240hz

At the high end of the LCD TV cost spectrum sit models equipped with LED backlighting. Whether edge-lit or local dimming, these sets command a price premium and deliver somewhat better energy efficiency and markedly better black level performance than standard LCD TVs.

But with black levels on par with plasma comes a price in the form of blooming, subpar off-angle performance and, in the case of the Toshiba flagship SV670U series, an overactive backlight. On the flip side, it still delivers those inky blacks, along with accurate color and solid video processing.

The Toshiba SV670U can get you into … Read more

With every new technology release, LCD tries to catch up to plasma in the picture quality race, but never seems to succeed. The biggest potential equalizer attached to LCD's engine is LED backlighting with local dimming, a technology first marketed widely by Samsung two years ago that's slowly spread to other brands' flagship LCD TVs since.

LG's 2009 entrant is the LH90 series, and it closes the gap considerably compared with the best plasma displays. The LH90 models evinced superb black level performance and LG's characteristically accurate color--helped in large measure by the company's best-in-class … Read more

According to information from a lineup sheet first posted on engadgetHD, and confirmed by a Vizio spokesman, the company's highly anticipated VF551XVT, previously scheduled for release this month, will be delayed until September.

The 55-inch HDTV is also going to be $200 more expensive. That new price is likely to provide differentiation between the VF551XVT (now $2,199, up from $1,999) and the current VF550XVT (still $1,999), which we reviewed earlier this year and will remain in the company's lineup.

When it finally arrives, we expect the VF551XVT to handily outperform its less-expensive 55-inch brother. That'… Read more

At CES this year, LG made a big deal out of its 240Hz technology, claiming it bested similar blur-busting tech from other LCD makers. The LH55 series represents the company's least-expensive HDTV equipped with a 240Hz refresh rate, and when it comes to that feature, as usual, we weren't particularly impressed. The results were similar to those seen on other 240Hz displays--reduced blur that was difficult for us to really discern, although test patterns prove it's there--but we were a bit annoyed that you have to engage the smoothing effect of dejudder if you want to reduce … Read more

Every year it seems there's a new catchy spec in the HDTV realm everybody likes to talk about. A few years back it was 1080p resolution. Then we heard about 120Hz, which is supposed to reduce motion blur in fast-moving images on LCD TVs. Well, this year, the latest and greatest spec is 240Hz, which is supposed to do what 120Hz does, but better.

Not too long ago, our video guru David Katzmaier gave his initial impressions on 240Hz in a post titled "Is 240Hz worth waiting for?" When he wrote that piece, he'd just seen his first 240Hz TV in action and wasn't sold on the new technology. Now that he's reviewed four 240Hz HDTVs and has a fifth review (the LG 47LH55) in the works, he's still not sold, but he admits the verdict isn't totally clear-cut.

Part of the problem is that there's a difference between what your eye sees in everyday material you watch and objective testing done with test patterns. As Katzmaier notes in his post, "Standard LCD and plasma TVs refresh the screen 60 times per second, or 60Hz, which is plenty fast enough to eliminate flicker and create the illusion of motion from a series of still images. In fact, most sources sent to your display arrive at the nominal rate of 30 frames per second, and each frame is repeated once by the television to achieve 60 total fps."

For most people, including me and Mr. Katzmaier, it's very difficult to see the impact that "faster" LCD sets have on picture quality. We spent some time in our AV lab watching various source material from 120Hz TVs and 240Hz models and it's really hard to detect any difference (it's hard to detect any difference between 120Hz and 60Hz models, too). To be clear, I'm referring here to motion-blur reduction because of faster refresh rates, not to dejudder processing, which smooths out motion and makes film-based material shot at 24fps look more video-like. When dejudder is engaged, you can easily spot its impact on the picture. (It's also worth mentioning that the dejudder processing on the 240Hz TVs we tested so far wasn't any better--or worse--than than the dejudder on 120Hz TVs). … Read more

As LCD and plasma vie for popularity and picture-quality bragging rights, one perceived weakness of the LCD camp has provided a reason for TV makers to charge more for step-up models: image blurring. Higher refresh rates like 120Hz and now 240Hz aim to clean up blurring with newfangled technology, and Toshiba's ZV650U series is one of the least expensive of such sets available.

Unlike such sets by Samsung and Sony, the Toshiba ZV650U uses a scanning backlight to reduce blurring--and, in fact, the company is careful to call its technology a "240Hz effect" to differentiate it from … Read more

One of our favorite HDTVs of 2008 was the Samsung LN52A650, which has remained in our lab for more than a year as a comparison model representing LCD TVs that use a conventional backlight as opposed to LEDs. Now that 240Hz processing has arrived in force on the LCD landscape, we expect the Samsung LNB750 series to take up that mantle.

This set outperforms the company's edge-lit LED-based LCDs in most areas, including black-level performance and picture uniformity, and it produced a better picture than any other LCD we've tested, aside from last year's LED-backlit models that … Read more

Sony has always reserved its XBR moniker for its most expensive HDTVs, and the 2009 KDL-XBR9 lineup is no exception. These sets cost a bundle, and while they deliver plenty of features, including a lot of built-in interactive add-ons, they can't match the video quality of the best plasma and LED-backlit LCDs on the market, nor the ultrathin style of Samsung's edge-lit LED models.

The Sony KDL-XBR9 series exhibited respectable enough performance, to be sure, and we're sure gadget freaks will find a lot to like about its streaming capabilities and its Yahoo Widgets, but if you … Read more

Next week Sony will hold its annual spring line show detailing new product rollouts for 2009 and supplementing its CES 2009 HDTV announcements with specifics like pricing and availability. A couple days early, HDGuru.com has an article spelling out pricing for a number of Sony's new lines of Bravia-branded LCD TVs.

On a series-by-series basis, the Guru also provides advice to shoppers facing the inevitable question of whether to buy now while the deals on 2008 models are very good, or wait for the '09 versions to come out. In general, given the price difference and closeout deals on '08 versions, he advises shoppers to get a good deal now and not wait. We tend to agree, at least for folks who don't care about Yahoo Widgets or 240Hz.

The Guru leaked prices and estimated release dates for most of the series below. Pricing is listed as MAP, Sony's estimated street price.… Read more