There is still motion blur and jutter on LCD TVs

Those of you who have read my blog know that I recently bought a Samsung Luxia UN55B7000.  This is the recently acclaimed LED LCD HDTV which supposedly defines the state of the art in LCD flat screens at this moment in time.  It is also 1.2 inches in total thickness, a fact cause the fashion critics to stand up and praise God. 

Almost 3 full weeks have elapsed since I made my purchase.  It will be 21 days as of tomorrow.  I purchased my Unit on April 18.  What have I learned?  Many things, in truth, but none more important than this:  There is still motion blur and jutter on LCD televisions.  There is also flat-cold ghosting and after-imaging on fast moving objects in movies.

Anyone who says otherwise is a Goddamn fucking fork-tongued liar.  Direct that filthy lying sonofabitch to my blog so I can insult the shit out of him.

You can't get away from it.  120Hz works for sports like Football and Basketball.  120Hz motion smothing does not work on Blu-Ray movies.  It does wacky things to 24fps movies.  You won't like it.  You will shut it off.  I guarentee it.  The first time you see the lips of an actor out of sync with the sound-track, you will hate this feature.  You will be pissed.

Folks, blurring and ghosting are not (and never have been) issues with DLP technology.  There is a very precise and logical, physical, scientific explanation for this fact.  Let me tell you about it.

LCD is an acronym signifying Liquid Crystal Diods.  There are approximately 2 million Liquid Crystal Diods in a rectangular array on any 1080P LCD television.  Each one of those 2 million Liquid Crystals changes its color osculation in response to an electrical signal sent to it by the video processor.  It takes a bit of time for an LCD to change its osculating frequency (and therefore color) in response to a new electrical signal.  We call this delay between signal change and osculating frequency change "Refresher Rate" or "Refresh Time".  LCDs carry an important measure quote called "Refresher Rate".  This figure is quoted in Milliseconds.  All LCDs featuring 120Hz technology have a refresher rate of 4ms.

Believe it or not, that is hella-slow.  DLP is radically faster.

DLP is a different kind of technology.  DLPs are based on a light gun powered by a 150 or 180 watt bulb.  This gun is located at the back of your 10 to 19 inch deep DLP HDTV.  It is a type of projection technology, not unlike CRT or the projectors you see in movie theater.  It is identical to the digital theater projection systems you see in high-end movie houses like the Archlight, or the Mann Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  It is merely rear-screen projection rather than front-screen projection.

The DLP shoots photon waves of light at your screen, and paints the picture in colored light.  How fast is this in comparison to LCD?

Last time I checked, the speed of light is a universal physical constant and is quoted at 299,792,458 meters per second.  How long does it take a beam of light to travel about 13 inches or 33cm from the bulb to screen?  Last time I checked that works out to 1.10076 E-8.  I think that's just about 11 nanoseconds.  Last time I checked a nanosecond is defined as 1 E-9 s.

So we are talking about the difference between 4ms and 11ns.  We are talking about the difference  between 4.0 E-3 vs. 1.1 E-8.  That is 5 orders of magnitude, and 363% multiplied on top of that just for good measure.  That means my new LED LCD is 3.63 E+5 slower than my old DLP.  In English that means my new LED LCD is 363,384.79758 times slower than my old DLP.

When I said DLP is radically faster, I meant radically faster.  I bullshit you not.

That means that there is no fucking motion blur on any fucking DLP.  That means that there is no fucking ghosting or after images on any fucking DLP.  You can shove that fact up you fucking ass and bleed to death rapidly it if you are DLP detractor.  The problem that afflicts LCDs does not apply or pertain to DLP in any way shape or form.  By its very scientific nature, DLP completely avoids this problem.  Asking how DLPs control motion blur is like asking how you rewind your DVDs before returning them to Block Buster.  The question is illogical because the problem does not exist.

