One of the big controversies concerning HDTVs are the labels given to different technologies and how they are spun by marketing departments. Customers have grown accustomed to having more, and using numerical differences to gauge the improvements in quality. In cars it’s horsepower, in computers it’s megahertz, and in HDTVs it comes down to refresh rates.
Older televisions were only 60Hz, while newer televisions are 120Hz and even 240Hz. The goal is to make video content smoother. With a 60Hz refresh rate a television has to do a 3:2 pulldown because a 24p signal isn’t smoothly able to work on a 60Hz set.
With 240Hz those problems were to be eliminated. The only problem is that HDTV manufacturers have chosen not to enable this kind of technology in their televisions. Instead they use different kinds of technology to help video playback but many of them fall short.
According to a CNET article:
Sony and Samsung have a true 240hz and do a 10:10 pulldown and apply motion compensation
LG, Toshiba and Vizio’s use a scanning backlight to simulate 240hz on a 120hz TV so they do a 5:5 pulldown apply motion compensation and have a backlight that flickers at a fast rate and call it 240hz.
Be sure to check this on a television you buy to make sure you don’t have a jittery picture
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