Motionflow xr 960: What is Motionflow XR and X-Motion Clarity?

Fake Refresh Rate Conversion: How To Not Get Tricked By A TV Manufacturer

1. Table of Contents
2. Top
3. What Is The Refresh Rate?
4. The Fake Refresh Rates
   1. Hisense: Motion Rate
   2. LG: Trumotion
   3. Samsung: Motion Rate
   4. Sony: Motionflow xr
   5. tcl: natural motion
   6. Vizio: dynamic motion rate
5. How To Not Get Tricked
6. Conclusion
7. Discussions

Updated May 03, 2022 at 05:03 pm

By Nicholas Di Giovanni

When looking for your next TV to buy, it’s easy to get confused with all the marketing terms. TV manufacturers often use higher numbers to advertise a TV’s refresh rate, so you need to be careful to not get trapped in their marketing. Each brand has its own way of coming up with exaggerated refresh rates, and they call them differently, so we’ll look at the different ways companies advertise the refresh rate.

What Is The Refresh Rate?

The refresh rate is the number of times every second that the TV draws a new image onto the screen. Our eyes don’t see it, but the screen refreshes many times every second, and a higher refresh rate is important if you watch fast-moving content or play video games. You’ll either get a TV with a 60Hz or 120Hz refresh rate, and most mid-range and high-end TVs have a 120Hz panel while entry-level TVs have a 60Hz panel. This means that TVs are either drawing up 60 or 120 images every second. However, there are also TVs that are starting to come out with a 144Hz panel.

Learn more about the refresh rate

The Fake Refresh Rates

Manufacturers use fake refresh rates to pretend their TV has a higher refresh rate than it actually has. Since these fake refresh numbers are invented by each company, they’re all different from each other, which makes direct comparison across brands impossible if you don’t know the conversion multiplier of each brand. Some companies use a multiplier of 2 or 4, while Sony is a unique case because they use a multiplier of 8 for 120Hz TVs and 4 for 60Hz TVs.

Hisense: Motion Rate

Hisense has both Roku and Android-based TVs, and they advertise the refresh rate differently between each line of TVs. Their Android models in the ULED lineup, like the Hisense U6G, use Motion Rate with a multiplier of 4, but the entry-level TVs like the Hisense A6G have a multiplier of 2, so the Motion Rate is 120. However, their Roku models advertise the real refresh rate.

LG: Trumotion

LG’s TruMotion is easy to understand because it simply doubles the real refresh rate. Unlike other manufacturers, they advertise the real refresh rate alongside the TruMotion rate. Their TVs have a TruMotion setting that controls the motion interpolation feature. However, this is separate from the refresh rate.

Samsung: Motion Rate

Samsung uses Motion Rate as their marketing term for the refresh rate, and they have a simple multiplier of 2. They’re not always consistent, though, as they don’t advertise the Motion Rate with some HDMI 2.1 TVs, and they’ll simply advertise a max refresh rate of 120Hz.

Sony: Motionflow xr

Sony’s advertising of their Motionflow XR number is inconsistent because not all their models are advertised with this fake refresh rate number. Also, the multiplier changes depending on the refresh rate, so 60Hz TVs have a multiplier of 4, and 120Hz TVs have a multiplier of 8. Sony does advertise XR Motion Clarity on their higher-end models with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and a 120Hz panel. However, there’s no number associated with it, and it’s just to advertise that it has a backlight strobing feature.

tcl: natural motion

Like Hisense, TCL has both Android and Roku TVs, but they advertise the Natural Motion the same between each. They use a simple multiplier of 4 for their higher-end and mid-range TVs. However, their rules aren’t consistent with the lower-end models, as the TCL 4 Series/S435 2020 is advertised with a Clear Motion Index of 120 when it has a 60Hz refresh rate, and the TCL 4 Series/S446 2021 QLED is advertised without any fake refresh rate.

Vizio: dynamic motion rate

Vizio uses Dynamic Motion Rate, which they used to call Effective Refresh Rate, and it’s a simple multiplier by 2. They also advertise a Clear Action number alongside the Dynamic Motion Rate, but that represents the backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion.

