LCD display technology is inherently prone to motion blur primarily due to LCD pixels remaining lit between frames (referred to as sample-and-hold) unlike the rise and fall of pixel lighting with other display technologies eg. plasma. Another possible cause is a response time which is insufficient for the speed required by the frame rate of the display.
LCD manufacturers have moved to combat motion blur through faster response times and doubling of the refresh rate to 120Hz. Faster frame rates (refresh rate) smooths out motion improving the image sequence the eye perceives. To produce the faster refresh rates the video processor interpolates a frame between each existing frame. The faster frame rate makes motion appear smoother to the viewer. Bravia XBR5 models have Sony’s version of the technology, Motionflow, while Mitsubishi has Smooth120Hz, Toshiba - ClearFrame, LG – TruMotion Drive and JVC call it Clear Motion Drive II.
Philips have followed a different approach to reducing motion blur relying on the fact that reducing the time an LCD is backlit to reducing motion blur due to eye tracking. Philips’ ClearLCD strobes the backlight in order to reduce the sample time in turn minimizing the retinal blurring due to sample-and-hold. Following a similar tack, Samsung have take advantage of LED backlighting in their 81 series with LED Motion Plus.
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