Are you ready for some whipped cream on top?  My old DLP cost $2000 about 2 years ago.  This new LCD cost about $3000 just 20 days ago.

Are you ready for the cherry on top of the whipped cream?  My old DLP was 6 inches larger than my new LED LCD.  It was a 61 inch behemoth.  This one is just 55 inches.

For this reason I am disappointed in my purchase.  All-in-all, it is still pretty good television, but it is not as good as the best DLPs on the market today.  Although the clarity and detail are magnificent, motion is more important.  We call them motion pictures for a reason.

I am very glad that my mother covets my new LED LCD with great lust.  She is seeking a family discount price on a used purchase as I write this.  I think I am going to sell it to her... just the second that the Mitsubishi WD-82837 comes out in June.

The Samsung UN-55B7000

Guess what? I sold my old Samsung HL-S6187W this week. It was tough saying goodbye to that good old friend. I was very sad as I drove it to its new home in my Toyota Tundra. This all took place on Wednesday April 15 around 8:30 PST. Nevertheless, I followed through and completed the deal.

Naturally, this begat a frantic search for its successor. In 72 hours there were many twists and turns, frustrations and angers, and a couple of shocking discoveries. I will give you the serious low down on my technological discoveries in the next blog. I have a few sharp point to pass on to you in this short blog:

1. LED LCD has now surpassed classical DLP in terms of image quality. This could never be said before. Right now, both the internet and the major HDTV vendors are ablaze with excitement over the new Samsung B7000 series LED LCD HDTVs. They should be. This unit now offers the finest picture quality of anything on the market... at least until the B8000 hits the streets in about 1 month. That is no joke. The B8000 is scheduled to arrive inside one month.

2. The bizzare co-inky-dink is that the worlds thinnest 55inch LCD also happens to be the television with the highest image quality on the market today. This has never been true before this moment. Thin HDTVs uniformly sacrificed image quality for skinny looks, until now. Somehow, Samsung cut the Gordian Knot. They somehow packed the best picture into the thinnest form factor. It should be noted that CNET already has ranked The Samsung B7000 series as the #2 most desirable HDTV behind the Pioneer Elite Kuro, which is now defunct and discontinued. I guess that makes my HDTV the defacto #1.

3. To set the whole deal on fire, the UN-55B7000, which is the 55 inch implementation, can be had for a mere $3200 at Fry's electronics this weekend. That is $600 below retail price. How about no shipping or installation charges? Just drive 1 mile and get it now? I'll play the sales tax this time.

4. Not impressive enough? How about the fact that they will toss in a $300 Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-Ray player for free? Basically, this means you can have the world's finest 55inch thin flat for approximately $2,900.00. Shocking! This size in this form factor couldn't be touched for less than $5000 just 6 months ago. The price has fallen $2100, seemingly overnight, and the quality has gotten much better. Thanx Gordon Moore! You're doing one hell of job!

Naturally this was all too much for me to resist. I made the deal today, April 18, 2008 at about 3:00pm. The deal was cinched at Fry's electronics in Woodland Hills, just 1 mile from my apartment. It is already setup and tuned up. I have been tuning it all evening with the help of my favorite channel: The NFL network. I have just about all the team jersies, I know all the team colors intimately. Ergo this is the best place to go for color, brightness, contrast and noise calibration.

LCD is a shock to the system. The character and quality of the picture is entirely different from what most people are accustomed too. Most of us grew up watching movies on Cathode Ray Tubes and on theater projectors. DLP has all of these qualities and improves upon them. This is why high-end theaters such as the Archlight use DLP projectors. This is why many of us have found DLP to be the most pleasing movie experiance over the past several years.

As a people and a generation, we not accustomed to the look of LCD. Liquid Crystal has a totally different character from the CRTs and projection systems we grew up with in the theater and at home. It looks quite different from my old and trusted friend, the DLP. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I didn't quite like it at first. It is like the difference between eatting off a clay plate and an aluminum plate. Either way you eat, but you are conditioned to expect clay. Aluminum is better and more durable, but we have been conditioned to expect clay.

