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White coat Guru here,
with your spurious science
report. ‘The human eye
can only discern around 60 frames
per second’ whine the naysayers,
forgetting that the eye and brain
are, in fact, in squishy organic
harmony rather than quartz-
clock activated machines. Yes,
persistence of vision is a thing. We
notice the jump from 25 to 30 to
50, and then again to 60Hz: while
144Hz content may not make such
a marked difference, that’s not
really the reason that higher refresh
rates are a thing.
It’s all about the persistence of
the in betweens. A 144Hz screencan update its picture (in theory)
144 times per second; a 60Hz
display can only manage 60. If
the transition between those 60
updates is a little mucky, it’ll affect
the image’s crispness. A screen
updating at 144Hz, even if it’s fed
a source running at a lower rate,
offers each frame more breathing
room, and presents a clearer picture.That said, 144Hz (which isn’t
really hitting TVs so much as Big
Format Gaming Displays) isn’t
super well suited to general media
consumption, and barring a
moment of insanity from those
behind the camera it’s likely to stay
that way. GaGu would recommend
running at a refresh rate that’s a
multiple of the source (generally
30 or 60fps), so sticking to 120Hz
displays for now. This sidesteps the
screen’s need to pull frames down,
thus increasing smoothness further- note, though, that films generally
run at 24fps, which multiplies into
144 very nicely, so there may be a
case for 144Hz displays yet.
Will I ever need a 144Hz TV? What difference does it make?
CHRIS TROTT, LOWESTOFT
A screen updating at 144Hz,
even if it’s fed a source running
at a lower rate, offers each frame
more breathing room
30 T3 DECEMBER 2019Horizon
T3’s tech master answers queries
faster than the eye can perceive
ABOVE
‘If you can see,
the numbers
all go to 144.
Right across
the board...’