How To Not Get Tricked

As you can see, it’s easy to decode a company’s fake refresh rate once you realize that the number isn’t real. Most companies either double or quadruple the real refresh rate to get their fake refresh rate. Since TVs only have refresh rates of 60Hz and 120Hz, anything above 120 is fake. The majority of mid-range and high-end TVs have 120Hz refresh rates; if the manufacturer advertises them as having HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, there’s an extremely strong chance they have a 120Hz panel. Figuring out the refresh rate of lower-end and entry-level TVs can be tricky because this is where manufacturers try to trick potential customers, and this is why most brands use a fake refresh rate of 120 for 60Hz TVs. They want you to believe that the cheap TV you’re about to buy has a 120Hz refresh rate. If it seems too good for a low-cost TV to have a fast refresh rate like that, it’s probably not true. Also, companies are starting to include the real refresh in the marketing materials, so that helps too.

Another popular misconception is that the fake refresh rate or the real refresh rate affect the motion handling when they don’t. Having a higher refresh rate certainly helps produces a clear image, but motion handling is strongly correlated to the response time, and that depends on the TV’s performance.

Conclusion

In the battle for market share, manufacturers try to find creative ways of marketing their TVs to make them seem like they have better specs than they actually do. One way they do this is by coming up with an arbitrary fake refresh rate that’s usually doubled or quadrupled the real refresh rate. Luckily, it’s easy to find out the real refresh rate, and some brands are starting to include the actual refresh rate, so it’s easier to not get tricked.

Fake refresh rates: Is your TV really 120Hz?

Just because your TV says it has a refresh rate of 120Hz or 240Hz, does that mean it’s actually refreshing at 120Hz or 240Hz? Nope, not necessarily. One of the latest marketing techniques, shall we say “gifts for fiction,” is using different technology to approximate the effect of a higher refresh rate, without actually driving the TV at the higher rate.

Confused? Yep, that’s the point. Hopefully I can deconfusify you.

Refresh rate
OK, first the basics. Refresh rate is how often a TV “refreshes” or changes the image on screen. In a way, this is like the TV’s “frame rate,” though functionally the two are bit different. A TV with a 60Hz refresh rate creates 60 individual images on screen each second. With the current HDTV system, this is the maximum you can get from any source.

The problem is, all LCDs suffer from motion blur, where the image blurs or “smears” with any motion. One way to combat this is with a higher refresh rate.

There’s a lot to this, so if you want to fully grok it, check out “What is refresh rate?” and “What is the ‘Soap Opera Effect’?”

Fugazi
The problem is, it’s more expensive to make an LCD that refreshes at a higher rate, and “120Hz” and “240Hz” have been marketing gold for the TV manufacturers. So in an effort to drive the numbers ever higher (my 960 is better than your 480!) and include “higher refresh” in lower-priced TVs, the manufacturers have gotten a bit. ..creative.

Unlike contrast ratio, fake refresh numbers aren’t complete fabrications. There’s often a fairly simple (if logically dubious) method for determining each company’s refresh rate claims. There are two primary methods for boosting the numbers, beyond actually using a faster refresh panel.

The first is a scanning or flashing backlight. All LCDs have a backlight to create the light used by the liquid crystal to create an image. Typically this is always on, or at least cycling at the same 60Hz the rest of the TV runs at. If the TV instead flashes this backlight rapidly, your eye would see the image, a moment of black, then the image again. It does this so fast, you don’t see the flicker. Technically, you’re seeing each frame of the image twice per second. This is a common practice, and can reduce motion blur. The issue is calling it “120Hz” when it’s really just a 60Hz TV with a scanning backlight causing you to see the same frame twice in a row.

Another method for potentially reducing motion blur slightly, but increasing the claimed refresh rate a lot, is video processing. Often this is “motion smoothing.”

Because so many TVs are marketed with a combination of the above either in addition to, or instead of, actually increasing the refresh rate, manufacturers don’t want you to know what the actual refresh is. So here’s what a few of them call their higher refresh tech, and what it really means. (It’s worth pointing out that every TV we review here at CNET lists the actual refresh rate in the Features section of the written review).

LG TruMotion
LG isn’t exactly transparent with its TruMotion tech. The description reads: “TruMotion increases the standard 60Hz refresh rate — how often the image is rendered on the TV screen — which drastically reduces blur and yields crisper details. It’s a boon to all fast-action video, but most especially sports, so you won’t miss a thing. LG TruMotion 120Hz, 240Hz, or 480Hz is available on select-model LCD TVs.” Only one TV seems to have TruMotion 480Hz. The rest are TruMotion 240 or TruMotion 120. Their tech specs typically just say “Refresh rate: TruMotion 240Hz.”