If there is a problem with this television it is found in hyper-accuracy. An old friend of mine, Ryan the Sheepdog, used to listen to his music through studio reference quality Tannoy monitors. These are the sort of studio monitors Quincy Jones would be happy to use when producing an album by Stevie Wonder. The sound was astounding. He paid a small fortune for them ($8000). Ryan used to say that the problem with these speakers is that they would sound off every flaw and every blemish in the audio signal. They were hyper-accurate. They were almost too accurate.

Well folks, the Samsung UN-55B7000 is a lot like that. If you have a flawed video signal, it will look like shit on the UN-55B7000. The DLP was much more forgiving. If you have a sensational picture, it is going to look mesmerizing and astounding on the UN-55B7000. It looks much better than on the DLP. This became crystal clear in the first hour of watching the HDTV.

Let me tell you about my experiance.

The NFL network was showing a documentary called The Top 10 Power Backs when I powered-up my new HDTV for the first time. Like all such historicals, this documentary was a hoge-podge of very old and decrepid footage, as well as very recent and high quality images. The decrepit stuff looks like utter shit on the UN-55B7000. I found this very disconcerting, and I was on the verge of a serious disappointment.

Then I discovered TBN was showing the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy back-to-back in true high definition. They were on the final leg of Return of the King when I first tuned in. Frodo was about to enter the Crack of Doom. It was pretty damn amazing. This was the first moment when the disappointment began to abate, and I started to get happy.

It just so happens that the NFL network was also re-broadcasting Super Bowl XLIII at the same time. This was our most recent Super Bowl, the Steelers vs. Cardinals. Of course, no expense was spared in broadcasting and recording this even. The signal is as good as an it gets in today's world. I flipped channels back and forth and kept calibrating. It looked pretty great right away, but there were problem. I did need to adjust the 120Hz motion smoothing. The factory settings did a lot of weird things to the slow motion instant replays. I finally decided on a custom setting of 7 for blur control and 7 for jitter control. None of the factory presets worked well for me. The jitters were very disturbing at first, but they are now under control. I recommend these settings to my fellow football fans.

Finally, it came time for a Blu-ray, arguably my favorite toy. Most friends and family members would have expected me to do this first, but I really wanted to calibrate with the NFL network before moving on to the Blu-ray. What I saw was pretty shocking. This was the moment when the UN-55N7000 convinced me that it was actually better (not just more fashionable) than my old HL-S6187W. This was the moment when two-reps of the Moore's Law became blindingly apparent. When they talk about dark inky blacks, they are understating the case. When they speak of butter-smooth imagery, they are understating the case. When they speak of razor sharp super-detailed images, they are utterly falling short of reality. The sharpness and detail is beyond belief. When they speak of dazing color, they are pretty much on track.

I have been an advocate of Blu-Ray for about two years now. I used to tell people that the difference between Blu-ray and HD Satellite is equivalent to the difference between DVD and Cable. Cable looks good. DVD looks better. Likewise (I used to say) HD Satellite looks good, Blu-ray looks better. Well folks, I am going to have reformulate that statement. That just doesn't give Blu-ray enough credit. It falls short by a long shot. The difference between HD Satellite and Blu-Ray is pretty sick. It is much, much greater than the difference between Cable and DVD. Blu-Ray makes DirectTV's HD package look poor by comparison. That is no joke. Give it a try on this HDTV and see for yourself.

If you are planning to get the UN-55B7000, you better get it this weekend at Fry's. They will toss in the Blu-Ray player for free. If you have not yet been exposed to Blu-Ray, you are going to have an absolute freak-out experience. You will know why the movie lovers, particularly profession movie critics, just love Blu-ray to death. If you already bought this TV and don't have a Blu-ray, you are missing out on the finest thing your investment has to offer you.