Motion Rate vs Processing Rate vs Frame Rate

[almoststew1990]

I'm idly browsing TVs as I am wondering whether a solid 32" TV would make a good monitor. I see that TVs are described as having both a Motion Rate and a Processing Rate. If the Motion Rate is the Refresh rate, typically 60Hz for a basic TV or monitor, what is a Processing rate? Even if it is a BS number dreamed up by the manufacturer as a result of the TVs imaging processes, how does it actually work because surely the picture will be limited to the motion rate (e.g. 60Hz) as that is the slowest common denominator (kind of like playing a game at 100fps on a 60Hz screen, you're not going to see more than 60fps...)

Also how does Frame Rate come into this? I thought DVDs and TV was at 24fps anyway (not sure about BD) so why the very high 'refresh' rates?

Also do TVs have built in V-sync?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

any tv will never make a good pc monitor. it wasn't built for that purpose.

unless of course your not a serious gamer. why do you need a 32" screen for your pc?

the best 32" tv is the samsung 32j6300 fyi

 

[lucid]

I'm idly browsing TVs as I am wondering whether a solid 32" TV would make a good monitor. I see that TVs are described as having both a Motion Rate and a Processing Rate. If the Motion Rate is the Refresh rate, typically 60Hz for a basic TV or monitor, what is a Processing rate? Even if it is a BS number dreamed up by the manufacturer as a result of the TVs imaging processes, how does it actually work because surely the picture will be limited to the motion rate (e.g. 60Hz) as that is the slowest common denominator (kind of like playing a game at 100fps on a 60Hz screen, you're not going to see more than 60fps...)

Also how does Frame Rate come into this? I thought DVDs and TV was at 24fps anyway (not sure about BD) so why the very high 'refresh' rates?

Also do TVs have built in V-sync?

TV's can certainly be hooked up to laptops or desktops, and the results are adequate if all you need to do is show a PowerPoint presentation or do a bit of casual web surfing or play media streams. They're not so good for serious work or intensive gaming though.

Each manufacturer has their own spin to try to hide the basic performance facts of their TVs. What you really need to know is the native refresh rate of the panel. The rest is most likely smoke and mirrors. By and large, panel refresh rates fall in to one of three categories: 50/60Hz, 100/120Hz, 200/240Hz. Sitting on top of that is the sampling rate of the processing in the TV. A 60Hz panel can only display 60 discrete frames per second, but the video processing can take two bites of the cherry on each frame to try to bump up the detail. This is where much of the issue with the Soap Opera Effect (SOE) comes in.

It's work paying a bit extra for the step up to a 100/120Hz panel as this will generally give less image lag with fast moving subjects.

The refresh or frame rates of incoming video is something different. All film-based content carried on DVD and Blu-ray is recorded as a native 24 frames per second (24p) signal on the disc. It's the player's own decoding combined with the user menu settings (24p On/Off) and the abilities of the display as set by the HDCP handshake that determine how the signal is decoded and set out. If the TV can handle 24p and the 24p feature is switched on in the BD player then the output signal will be 24p to match. If one element is missing then the player will send the signal out 2:3 pulldown to convert 24p in to a 60 frame per second image. DVD players don't output 24p. The TV has to recognise the existence of the extra frames and then perform an Inverse Telecine process to remove the additional frames. Whether the source is BD or DVD the TV displays a minimum of 48 frames per second or some other higher whole multiple of 24. e.g. a 120Hz panel runs at 5 x 24fps with 24p content.