Motion blur in games - can LCD ever cut the mustard?

Ramspeed

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Hi all

I am a Sony V32 owner. This excellent LCD boasts an incredibly fast 8ms panel. Yet I still get slight blurring with games (yes, I'm using good component cables, yes I'm running the games @ 480p/720p). The blurring is subtle, a slight loss of focus when panning around. It's the same on all games on all consoles.

I have noticed owners of nearly all the current LCD's admitting this problem. The JVC DS6, the Samsung, the Hitachi. Can't comment on the Panny TX500. Is there an LCD out there that can display games without any blur whatsoever? If not...why not? It's clearly not a matter of panel response time anymore. Is it an inherent problem with the technology? Is there a solution?
 
Unfortunately, while it's listed as being 8ms, it's likely that the panel isn't even under 16ms for all transitions, which is why there's still blurring. Once we start seeing panels with a true below 16ms response time, they'll be perfect for gaming. (there's one PC monitor I'm aware of that is capable of this - Viewsonic's VP191B)

If a display is capable of a "true" 16ms, then it will no longer be an issue. (16ms means it'll be capable of displaying 62.5fps)

Philips' ClearLCD technology which uses a strobing backlight should eliminate this issue if it works as well as they say it does. (and I have no reason to doubt it) Essentially because it's strobing (at 100/120Hz) you only see the pixels in their final state, and not during the transition period, which means that you no longer see the blur. (even though it's still there)
 
Ramspeed said:
Hi all

I am a Sony V32 owner. This excellent LCD boasts an incredibly fast 8ms panel. Yet I still get slight blurring with games (yes, I'm using good component cables, yes I'm running the games @ 480p/720p). The blurring is subtle, a slight loss of focus when panning around. It's the same on all games on all consoles.

I have noticed owners of nearly all the current LCD's admitting this problem. The JVC DS6, the Samsung, the Hitachi. Can't comment on the Panny TX500. Is there an LCD out there that can display games without any blur whatsoever? If not...why not? It's clearly not a matter of panel response time anymore. Is it an inherent problem with the technology? Is there a solution?

Try the philips 37PF9830, I have not seen any blurring on that with both pal 576i games and ntsc 480p games, 6ms response time. :thumbsup:
 
Ramspeed said:
Hi all
I have noticed owners of nearly all the current LCD's admitting this problem. The JVC DS6, the Samsung, the Hitachi. Can't comment on the Panny TX500. Is there an LCD out there that can display games without any blur whatsoever? If not...why not? It's clearly not a matter of panel response time anymore. Is it an inherent problem with the technology? Is there a solution?

I've played Chronicles of riddick over the weekend, escape from butcher bay, on my LG 32LP1D -Not seen any blur, connected at 1360x768, 1:1 over DVI from a Radeon 9800 Pro.
Ditto for NFS 2 Underground.

Panel is a claimed 8ms Grey-to-Grey.
 
Tested Far Cry Instincs on xbox connected to my Panny TX32LXD500 last night. It was superb ... I didn't play for very long but did not realise any bluring?? I will play a bit longer next time and look out for it and post back.
 
with all due respect, I'm honestly wondering if people blow this out of proportion

Perhaps because people are aware of the LCD response issue, they are looking for blurring?

Surely CRTs aren't immune? A CRT will take 1/50th of a second to draw each field. Thats >16ms response rate (or spot on 16ms if you use 60fps). Plus its really low res (640x288 approx?) And I'm sure there is blurring if you look for it.

Just curious really. I know I'm the same with plasma burn-in. I've written off plasma for my usage because of it, even though I'm sure its not really an issue any more.
 
You are refering to CRT TV, CRT Monitors are where most Gamers are coming from, when they Buy LCD Panels. They are generally dissapointed.
 
you all a bunch of PC gamers on here then?

Because surely then you'd be (relatively) disappointed with console gaming generally at the mo?
 
Ramspeed said:
Hi all

I am a Sony V32 owner. This excellent LCD boasts an incredibly fast 8ms panel. Yet I still get slight blurring with games (yes, I'm using good component cables, yes I'm running the games @ 480p/720p). The blurring is subtle, a slight loss of focus when panning around. It's the same on all games on all consoles.

