How to Pick a Great Flat Screen TV, And Not Get Sucked In By Marketing Hype, Part 2: Refresh rates

Our HDTV Buyer's Guide in the July 09 issue of PC Authority has expert tips, tricks and secrets to buying an HDTV on a budget, including the following advice about refresh rates:

One of the key factors when it comes to picture quality is the panel's refresh rate, which is measured in Hertz. Refresh rate refers to how often the picture on the screen changes, but it's not necessarily the same as frame rate, as the refresh rate can include displaying the same frame several times.

Television refresh rates initially corresponded with the frequency mains power (50Hz in Australia, 60Hz in the US). Doubling the refresh rate significantly smooths out the action, reducing stuttering and jagged lines during faster moving scenes. This 100Hz technology is trickling down to sub-$2000 1080p televisions from the likes of LG, Kogan and Samsung.

If you're a sports lover but looking to buy LCD, 100Hz technology is certainly worth paying extra for. Vendors such as Sony and LG have upped the ante with the 200Hz LCDs, but these are more expensive and the improvement on 100Hz isn't as striking as the improvement from 50Hz to 100Hz.

Every manufacturer has its own name for boosting the refresh rate, for example Sony calls it Motion Flow while Samsung calls it Motion Plus. Don't be confused with the 'Sub-field drive' Hertz rate quoted by some manufacturers, such as 600Hz from LG and 550Hz from Panasonic. This isn't the same as the refresh rate for the entire panel.

Also in this series:
How to Pick a Great Flat Screen TV, And Not Get Sucked In By Marketing Hype, Part 1: Brightness and contrast ratios

Also see our 5 tips for buying a digital TV set top box

And also see the lowdown on Freeview, and whether you should care

If you're new to Digital TV, or have yet to make the leap, start by reading Prepare yourself for Digital TV