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Bought a New TV - Ripoff?

Mr Light

Mr Light

Admiral
Admiral
I had a 48 inch 1080p 60hz Vizio tv that I was pretty happy with. I bought it for only $350 two years ago on a crazy clearance deal.

But after watching the Hobbit blu ray at a friend's house with a better tv I resolved to upgrade...

I just got a 50 inch 1080p 120hz (180hz "clear action) Vizio tv...

...and it looks exactly the same.

It's supposed to have a tripled refresh rate but I don't see any difference whatsoever. I just bought a nice new blu ray player and nice new HDMI cables before this.

I'm thinking about returning it. Why doesn't it look any different?
 
Well, I put in a newer blu ray, The Hobbit, and while it looks better, there is still a little motion blur when the camera moves. It's better but not twice or thrice as good that I would expect it to be from the numbers...

And I tried my high-def cable tv and it looks the same...
 
I think you fell victim to marketing numbers.

Just because some number doubled and is printed in huge letters on the packaging and ads doesn't automatically mean that it will be twice as good.

With resolution that works up to a certain point but it usually ends with 1080p (Full HD) where the human eye is incapable of distinguishing from an even higher resolution (i haven't yet seen a 4K TV with appropriate media so maybe there will be something better in the future).

Where good quality comes from is the quality of the display itself, i.e. how fast does it display the signal, how good does it do with colors (there are huge differences) and ton of other factors (also many people just have the wrong color settings or don't even change the preset factory settings).

It's an age old principle but you get what you pay for.. a 500$ TV will most likely not be able to a compete with a 1000$ TV and that one will be blown out of the water by high end TVs in the 3000$+ range.

When i buy such high priced electronic i make it a habit to find a good, specialized message board or review site that also has independent reviews from people who actually own the models i look for to see how it does in everyday use. You can still buy a dud but the chances to get something decent increases tenfold.
 
I've had the Vizio for a couple years and I've been happy with it so I trusted the brand... now I'm wondering do I want to go through the hassle of returning it...

My friend is gonna buy my old TV off me for $175 so I would be making a bit of it back...
 
Starbreaker said:
The 60hz vs 120hz debate is mostly for sports, and probably indistinguishable to a lot of people.
Click to expand...

Even then it's all interpolated isn't it? My PC monitor can do true 120hz because my GPU can support it but I believe Blu-Ray can only do 60hz natively and the 120hz comes from the TV artificially adding frames. So you are at the mercy of the processing algorithms for how effective that might be. I know some people find the effect off-putting as it can look odd or "soap opera" like.

When you saw The Hobbit at your friend's house did you resolve to get a new TV because you liked how it looked or because you didn't? If it was because you thought it looked good maybe you can try to get the same model of TV that he is using?
 
As FPAlpha says there is a lot more to look at than just the hertz rate. I.e Contrast rate, colours etc...

If things look so good on your friends TV, is their TV a different brand to yours?
 
yeah I'm not sure what kind of TV it was, but his tv was several years older and it basically looked identical to the HFR in the movie theater.
 
I have a TV that boasts 120Hz, but in reality it's just interpolation of a 60Hz signal. I don't mind that, though I'm sure most people don't understand what it means or how it works and just think "bigger number means better viewing." Mr Light, it sounds like your new TV isn't bringing anything new to the table and it's in the same price range so it makes sense you don't notice anything new. In terms of cables, when dealing with digital cables it doesn't matter what kind of cable you're using--the signal either gets through or it doesn't. If you're losing signal, all you'll see is choppy garbage so it'll be incredibly obvious and indicates a defective cable.
 
Blurays provide 24 frames per second.

How exactly anybody would think that a higher Hz rate helps with playing Blurays completely confuses me.

Most people even hated the soap opera effect that the 48 fps version of the Hobbit produced in the theater. Higher frame rates are good for sports but totally useless for movies.
 
It's also worth noting that, even if a 4K 48fps 3D video file of the Hobbit films was available, there is currently no TV on the market that could play it properly.

Buying a TV for that is like buying a 2.1 stereo system in order to experience a film's 7.1 Dolby surround sound.
 
I'm wonder if something like The Rainbow Channel exists?

Documentarians capturing rainbows across the world with higher and higher resolution cameras.

The media (in large) does not currently exist to enjoy how wonderful you tv is.

Wait for 5 years for whatever the hell comes after Bluray to touch the sides of your TV.

(It's a drinking term for in a pub. If you drink a beer too quickly, someone might say "that didn't even touch the sides (of your throat. So it's like "nothing but net" but for your mouth.)".)

In the early 60s people kept buying colour TVs even though more than 50 percent of TV was still black and white.

It's just another sock gap.
 
For the OOP, you only increased the size of your TV by 2-inches? I would've gone for an even larger size.

But on my Philips LCD 40-inch that I bought about 4 years ago, I've found that the 120hz does give stuff shot on film or at 24p a more video-quality look (even with old SD stuff that was shot on film but only exists on videtape).
 
{ Emma Snow } said:
Blurays provide 24 frames per second.

How exactly anybody would think that a higher Hz rate helps with playing Blurays completely confuses me.

Most people even hated the soap opera effect that the 48 fps version of the Hobbit produced in the theater. Higher frame rates are good for sports but totally useless for movies.
Click to expand...
My limited understanding is that traditional NTSC was 60Hz because 30 fps was the standard for TV. Showing a 24 fps movie at 60Hz requires a bit of manipulation (called 3:2 pulldown.) However, since 120Hz is the smallest common denominator of 24 and 30, the manipulation required is comparatively nonexistent.
The fact that 120Hz is double the refresh rate of 60Hz really doesn't factor into it.
 
I wasn't concerned with screen size but refresh rate. I wanted that Hobbit HFR high again ;) And I didn't want to spend more than $500 on a tv...

I'm watching Guardians of the Galaxy now as the final test :p

Well, Guardians did look a little better than before. It's odd, there were some shots that were noticeably sharper, like the opening shots on Xandar Prime with better movement, then other times it looked the same quality.

I guess I'm going to let laziness win out and keep the TV. My friend is buying the old one for $175 so I'm not spending too much.
 
Last edited:
You might be able to just find the setting to turn off the frame smoothing. It's called different things on different TVs. My Vizio calls it Smooth Motion Effect
 
Did you set your Blu-Ray play to 1080p/24hz mode? Thats where you will likely see a diff while watching movies. As far as normal tv goes. Cable/Sat/Antenna, nothing is even shown in 1080p. It's all 702p or 1080i. I will however say a 4k tv showing 4k content looks stunning.
 
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