I have noticed owners of nearly all the current LCD's admitting this problem. The JVC DS6, the Samsung, the Hitachi. Can't comment on the Panny TX500. Is there an LCD out there that can display games without any blur whatsoever? If not...why not? It's clearly not a matter of panel response time anymore. Is it an inherent problem with the technology? Is there a solution?

its a Sony
 
Well I've been a PC gamer for longer than I can remember, I have switched from CRT to LCD and havent noticed any ghosting, In fact the only ghosting I have ever seen are on older CRT PC monitors that had long persistence phosphors, but we're talking a long time ago! I am expecting my LCD tv on Thursday, maybe I'll notice something then, however AFAIK the TV I'm getting has a better response rate than both my PC LCD panels I use for gaming.
 
My Hitachi 7200 has zero blur at all and the set is 16ms so something must be wrong with your Sony mate.
 
richard plumb said:
with all due respect, I'm honestly wondering if people blow this out of proportion

Perhaps because people are aware of the LCD response issue, they are looking for blurring?

Surely CRTs aren't immune? A CRT will take 1/50th of a second to draw each field. Thats >16ms response rate (or spot on 16ms if you use 60fps). Plus its really low res (640x288 approx?) And I'm sure there is blurring if you look for it.

Just curious really. I know I'm the same with plasma burn-in. I've written off plasma for my usage because of it, even though I'm sure its not really an issue any more.

Aha - the unmistakable sound of a nail being hit squarely on the head... :thumbsup:
 
richard plumb said:
with all due respect, I'm honestly wondering if people blow this out of proportion

Perhaps because people are aware of the LCD response issue, they are looking for blurring?

Surely CRTs aren't immune? A CRT will take 1/50th of a second to draw each field. Thats >16ms response rate (or spot on 16ms if you use 60fps). Plus its really low res (640x288 approx?) And I'm sure there is blurring if you look for it.

Just curious really. I know I'm the same with plasma burn-in. I've written off plasma for my usage because of it, even though I'm sure its not really an issue any more.

That's the wrong resolution for TVs anyway assuming you're using RGB or some form of component.
When you're using composite video or s-video, you end up with a full resolution black and white image being overlayed over a low resolution colour image to create a 'detailed' effect.
Personally I don't see the problem with blurring; infact; it looks more natural, most games deliver perfect clean frames that are far enough apart for your eyes to see as non blurred, but the truth is, if games actually showed motion rather than still frames they would blur anyway; as your eyes are not fast enough to track real motion.

Just wave your hand infront of your face with nothing behind it, then switch your monitor on and wave it infront of your monitor.
As you can see; when the monitor is on you can see specific points of the motion of your hand rather than actual motion with blurring.

So it's no big deal.

As long as you can play the game without getting killed all the time; you're fine :hiya:
 
gearguy said:
As long as you can play the game without getting killed all the time; you're fine :hiya:

Hmm, well if you guys are happy with your LCD's adding blur to your image, you are very lucky, i couldnt put up with it.
 
Been using my "JVC LT-26DS6BJ" (Response Time: 7ms) for a few months now & have had no blurring whatsoever stunning TV

Maybe you haven't run the screen in yet?
 
Ramspeed said:
Hi all

I am a Sony V32 owner. This excellent LCD boasts an incredibly fast 8ms panel. Yet I still get slight blurring with games (yes, I'm using good component cables, yes I'm running the games @ 480p/720p). The blurring is subtle, a slight loss of focus when panning around. It's the same on all games on all consoles.

I have noticed owners of nearly all the current LCD's admitting this problem. The JVC DS6, the Samsung, the Hitachi. Can't comment on the Panny TX500. Is there an LCD out there that can display games without any blur whatsoever? If not...why not? It's clearly not a matter of panel response time anymore. Is it an inherent problem with the technology? Is there a solution?

All XboX 360 games wil use motion blur so you can add that on top of the motion blur you get from the LCD panel too. :rolleyes:

I'm not happy about this at all and have done no end of moaning about it.

Even if we had 100% motion blur free LCD's you are still going to get the motion blur that the developers add to their games. :suicide:
 
I don't get this obsession with 'LCD motion blur'. CRT's blur motion because of the persistence of their phosphors; TV productions before about 1990 suffered from terrible trailing on highlights(watch the two Ronnies!); stop-motion model cinematography (a la Ray Harryhausen) looked odd because there wasn't any motion blur...
I've been playing XBOX Doom3 on our JVC DS6 for a few months now and I can spot blur if I stare intently at the screen and do a quick turn, but then I reckon I could do the same on a CRT...and CRT's flicker.
It really isn't a problem! Just make sure the manufacturer's magic features (video noise reduction = blursville) are turned down from the factory settings and you'll be fine :hiya:
 
Shin Gouki said:
All XboX 360 games wil use motion blur so you can add that on top of the motion blur you get from the LCD panle too. :rolleyes:

I'm not happy about this at all and have done no end of moaning about it.

