OT: new HDTV is driving me crazy

So my Samsung 720p Plasma screen that I had for 3 years crapped out on me. After a month of watching TV on a 13 inch CRT monitor, I finally convinced my wife to buy a new TV. I did my research, sat and looked at tons of TVs at all the electronic stores, and finally settled on a Sony LCD with the 120Hz.

Got home hooked it up, and have spent the last couple days wincing. It seems that the "special feature" of 120Hz is that it takes 24p 3:2 pull down and turns it into 30 crystal clear frames. So now all movies look like video. I try to explain this to my wife and my family sitting arround at Thanksgiving - but they look at me like I'm nuts.

What really scares me is that the blueray DVDs look even worse than my HD fios - and that everyone thinks it looks great. Is this just another sign that film is dying. People actually enjoy 30 fps movies. It looks like video!!!

I understand that I spend all day looking at $40,000 Sony HD CRT monitor, and that a $2000 LCD isn't going to compare - but has anyone else noticed this. I think I'm going to have to return the TV for a Plasma - apparently they don't have this issue.

that's precisely what that 120Hz feature does. makes 24 frame film look like 30 frame video. aside from looking kinda-neat, about the only benefit of the feature is that it minimizes the 24 frame judders. which nobody really ever noticed until these last couple of years...

i was with a client the other day in a tv store and pointed out that they were playing transformers on one of those 120Hz sets. he repeatedly refuted saying "no, thats a video game" or "its just an excerpt from a video game" after a few moments he realized he was watching the actual movie and this was indeed a "feature" of the TV. he was pretty freaked out...

is the 120Hz feature not something you can switch off?
id return it anyway, LCDs have a horrible problem with compression artifacting and motion trails on high action like sports.

Actually, more likely to make it look like 60fps video... On some TVs it's stuck on, others, you can switch it. I see more as a detriment than a feature....

The only people I know / speak to about 120 hz technology that are "freaked out" are Post Professionals that are spoiled rotten staring at their $40,000 HD CRT's at work

This is just the first wave of 120 hz sets coming out now. This feature will either get better / adjustable down the road and / or they will probably develop a better technology and we'll see all these 120 hz sets on ebay.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

the first time i saw it was about 7 months ago. i was at that same tv store i mentioned earlier (thats a local tv commercial client of mine) and they were playing some princess diaries or devil wears prada or some other such fluff and i noticed it looked like an episode of three's company.

over the years i have had to point out the aesthetic differences between video and film to about all my friends and family. once they are told about it they can see it - most had never noticed before.

point being. dont know if joe-average consumer (no relation to our good grafixjoe of course) will even notice the difference

"joe-average consumer" is raving about 120 hz so it's not going anywhere for a while.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Problem is Plasma uses so much more energy than a LCD. So it's global warming vs picture. But then 50" LCDs are not energy savers either. Bigger the picture the more wattage it takes.

I've been looking to get a flat screen too to replace my CRT. I settled on an iPhone.

Michael Horton
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I settled on an iPhone.

LOL - me too. How you likin' it Mike? You know the Wall-E Special Edition 3-DVD set comes with a digital copy you can put on that phone? I love the thing to death.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

This thing is the most amazing toy ever created. I can't believe what it can do and am dumbfounded that it does all it can do so well. The minds behind this got to be from another planet. There are so many cool apps. Google mobile app is beyond useful, It's a masterpiece.

Michael Horton
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Amen brother. Makes every cell I ever owned seem like one of those plastic Barbie phones.

Can't wait for the iSUV

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

visual voice mail alone was more than worth the cost of admission for me - CHANGED MY LIFE

The thing that amazed me about getting an iPhone was how quickly I forgot about it. I hate gadgets, as a rule, and my iPhone doesn't feel like a gadget. Before I got it I carried a Blackberry for work, and every interaction with it was like getting hit in the forehead with a hammer stamped "LOOK AT THIS FABULOUS PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY." It was so intrusive. Maybe it's just how the touch interface works, I dunno, but my iPhone is invisible to me. And I love that. I wish more space-aged, fell-through-a-time-hole-from-the-future pieces of wizardry were as transparently usable.

I tried an iPhone at an Apple Store. I think my big fingers will forever keep me from being a customer. I've heard some of these things come with a stylus, but I don't want to have to use a stylus for a cell phone. When an iPhone comes with a nice conventional keypad, I'll bite.

Wall-E juxtaposed with the shiny iPhone. How's that for irony?

Sorry, kind of jacked the thread here!


www.derekmok.com

Sorry to still carry on with the iPhone thing...but the KEYBOARD is preventing you from buying? Um...Derek...turn the iPhone sideways and the keyboard expands to fatter keys. There's also a free app called EasyWriter that gives you the fat keyboard for emails. Works for even my big fingers. I bought a stylus for $5.00 on ebay to help my fat fingers type sometimes.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Sorry to get the post back on track - but I returned the LCD for a plasma. Best decision I ever made. I just wanted to help other post production professionals to not make the same mistake I did. Unless you like your films to look like video.

Glad you figured it out, Rick. Just watch out for screen burn-in - which plasmas are prone to. Just don't leave it on CNN 24 hours a day and you won't have one of those permanent lower 3rd ghosts burned into the screen

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

> Um...Derek...turn the iPhone sideways and the keyboard expands to fatter keys.

I know it turns, but it still isn't fat enough. I have really plump fingers, okay!? I'm talkin' the size of some people's toes.
Anyway, I've never been a big fan of touchscreens. And I'll shut up about the iPhone now.


www.derekmok.com

I thought I was supposed to be the one with all the conspicuous simian characteristics ?

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I'm talkin' the size of some people's toes.

How the heck do you play guitar with fingers like that ??

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.