120Hz monitor and screen tearing/judder

[CmdrJeffSinclair]

Hey everyone,

I own a 120Hz TV (fake, of course, uses post-processes) and it's amazing but honestly whether I set it to Game mode or not I see the judder on games and on TV/movies. I know why already, the TV always refreshes the 60Hz signal to 120Hz regardless of settings, and game mode only helps a lot (but it's so far from perfect).

So, what about monitors? I heard that they are true, genuine, amazing 120Hz through and through, which means they will never judder or tear or stutter like TV's do? I must know!

Does anyone have a monitor at 120Hz and see ANY judder, stuttering or anything? I mean AT ALL. I will see it and hate it.

For instance, and you guys can test this too-- if your monitor is at 120Hz and you watch a movie on your computer but don't bother setting the Hz to match the content (ie- Blu ray movie set the GPU Hz to 24) does the screen judder around at all?

With TV's it's so damn confusing. The panel IS 120Hz but it's always taking on a 60Hz signal, even from games, so honestly it's maddening.

I am hoping that a monitor is different since the real signal from PC to monitor is genuinely 120Hz so no matter what judder SHOULD be impossible.

One last thing. If I were to play a blu ray but leave the GPU at 60Hz (standard) despite having a 120Hz display, would the movie then have judder (camera panning is infamous for juddering).

I need to know before I buy a 120Hz monitor. I'm spoiled and my eyes see judder so amazingly easy and it's horrible. It's the ugliest most distracting thing ever.

I really want true confirmation from people who have a test their own 120Hz monitor because my TV is great and all, but for games is so obnoxiously awful I would rather set it on fire.

I really hope I get a perfect, solid, factual "hey I just did what you asked" type of answer.

I'm days away from pulling the trigger on a $3500 PC and my HDTV will probably not be a good monitor because it cannot accept a real 120Hz signal (which means 60 FPS gaming with judder)

P.S.: I have the LG 42520-UA. It is one of the only TV's with a real 120Hz panel, but sadly that makes no difference since it cannot accept a real 120Hz signal, nor can I completely disable the 120Hz processing. Game mode only helps (a lot, but I'm OCD)

 

[manofchalk]

With a 120hz monitor you can truly display 120hz content, as every link in that chain supports it.
The symptoms you describe are still possible though. Tearing is a problem from when you have a dissimilar FPS and refresh rate (look up G-Sync), stutter is a generic symptom of a lot of potential problems.

Movies are near always 24 or 29.97FPS, with the notable exception of The Hobbit which played at 60. Your screen refresh rate doesnt matter when it comes to movies because of this.
However movies deal with the lower FPS a lot more gracefully than video games because of motion blur. Cameras inherently are subject to it and it smooths the transition between frames, where with a game the only way to achieve that smoothness is to just have more frames (motion blur effects arent any good either since they require you to be a frame or two behind whats happening (to layer the oncoming frame/s over the current) or have to be predictive in nature).

 

[CmdrJeffSinclair]

With a 120hz monitor you can truly display 120hz content, as every link in that chain supports it.
The symptoms you describe are still possible though. Tearing is a problem from when you have a dissimilar FPS and refresh rate (look up G-Sync), stutter is a generic symptom of a lot of potential problems.

Movies are near always 24 or 29.97FPS, with the notable exception of The Hobbit which played at 60. Your screen refresh rate doesnt matter when it comes to movies because of this.
However movies deal with the lower FPS a lot more gracefully than video games because of motion blur. Cameras inherently are subject to it and it smooths the transition between frames, where with a game the only way to achieve that smoothness is to just have more frames (motion blur effects arent any good either since they require you to be a frame or two behind whats happening (to layer the oncoming frame/s over the current) or have to be predictive in nature).

So it sounds like using my HDTV or a monitor will provide little difference. Perhaps I should just jailbreak my TV so it can accept a 120Hz PC signal? Know how to do that? I mean, my TV is really excellent so it'd be worth the efforts if it's possible. LG 42" 520 UA, thanks

 

[manofchalk]

It could also be a case where the TV is just a TV, and not suited for gaming. TV's have a passive viewer in mind, not an active participant. TV's are known to have horrible input lag when compared to monitors for this reason, a 30ms response time wont be noticed when you flip channels, it certainly will be when your playing a twitch FPS.

Jailbreaking TV's, never heard of it. Unless its a "smart" TV I dont think there is exactly much to jailbreak.