Topic: Frame rates on High Definition TVs

[NWR_pap64]

I am a bit confused about this, and since you guys did a good job in helping me buy a TV I figured I ask here.

I've noticed in some stores that the frame rate on some TVs is higher than usual. For example, in a Sears they had an HD TV setup that was playing Iron Man, and noticed the footage moved faster than normal. This only happened on this TV, so what happened?

Why is it that some HD TVs play the movies at a faster frame rate than other sets? What causes this?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Hollywood movies are 24 frames/sec.

Your base HDTV runs at 60 Hz, capable to of displaying content that generates 60 frames/sec, such as video games.

Recent HDTV sets are capable of 120 Hz (and higher) aka 120 frames/sec.  In addition, these same TVs might have the option of something called "motion interpolation."

Here's how they work together:

Scenario #1
24fps divides evenly into 120fps by 5X.  So if you have One Second's worth of 24fps footage, you can take each stand-alone frame and duplicate them so there's 5 of each, to fill up 120 frames within that One Second.  Visually, it's practically no different than movie properly playing in progressive scan on a 60 Hz HDTV, because the images on the screen have NOT changed.

Scenario #2
120Hz mode is combined with Motion Interpolation, so it starts with Scenario #1's frame duplication and goes a step further by fudging/generating artificial frames in-between the real frames.  Like, take 2 pictures in a photo editor and simply blend them so the result is one picture "ghosting" into the next -- take that operation and apply to an entire sequence of frames, which now provides transitional frames in between the original frames.  The visual result is artificial smoothness and a perceivably higher framerate.

[ThePerm]

oh theres like this feature called action correct or something that like edits the picture on the fly, it sucks for movies though in my opinion. Most movies run at 24 frames a second, but this feature makes it look like its running at 60. The effect is it looks like your really there, the problem is it looks like your really there and it doesn't look cinematic anymore, it just looks cheap, like it was a low budget movie. I  was at best buy and they were running pirates of the carribean, and it was like watching some live play. This sucks for movies as it takes the magic away, but would be great for things like planet earth or documentaries and such..also i wonder how n64 games would look.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

If the source's framerate is OFF, then 120Hz+Motion Interpolation has horrible jerky consequences.

Fast and Furious cars I saw had trouble changing lanes in the framerate of life.

[BranDonk Kong]

120hz absolutely blows. Nothing actually outputs at 120hz, especially at 1920x1080, aside from high-end graphics cards. It ruins any movie you try to watch. PS3 and 360 can't output higher than 60hz (maybe via Linux on either system, but that's another thread), neither can the Wii.

[Stogi]

Interesting...