The two I am considering have either 50hz and 100hz (with the more expensive one being the 100hz) and I can`t decide if it`s a necessary expense. The TV is used for gaming, sky sports, films and everyday TV.
Ta

I would worry more about the black level if I wanted a TV as a TV, & that only means Plasma.

i would go for the 100hz set if you can afford it, especially for watching sky sports.

saying that though, i can`t play MW3 on my 100hz set downstairs even when set to
"game" mode... the tv seems to introduce lag which isn`t noticeable when playing
on my 25" 50hz set upstairs. didn`t have the lag effect when using our old 37" 50hz
set either 

Ste
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Thanks Ste that doesn`t help!!! ;-)

Now I`m even more confused!!

Refresh rates were only an issue on CRTs, Bezza.  LCD/LEDs and Plasmas don`t refresh the same way as CRTs so they don`t flicker (the same way).  Higher refresh rates on flat screens are almost always combined with some form of motion-smoothing to reduce judder in panning shots or fast-moving objects.  The processing involved inevitably introduces lag - to the extent that if you have an amplifier hooked up to your DVD/ Blu-ray you`ll find the sound arriving before the picture.

I have an LG 42" LCD that does 600Hz (IIRC, that`s six panels of the screen refreshing simultaneously at 100Hz) and I find motion-smoothing gives a very peculiar slowing-down and speeding-up effect to the image on the screen, so I have it turned off on all inputs.  Blu-rays in particular are made to present the movie contained on them at the original 24 frames per second progressive, and of course motion-smoothing effectively turns that into 100Hz interlaced.

Personally I`d base my purchasing on picture quality and number of inputs rather than refresh rate.  And as Paull suggests look for the best contrast ratio.

J Mark Oates

If it helps, film is shot at 24fps, so if movies are your primary source material then you really don`t need a 100Hz set. Likewise, post processing that many 100Hz sets use introduces annoying lag, so you might prefer to avoid them if you are using an external sound system.

Further more, 100Hz in an LCD is actually meaningless unless it is a 3D set, what is important is the speed at which pixels can flip from full on to off, and vice versa (it`s not always the same both ways!). That said LCD tech is now so far advanced that even the cheapest panel is fast enough for games at 60Hz. Though they aren`t always that good at producing a sharp colourful image.

100Hz was good in the CRT days, because it produced a more stable picture and could reduce eye strain as the flicker was less. Outside of 3D sets, it is nothing more than a marketing gimmick imho.


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Mark, you have the LG set a notch up
from mine iirc.
how do you remove the 100 hz option?

Ste
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It`s down the bottom of the Setup/ Picture menu as TruMotion on mine.  You have to set it for each input.

J Mark Oates

thanks for that. i`ll have a look when i get home later. :)

Ste
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Quote:
Paull says...
I would worry more about the black level if I wanted a TV as a TV, & that only means Plasma. Worry? :/
Thankfully I thnk there is little to nothing to distinguish them for a good while now.  There are plasmas, erm, blacker than LED`s and LED`s blacker than plasmas.  I assume you haven`t seen or read much for a while.
Also thankfully, most people seem more happy now to buy a TV to watch a brilliant picture that both technologies can deliver (that I maintain the vast majority of fanboys can no longer even distinguish between) than how black their display can go under lab conditions that nobody lives under or how many cd/m2 their display can get down to (0 on many LED`s now).

The argument is irrelevant for me now.  Except LED is way cheaper to run.

Ste