So many television technologies have fallen into obscurity over the course of 2009, it only seems fair to try and predict one for 2010. This time, I’m not going on about the death of DLP HDTVs, or plasma televisions but instead want to focus on refresh rates.
Currently LCD HDTVs are available in a wide array of refresh rates. They are either 60, 120, or 240Hz. TV makers have been trying to sell customers on the idea that the higher the number the smoother the picture will be. There has been lots of debate as to whether the higher refresh rates actually make watching television or playing games any better but it doesn’t matter as more and more televisions are completely abandoning the older 60Hz refresh rate completely.
The current line of LED backlit LCD HDTVs from Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Sony and Vizio all carry at least 120Hz refresh rates and as the focus gets turned to 3D HDTV sets there’s little incentive for those sets to get nostalgic and offer those new televisions as 60Hz.
All of these things point to the upcoming death of a specification. We’ll have to wait until 2010 CES before we know for sure, but the writing appears to be on the wall.
Do you own a 120 or 240Hz HDTV? If so, would you go back to a plain 60Hz set?
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