Televisions

Does it Hertz? Explaining 100Hz technology

Hertz can be defined as “cycles per second” and plays an important role for picture quality in television. Pictures on television are made up of still images or frames presenting and refreshing themselves on screen with each frame slightly different from the previous to give us the impression of movement. In Australia we utilize PAL (Phase Alternating Line) which cycles at 50 frames per second, therefore 50Hz.

 

Now you've probably heard the term “100Hz flicker free”. This is where the image is cycled so fast that it tricks the eye into seeing a much smoother image helping reduce eye strain.

 

So now we know the benefit, how does it work?

We already know that TV in Australia is broadcast at 50Hz. So for it to be delivered at 100Hz it has to double the amount of frames to the screen each time. This can be done in one of two ways. The first is frame doubling, where it replicates each frame twice this is also known as 3:2 pulldown (see Figure A.). The second way is by using a very sophisticated frame creation algorithm that plots the trajectory between two frames then creates and inserts the new frame between these two frames making the motion look smooth, Samsung call this 100Hz Motion Plus™ (see Figure B).

 

With the introduction of technologies like Blu-ray another frame rate has raised its head, this is known as 24fps (24 Frames Per Second). This frame rate gives the impression of film and is purely for aesthetics to deliver film like motion characteristics.

 

Figure A

 

Figure B

 

 

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