The one LG LED LCD we’ve reviewed so far this year, the 60LA8600, is listed by LG as “TruMotion (frame rate): 240Hz,” and we found out from LG that it is a 240Hz refresh panel. On the other hand, last year’s 55LM6700 had a claimed “240Hz effect” but actually had worse motion resolution than some 120Hz TVs. So don’t assume their numbers describe the panel refresh.

Panasonic
Panasonic is upfront about its backlight scanning: “120Hz, 1,200 Backlight Scanning Technology. Our advanced 1,200 Backlight Scanning technology employs fine light-emission control to minimize flicker and ensure smooth images without afterimage effects, even during high-speed action scenes in movies or sports programming.” There’s even an image to show what’s going on:

There’s also “120Hz, 240 Backlight Blinking Technology. Panasonic’s 120Hz/240 Backlight Blinking Technology delivers optimal sharpness, clarity, and contrast with virtually no image blur. “

There are a few other variations like this. The gray bar in the illustration is a darkened row of LEDs that scans vertically.

Samsung CMR
Though Samsung is fantastic at creative marketing (“LED” TV was its thing), it at least doesn’t outright call the TVs with the aforementioned tricks “480Hz” refresh. Instead, it has “CMR” or Clear Motion Rate. “Samsung’s more comprehensive Clear Motion Rate takes into account all three factors that contribute to motion clarity: panel refresh rate, image processor speed, and backlight technology.” In other words, a TV with a CMR of 240 could be a 120Hz panel, with an average processor, and a scanning backlight, or a 60Hz panel, a fancy processor, and a scanning backlight. It’s unlikely a TV with a CMR of 240 would be a 240Hz panel, as such an expensive panel would almost certainly come with one or both the other features. Here’s an illustration showing how it gets the numbers.

Samsung links to this article to explain CMR, which is great (there’s this one, too), but it doesn’t list the actual refresh of its TVs in the specs section for TVs (only the Clear Motion Rate is listed).

Sharp AquoMotion
“AquoMotion 960, Sharp’s backlight scanning technology, quadruples the effective refresh rate to hit you with all the power that fast-moving sports and movies can deliver.” Even I can do that math 960/4=purple. No wait, 240. That’s for its 8 series. For the 7 series: “AquoMotion 480, Sharp’s backlight scanning technology, doubles the effective refresh rate…”

The company is also, ahem, refreshingly honest in its tech specs section:

Refresh panel rate: 240Hz
Refresh scanning rate: AquoMotion 960

and

Refresh panel rate: 240Hz
Refresh scanning rate: AquoMotion 480

Sony MotionFlow
Sony gets a bit of an eyeroll for this one: “Motionflow XR 960 helps you see each end-over-end rotation [of the ball] by taking motion clarity beyond refresh rates, which are only measured in Hz, to quadruple the motion effect so you see everything as if you were there.”

Emphasis, mine. However, it does list in the product description “240Hz refresh rate” separate from the MotionFlow rating.

Here are two images pulled from Sony’s Asia site. These TVs are for 50Hz electricity (the U.S. is 60), so the versions of TVs it gets are multiples of 50, whereas ours are multiples of 60. Same concept, though. Here’s MotionFlow 800 (our 960):

And 200 (our 240):

The text is a little hard to read, but the gist of it is MotionFlow is a combination of frame interpolation and backlight scanning.

Toshiba ClearScan and ClearFrame
Toshiba, like some of the other companies here, doesn’t go into detail about its ClearScan and ClearFrame tech. “Toshiba ClearFrame 120Hz doubles normal 60Hz performance to reduce blurring caused by fast-action video. And our ClearScan 240Hz goes a step beyond, quadrupling the 60Hz rate to create a 240Hz effect. They both improve picture clarity dramatically, without impacting brightness or adding flicker. And for those who prefer a more film-like picture, ClearScan 240Hz also offers a 5:5 pull-down option.”

Since the one ClearScan 120Hz TV we’ve reviewed of Toshiba’s this year was most definitely a 60Hz LCD, it’s, ahem, clear the company is taking liberties in what “120Hz” actually means.

Vizio SPS
“SPS (Scenes Per Second) combines advanced 120Hz technology with scanning backlight for enhanced detail.” In other words, a “240Hz SPS” is a 120Hz TV with a scanning backlight. On the Web site, the company says things like “240Hz Effective Refresh Rate,” “120Hz Effective Refresh Rate,” and “Enhanced with smooth motion and backlight scanning for amazing sharpness,” so it’s being fairly upfront about what’s going on…sort of. Here’s what David found out with this year’s E420i-A1: “Vizio actually uses the term ‘120Hz effective refresh rate’ on this and other TVs, including the E601i-A3. But while that set has the smoothing and motion resolution we expect from a 120Hz TV, the E0i-A1 series has neither. That’s why we’re sticking with the ’60Hz’ specification on the table above, despite what Vizio says.” In other words, Vizio has two TVs, both labeled with “120Hz effective refresh rate,” but one is a 60Hz panel with backlight scanning and the other is a true 120Hz panel.