Even if we had 100% motion blur free LCD's you are still going to get the motion blur that the devlopers add to their games. :suicide:

Where did you read this?

doesnt sound true to me :rolleyes:
 
I agree that it's an over-hyped issue. I've owned several CRTs and have noticed motion blurring on all of them if I look really carefully. This is particularly noticable with bright whites moving across the screen. Having owned a pretty cheap LCD monitor for 4 years I can't say it's any worse than a CRT.

Don't spend all of your life nitpicking and just enjoy playing the games/watching the TV! :lesson: :thumbsup:
 
Ramspeed said:
Hi all

I am a Sony V32 owner. This excellent LCD boasts an incredibly fast 8ms panel. Yet I still get slight blurring with games (yes, I'm using good component cables, yes I'm running the games @ 480p/720p). The blurring is subtle, a slight loss of focus when panning around. It's the same on all games on all consoles.

I have noticed owners of nearly all the current LCD's admitting this problem. The JVC DS6, the Samsung, the Hitachi. Can't comment on the Panny TX500. Is there an LCD out there that can display games without any blur whatsoever? If not...why not? It's clearly not a matter of panel response time anymore. Is it an inherent problem with the technology? Is there a solution?


I tried Samsung LE-26R51BH some weeks ago and it's the same story. That panel claims 8 ms but I found the blurring detracted enormously from the visual experience in games such as Half Life 2 and San Andreas (both through VGA)

However I feel there is another and more serious problem regarding LCDs and gaming and that is lag, which as far as I know is not directly related to response time or ghosting, being a different issue altogether. What I mean by lag is the time it takes for the whole video signal to be rendered in the screen, in practical terms, it is the interval from the moment you press the trigger in Halo to the moment where Master Chief fires his weapon (hence its critical importance for gamers).

Most flat panel sets, particulary LCDs, suffer from this shortcoming and it is easily noticeable by feeding a given video source to both the panel under study and any conventional CRT display (I guess CRT's lag can be taken to be negligible). I was hopeful about the Samsung though, being the screen chosen by Microsoft to show off the 360 and all, so I did a test of sorts with the LE-26R51BH model. Everyone I showed both the LCD and CRT displaying the same PC desktop noticed how the opening and closing of folders happened slightly before on the CRT than in the Samsung LCD.

I will not sacrifice playability for HD, ghosting or no ghosting, rather I will wait until some lcd COMPLETELY sorts this out, a new technology comes, or someone bothers bringing HD capable CRTs to Europe (the JVCs are near impossible to find under 36'' and the Slimfits have problems of their own, plus they can't do HD in 60 Hz)

HD gaming is not looking well for us europeans :mad:
 
frankly I'm bemused by the insistence on CRT for HD content. In the US its partially understandable as they still have many CRTs to choose from

What is the assumption that they are better? Yes they have better blacks, but lag is a function of the deinterlacing/scaling, and even CRTs will have to do that to some extent. Then add in geometry issues, flickering, lack of ability to display 720p natively (most CRTs cannot resolve the full 720 lines) and I see not reason for people to crow about CRT while bemoaning LCD. (not singling you out here Jorge, but I've seen it a lot on US forums)

Simple point is all displays have their pros and cons.
 
Not sure People know what they are talking about !!
Image smear has been leveled against LCD TV's from the early days and If something does not look right its always called slow pixel response !

Have any of the people with the problem seen the same effect when viewing something like a superfast explosion or movement when viewing a quality High definition Source.....all of which is moving faster than You can pan around with your Mouse in a game ?

Go figure

;)
 
ha ha maybe the motion blur people have been seeing (and complaining about)in xbox 360 games is actually from the screens and not effects built into the game! :rotfl:
 
JorgeP said:
HD gaming is not looking well for us europeans :mad:

Its looking great for most of us with high quality low price alternatives like sonys new S and V series. I have demoed loads of LCD's and played countless xbox games on a samsung 26" LCD and never had a problem.

Feel free to find as many problems with any given diplay technology, while you do that I am going to be playing PD0 and PGR3 on my Xbox360 hooked to a shiny new Sony V40 LCD.. And enjoying it!
 
Played Far Cry Instincts again last night on my TX32LXD500 and didn't notice this motion blur thing ???
 

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