By Martin Vedris
SYDNEY: You’re better off comparing apples with oranges than trying to compare 600 hertz TV technologies with 200 hertz, according to Sony Australia’s senior product specialist – Audio Visual, Craig Jackson.
Wanting to clear up some confusion regarding the use of the Hertz terminology, Jackson told Current.com.au that consumers need to be aware of the differences between 200 Hz and 600 Hz Sub-field Driving technologies.
“200 hertz, at the moment, is still the fastest frame rate for a television,” said Jackson. “There’s still a lot of confusion around the 480 and 600 hertz technologies … retailers have been telling me that customers don’t necessarily understand the difference between the two.”
Jackson says that while the use of the term hertz can apply equally, and be used correctly, to describe both LCD and plasma TV technology, it’s not comparing the same thing.
“200 hertz has 200 individual frames within the signal, shown one after the other, whereas the 480 and 600 hertz technologies on plasma TVs, all they do is show the same frame 480 or 600 times and that’s just the way plasma that TVs work and have worked for years. And that doesn’t insert any extra frames, and from what I understand it’s not really meant to,” said Jackson.
Jackson said that the use of the term hertz on televisions needs to be clarified to avoid further confusion amongst consumers.
“Customers probably get confused with the use of the word hertz and when they see a bigger number, still using hertz, they might think it’s the same thing,” he said.
“That’s probably a hard sell for retail floor staff to be able to convince the customers that they’re not the same thing, they’re just using the same unit of measurement. You could quite correctly say that my laptop is 50 hertz because that’s the power cycle it runs on, or my clock radio is 50 hertz, but obviously that doesn’t mean they have any technology to improve the motion on the screen.
“It’s important for people to understand that hertz is only a unit of measurement, it can be used in many different applications, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that those technologies will improve motion in the same way as Motionflow 200Hz technology that Sony is using on its Bravia TVs, which does dramatically improve the motion.”
Jackson said that while hertz is only a unit of measurement, it is legitimately used to describe various functions, but that when it comes to describing motion on the screen, 200 Hertz is the highest frame rate currently available.
“They’re certainly not doing anything wrong, they’re measuring something and it’s perfectly legitimate” Jackson said of manufacturers using the term 600 Hertz for plasma TV.
“Bigger isn’t necessarily better, it’s just different … but MotionFlow 200Hz would be better for watching smooth fluid accurate movement on sport than other technologies.”