Although there were lots of HDTVs to see at CES, I did not spend much time visiting with the manufacturers. However, on the Sunday before the start of the show, I stopped by the LG.Philips suite and watched a demo of some of the new features they were touting for their line of LCD HDTVs. Here’s a summary:

Double Frame Rate Technology—120-Hz

The new 120-Hz panels use a variety of technologies to dramatically increase the rate at which the liquid crystals can change. This, in turn, allows TV makers to drop flicker workarounds. Instead of inserting a black or grey frame between the actual video frames, TVs with 120-Hz panels instantly analyze the frame on screen and the one that follows it, and insert an interpolated image that fills in the blank. When watching a football game, for instance, viewers can see the football move clearly across the screen.

            According to the company, the primary advantage an LG.Philips LCD holds over its competitors is the way it aligns the liquid crystals on the TFT. Their technology is known as In-Plane Switching or IPS. The technology has evolved over the years and the current standard is now Enhanced Super IPS. Not only does this technology greatly reduce changes in color, gamma and contrast at wide viewing angles, compared to the Vertical Alignment method used by competitors, it also allows the liquid crystals to change their state more quickly. Faster liquid crystals mean faster response times and better 120-Hz performance.

LG.Philips LCD panels also have a number of other advantages that aid their high-speed performance. The new panels actually have fewer individual components than their predecessors, allowing current to travel through them more quickly, which helps to speed up response time. It also means that the panels generate less heat—a major obstacle that had to be overcome to make 120-Hz panels a reality.

A technological breakthrough that helped LG.Philips make a 100-inch LCD panel is also at the heart of these new 120-Hz panels. Copper-based interconnect technology has greatly boosted signal transmission speed. This means that signals reach all parts of the panel at the same time on 40-, 50- and 60-inch TVs, further reducing motion blur.

Other Advantages of 120 Hertz

On larger LCD TVs, motion blur is far more noticeable than on smaller ones. This is simply because the larger screen area makes motion trails larger and easier for the eyes to perceive. The company’s Double Frame Rate technology helps to reduce or eliminate long trails so that viewers see clear images, not streaks of color. Motion is as smooth as if it were being seen in person.

The advantages of 120-Hz technology are not limited to TV broadcasts of sporting events; movie watching is also greatly enhanced. Movies are filmed at 24 frames per second. Showing movies on a 60-Hz TV requires a complex process called 3:2 Pulldown. If you think of hertz and frames as being equivalent, each represents one individual image. Because 60 cannot be divided evenly by 24, some film frames must be shown more and some must be shown less in order to make the film’s speed match what TVs are capable of showing. The workaround is to show odd frames three times and even frames twice. This unevenness can result in significant jitter during fast moving action scenes.

Double Frame Rate 120-Hz technology offers a solution. Rather than showing 60 individual images in a second, TVs with this technology show 120, a number that divides evenly by 24. This means that each of the 24 frames can be shown five times, making for smooth action scenes, comparable to an in-theater experience.

Enhanced Super IPS Technology

During the demo, the LG.Philips spokesperson pointed out several other advantages of the company’s In Plane Switching technology, which was compared in each case to VA (Vertical Alignment) technology. The demo was quite a convincing one.

            Improved Wide Viewing Angle Performance: Super IPS provides less color variation from any viewing angle by maintaining higher color accuracy, lower gamma distortion and higher contrast ratio uniformity.

Improved Touch Screen Performance: IPS mode has no touch “mura” with constant and reliable liquid crystal structures. The illustration explains this better that I can. CLICK HERE. On the left side of the picture is an LCD with VA technology, while the LCD with IPS technology is on the right.

Greening of the LCD

To keep power consumption to a minimum, LG.Philips uses a technique called “adaptive backlight dimming control.” Essentially this is an algorithm that lowers power without sacrificing luminance and picture quality and is applicable to all backlight types: CCFL, EEFL and LCD. The spokesperson explained that the company uses half the number of driver ICs in their new panels and that EEFLs (External Electrode Fluorescent Lamps) use 5-10% less power than CCFLs (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps). And with optimal backlight dimming, the panels can use up to 30% less power.

LCDs Slim Down

Finally, the spokesperson showed the latest in slim LCD panels. A 47” slim and narrow panel due to be released in the Q2 is only 19.8 mm thick. This is primarily due to the use of LEDs as backlights, which also helps to achieve a 20,000 to 1 contrast ratio.