Plasma
Plasma TVs don’t have higher refresh rates in the same sense that LCDs do. Instead, you’ll often see claims of “600Hz” and more. This isn’t directly comparable 120Hz or 240Hz. For more on that, check out “What is 600Hz?”

Watch this: The best TVs you can buy right now

01:58

Bottom line
For the TVs CNET reviews, we’ll list the actual refresh rate. For other TVs (sorry, even we can’t review them all), some manufacturers at least list what the panel refresh actually is.

Just because a TV claims a certain refresh rate, don’t assume it’s actually that refresh. True, the methods typically used to justify inflated refresh rate claims can help motion blur, it isn’t the same as actually increasing the refresh rate.

As a last resort, if you can’t find the info anywhere, if a TV lists a higher-than-60 refresh rate AND has motion smoothing/motion interpolation, chances are it’s a 120Hz panel or higher. If it doesn’t have that extra processing, it’s likely a 60Hz panel, with black frame insertion (if that).

Got a question for Geoff? First, check out all the other articles he’s written on topics like HDMI cables, LED LCD vs. plasma, active vs. passive 3D, and more. Still have a question? Send him an e-mail! He won’t tell you what TV to buy, but he might use your letter in a future article. You can also send him a message on Twitter @TechWriterGeoff or Google+.

Draw a bullfinch on XPPen Star G960S

Pencil, watercolor… What else can a person who is allergic to smells use?

Another great option is a graphics tablet.

A few years ago, I already wrote about the tablet, but then, due to circumstances, I had to temporarily give it to my son. There is nothing more permanent than temporary) In the last two years I have been actively mastering watercolor, so I forgot about the miracle of technology. But watching some artists, I realized that digital paintings are also in demand, and I decided to give myself a graphics tablet for the New Year. And since I buy gifts in advance, I have already become the owner of the XPPen Star G960S and I was eager to try it out without waiting for the holidays. Moreover, this is a great option to draw a New Year’s card).

Now a little about the new toy, and then there will be the traditional part – the stages of work on the drawing.

When choosing a gadget, I set a goal, the simpler the better.

Small and light, but with a large working area (228.8×152.6 mm), which allows you to take it with you.

It is convenient to work both from a desktop computer, laptop, and in conjunction with another mobile device (tablet or smartphone) based on Android. Therefore, it is possible to draw anywhere (and not just at home), for example, in a cafe while you are waiting for someone or while traveling. After all, it is important for the artist not to take long breaks so that the skill is not lost. And if with watercolor you need paper that fixes the surface, paints, brushes, water, then you will need the tablet surface itself, a pen and a device on which the image will be displayed. Yes, a graphics tablet does not show a picture (in this regard, I was once mistaken), unlike a regular tablet.

Includes: drawing tablet, stylus, 10 replacement stylus (pen) nibs, replacement nib clip, cable, USB-USB-C adapter, Micro USB adapter.

The stylus supports tilt up to 60 degrees, which gives a natural tilt of the brush and you can create in the usual way. Another plus is that the pen is battery-free and does not require charging. Pressure sensitivity up to 8192 levels allows you to get a stroke of different thickness, and the lines are natural, as if drawn on paper.

By choosing the thickness of the lines, uniformity and color using the programmed hot keys, it is easy to make a drawing, process an already finished picture or retouch a photo. It is much more convenient to work with a pen than with a computer mouse, the hand completely controls the movement of the lines.

For work, I chose Paint.Net, at that time it seemed the most convenient, so as not to deal with other programs for a long time.

Let’s sketch:

In the next step, we already connect the color:

The bird has feathers, so something is filled with a thick pen, and somewhere thin and short lines are being worked out.

I made the final part in Photoshop, where it was necessary to smooth out the lines, make something brighter or, on the contrary, darker.

I am not yet a professional in graphics programs, but to hone my skills, this model of the XPPen Star G960S tablet seemed to me quite suitable. Although I think that professional artists, designers and photographers will appreciate the portability and functionality of a graphics tablet.

The original article was published on Live Journal: https://kladez-zolota.livejournal.com/2144078.html

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