WHFS&V? - may I respectfully suggest ..?

[6th.replicant]

WHFS&V? - may I respectfully suggest that when you test LCD TVs, you use the chase scenes from the BD of Bourne 3 as a yardstick for motion-blur?

Encouraged by WHFS&V?'s recent 5-star review, I recently demo'd & bought a Philips 47PFL7404, which, IMHO, has a stunning picture overall, apart from one fundamental flaw: the 47PFL7404 seems to have a real problem with motion-blur during tracking shots of fast-moving objects, to the extent that the image appears 'watery'.

The motion flaw is especially obvious during the various chase scenes in Bourne 3 - which I assume accentuates motion-blur due to the film's use of 'twitchy' hand-held camera that constantly tracks the action? - hence the suggestion that the Bourne 3 BD should be a demo disc. The 47PFL7404's motion-blur is also prevalent, albeit less acute, in conventionally filmed footage, such as Planet Earth's predator vs prey chases.

Plasma vs LCD issues accepted, I never noticed any such motion blur when watching Bourne 3 on my 'old school' (non-1080p/24fps) Pana 42PX70.

Ta.

 

[Anonymous]

I always find fast moving text on a screen a good way of testing a screens motion handling (horizontal or vertical). Some TV programmes whizz through the credits that fast that you cannot read them. As pointless as that is it is a good indicator to how a TV will handle motion blur

 

[robjcooper]

6thR, Just a quick question - what do you mean by lack of 'true 4:3 ratio' ?

Rob

 

[6th.replicant]

Daveee:I always find fast moving text on a screen a good way of testing a screens motion handling (horizontal or vertical). Some TV programmes whizz through the credits that fast that you cannot read them. As pointless as that is it is a good indicator to how a TV will handle motion blur

IME, the 47PFL7404 has no motion-blur problems when the camera is static/locked & objects pass through the frame, therefore, fast-moving credits are not an issue.

However, if the camera is panning or zooming in/out to follow a fast-moving object, then it all goes very, very blurry - it's similar to watching poor CGI.

So, not anticipating a great picture when watching F1...

 

[6th.replicant]

robjcooper:
6thR, Just a quick question - what do you mean by lack of 'true 4:3 ratio' ?

Rob

For pre-widescreen/16:9 era films & TV shows, the screen should, ideally, have vertical black/grey bars either side of the frame & not trim its top & bottom.

The 47PFL7404 doesn't have a 4:3 option, its only 'Screen Format' options are 'Auto format', 'Super zoom', 'Movie expand 16:9' & 'Wide screen'.

[EDIT] Umm - cue red-face - have now discovered a sub-menu in the TV's picture setup, 'Auto format mode', & have changed default 'Auto fill' to 'Auto zoom' & that's cured the 4:3 problem. D'oh!

 

[robjcooper]

Hi 6th,

I understand about aspect ratios, having been an online editor for 25 years, as obviously do you and what I really should have asked you was what options and settings were on your TV! Sorry about that !

Where are you sourcing the 4:3 stuff you are watching? I have virgin V+ cable and have set that to output 1080i, my TV (not a Phillips) is set to exactly pixel map HD input and any 4:3 material appears correctly displayed i.e pillar boxed - black bars left and right - automatically. I've not tried playing any 4:3 DVDs from my sony BluRay, but I'll give it a go later on and see how that appears - will dig out my BlackAdder box set. Doesn't the 'auto format' give you a 4:3 pillar box?

The format settings on your TV should only really be relevant for any SD inputs you are using as HD is a native 16:9 format like your screen. What this also means is that any material remastered to blu ray from 4:3 originals should be natively pillar boxed, so if you are watching in HD you shouldn't have to change anything on the aspect ratio on your TV as the image has been recorded correctly (just as you don't for 2.35:1 movies recorded with letterbox bars top and bottom). This sort of explains why philips haven't bothered with a 4:3 setting. The only proviso to this is if some plank has decided to make a 16:9 pan and scan version of a 4:3 original thus losing the top and bottom of the image, just as your 'Movie expand 16:9' option does !

Rob

 

[6th.replicant]

Umm - cue red-face - have now discovered a sub-menu in the TV's picture setup, 'Auto format mode', & have changed default 'Auto fill' to 'Auto zoom' & that's cured the 4:3 problem. D'oh!

However, the problems with motion-blur remain.