CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[mdrejhon]

Although LCD can never be better than a CRT for the blacks and a lot of aspects, there are now new strobe-backlight-driven LCD computer monitor that has finally eliminated LCD motion blur.

If you mainly use a computer monitor to play video games a lot (and your eyes were used to a CRT before, and still dislike LCD motion blur), and is unable to get a Sony FW900 CRT anymore these days -- there's finally an LCD that can take the place of the venerable Sony FW900 (as long as you can sacrifice black levels / color quality). This is because there is now a way to shatter the LCD pixel persistence barrier on additional models of computer monitors! These are new superior strobe backlight technology -- leading to a completely blurless/ghostless measured MPRT of 1.4ms (similiar to CRT phosphor decay), and 12x clearer motion than 60 Hz LCD's, and 6x clearer motion than normal 120Hz LCD!

There's a recent discovered tweak/adjustment for a feature originally designed for 3D on several models of monitors that has an impressive side effect (to gamers used to CRT) of completely eliminating perceptible motion blur for 2D (no glasses):

LightBoost HOWTO - If you own a newer-model ASUS or BENQ 120 Hz Monitor
Samsung HOWTO - If you own a newer-model Samsung 120 Hz Monitor
Media Coverage - Coverage by magazines, bloggers
High Speed Video - Pixel persistence successfully bypassed by strobe backlight

The backlight is turned off while waiting for pixel transitions (unseen by human eyes), and the complete backlight is strobed only on fully-refreshed LCD frames (seen by human eyes). The strobes can be shorter than pixel transitions, breaking the pixel persistence barrier!

Although these backlights are normally used to brighten 3D images, they have a side effect of eliminating motion blur. True native 120 Hz and no motion interpolation is done. As a result, many video gamers have started forcing LightBoost in 2D mode (even without the 3D glasses) to get the zero motion blur benefit. These superior modern strobe backlights such as LightBoost have recently been discovered by many users to successfully eliminate motion blur on LCD displays without flicker (unlike old BENQ AMA-Z 2006, primitive scanning backlights, etc). Most eyes can't see 120Hz flicker, and (at least within games, not desktop) it is potentially more pleasing than PWM because of lack of motion blur (there are people who gets headaches with PWM but not with CRT). (As a rule of thumb, if CRT flicker at 120 Hz does not bother you, then LightBoost will be fine for gaming, or you can just turn off LightBoost). Normally LightBoost was for 3D, but it's also useful for 2D too. Several 120 Hz monitors now have a strobe backlight feature that can be enabled, to allow CRT-quality motion on LCD. Eliminating even more motion blur on 120 Hz LCD monitors, give a better competitive advantage in online FPS gaming!

[mdrejhon]

Several articles just appeared over the last few weeks -- and a few reviewers (e.g. pcmonitors.info) are now including testing of LightBoost in their next monitor reviews.

TechNGaming Review Article
Link: Eliminate Motion Blur While Gaming With nVidia LightBoost!

PC Games Hardware (German gaming magazine)
Link: Nvidia Lightboost Strobe Hack

PCMonitors.info (mentions the LightBoost effect)
Link: Asus VG248QE Monitor Review

Team Exile 5 (Professional sponsored competition gamers!)
Link: nVidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti and nVidia LightBoost Technology

Reviewers such as prad.de and others needs to begin coverage of these amazing modern strobe backlights, beginning with their next testing article! Some professional gamers (e.g. Team Exile 5) are endorsing it now. The lack of motion blur provides a reaction time advantage, because you can see everything clearly during fast motion, allowing you to react to enemies faster in online fast-action FPS games. Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, Counter Strike, Quake Live, etc.

Example of fast game play styles that benefit from zero motion blur:
-- Fast 180-degree flick turns in FPS shooting. (e.g. Quake Live)
-- Shooting while turning, without stopping turning (easier on CRT or LightBoost)
-- Close-up strafing, especially circle strafing, you aim better.
-- Running while looking at the ground (e.g. hunting for tiny objects quickly).
-- Identifying multiple far-away enemies or small targets, while turning fast
-- Playing fast characters such as "Scout" in Team Fortress 2
-- High-speed low passes, such as low helicoptor flybys in Battlefield 3, you aim better.

For a long time, some gamers have noticed that CRT 60fps@60Hz still has less motion blur than LCD 120fps@120Hz. Not anymore: The CRT-quality perfect motion now available on LightBoost LCD displays, is a huge benefit for those gamers who have played on a CRT for a long time, and have never found a "good enough LCD" without motion blur. There are testimonials:

[mdrejhon]

There is a popular computer motion test called PixPerAn, which has been used for testing these monitors. One very interesting behaviour of LightBoost monitors (especially the new 1ms panels) is the complete lack of double-image effect in PixPerAn motion tests. And a PixPerAn readability score of 30 on these LCD's!
No blur, no trailing, no ghosting, no coronas.

I should note the 1ms models actually work better with the strobe backlights (due to the technical need to squeeze pixel persistence inside a vertical blanking interval). With my BENQ XL2411T (1ms), setting a camera to 1/120sec exposure, taking 100 repeated photographs of PixPerAn, result in exactly the same image. It does not deviate (not possible to capture anything worse than this image). There's no noticeable blending between frames at all. There is a very faint afterimage effect that is almost impossible to see from a normal viewing distance; all ghosting/blur/coronas/trailing completely disappear when LigthBoost is enabled.


(Credit: HardForum post by OC_Burner)

This is a photograph LCD motion image. The graphics above is moving half a screen per second. No blur, no ghosting, no motion artifacts!
The PixPerAn "I NEED MORE SOCKS" is perfectly readable even at Tempo 8, and higher, during 120 Hz; I can even count the number of pixels; like I can on a CRT -- even though the car is moving fast at half a screen width per second. If I lower the LightBoost OSD setting to 10% (not "OFF"), the strobe length gets shorter and even higher tempos are very clear.

I am able to read a PixPerAn readability test of 30 !!!
That's CRT league score. No other LCD can pull this off.

Competition gamer Team Exile 5 also confirms PixPerAn reability 30 this in their blog video.

One warning though, you need fps=Hz, and LightBoost does not work at 60Hz. So you do need 120fps@120Hz, so you need a very powerful GPU, or you don't get the full benefits of LightBoost during video games. Source engine games benefit more easily than Crysis, for example. And yes, it's TN color quality, not as good as IPS color quality.

But again, we're talking about computer video game enthusiasts -- that need the best possible flat panel motion clarity here -- with the "CRT smooth as glasses" effect! And for users who need that! (And competition gaming CRT die-hards who is most concerned about motion blur, and old worn FW900 CRT colors have degraded anyway that the LCD's are a suitable and easier/cheaper replacement)