help me understand hz

[MWB]

my sister bought a 40 inch samsung to game on. i guess some folks told her she had to have 120 hz to play games on, so she ponied up for one that did. she says her 360 is only kicking out 60 hz and since she dropped the cash, she wants it at 120. she says it's running 60 hz twice? i dunno. i have no idea about all that. can one of you give me a dummy explanation of what it is?

[eminutia]

Hertz is a unit of measurement relating to the number of cycles per second. 60 Hz = 60 cycles per second. Apart from that I don't know how to apply it to TV's. Maybe its the display rate. I'm not really sure.

[Dateranoth]

Unless she bought a newer tv that is advertised as 3D capable then she got scammed. Almost all the 120hz and 240hz tvs out now are not truly capable of displaying that refresh rate. They can only accept the 60hz or less from the source and then they 'filter' that to smooth it out using a cheap hardware filter. Aside from not being true refresh rates the process will create lag in games. It is actually recommended to go into the tv options and turn off the 120hz feature while gaming.

I would personally recommend turning the feature off completely. Most of the time it tends to make movies look like cheap soap operas. Hard to explain but you can tell when you watch it. If she can she should just take it back and get a 60hz ( provided the 60hz is cheaper ) . No need if it's not going to save any money since the 120hz feature can be turned off.

Edit*

A little further research and I found that most 3D tvs still don't support native 120hz. So, most likely she got the ole sales pitch.

[Nomadik Kitty]

I have a 120hz TV. I know that the higher the hz the better the picture, assuming the output source can take advantage of it, but I'm not sure if the xbox is capable of utilizing 120 hz. Quite frankly, I'm thinking the salesman was just trying to pad his sale. You definitely don't "need" a 120hz TV to play games. If you did, you wouldn't have been able to play games until a little over a year ago.

[MWB]

Unless she bought a newer tv that is advertised as 3D capable then she got scammed. Almost all the 120hz and 240hz tvs out now are not truly capable of displaying that refresh rate. They can only accept the 60hz or less from the source and then they 'filter' that to smooth it out using a cheap hardware filter. Aside from not being true refresh rates the process will create lag in games. It is actually recommended to go into the tv options and turn off the 120hz feature while gaming.

I would personally recommend turning the feature off completely. Most of the time it tends to make movies look like cheap soap operas. Hard to explain but you can tell when you watch it. If she can she should just take it back and get a 60hz ( provided the 60hz is cheaper ) . No need if it's not going to save any money since the 120hz feature can be turned off.

Edit*

A little further research and I found that most 3D tvs still don't support native 120hz. So, most likely she got the ole sales pitch.

exactly what i needed. thanks.