Low MPRT strobing LCD TVs (mostly Samsung, some Sony - lots of RTINGS BFI Test image comparisons)

[Clear Motion Seeker]

I thought that A95L bfi was clearer but it doesn't seem that much after all.

That said, yes, a 240hz refresh would be great but il only exists on monitors for now.

[Clear Motion Seeker]

RTINGS early-access review for the Bravia 9 II dropped today (65" model tested) and the BFI pursuit shot is beauuutiful.
CAD tests are pretty good too, they compare well with the best Samsung Mini-LEDs.
I am so bummed that these have a matte coating because otherwise they appear to be pretty awesome.
Actually it appears the 115" model has a glossy finish, but I worry about strobe crosstalk at this size.
Not to mention I would need to reorganize my entire house and get a really nice end of year bonus before I even begin to consider pulling the trigger on that one...

But there's hope, people. Sony's BFI greatness is back, at long last.

Edit: adding the QN90F pursuit shot to represent what Samsung's high-end Mini-LEDs can achieve with BFI + lowered brightness, as we currently have no evidence that Sony TVs can increase motion clarity by doing the same.

According to rtings it's very blurry at 60hz for gaming with classic sample and hold.

I would assume it's related to slow gtg time response, but there's no crosstalk on the BFI test.

[JimProfit]

According to rtings it's very blurry at 60hz for gaming with classic sample and hold.

I would assume it's related to slow gtg time response, but there's no crosstalk on the BFI test.

I re-checked the data in the RTINGS comparison tool.

-So basically, in 60hz game mode, the TV I now consider as reference, the QN95D, has slightly better pixel transitions than the Bravia 9 II.
Itself is better than the Bravia 7 II, itself being better than the R95H.

-Better pixel transition times/response times can only help the final result if the strobing itself is good, however there are LCD TVs out there with substantially better CAD scores than all of the TVs we've discussed in this topic, they don't necessarily have great strobing performances, which again is brand-related.

Out of all the strobeworthy TVs we've discussed, The QN90F has noticeably better CAD test results at 60hz compared to the QN95D so, combined with Samsung's great strobing, it's no wonder its BFI pursuit shot is pretty much the best we've seen (though again in real life, brightness-equalized tests I will always prefer my new QN95D with its glossy finish, higher zone count and overall better picture quality). But the QN90F only scored in the mid-six out of tens on RTINGS, whereas the most responsive LCDs score in the early sevens, and OLED is pretty much always near ten.

On a side note, any OLED trounces any LCD when it comes to pixel transitions and response times, but that hardly makes up for the lack of strobing performance in the final result.
It does explains why I would play some games at max refresh No BFI on OLEDs, in instances where preserving PQ (especially HDR peak brightness) is more important than motion clarity (depends on the type of game, fps count, and how impressive the HDR mode is). Sample and hold on an LCD is just sad and the hypothetical advantage in peak brightness in some of the higher end models wouldn't be enough to entice me.

-Since we don't know for sure to what extent temperature affects which models most and to what extent RTINGS use temperature controlled room consistently with all its tests, it's difficult to assess. Temperature should affect LCD pixel transitions too if I'm not mistaken. So unless RTINGS evolve their testing methodology, I have to pick and choose based on what we do know for sure.


In my view, the conclusions from what we do know are pretty clear:
-The QN90D/QN95 from 2024 w/ LED Motion On and lowered brightness to SDR levels give me what I wanted most, a giant CRT approximation.
Not a perfect approximation, we'll never have that, but very few/very minor flaws, good contrast, good brightness, good motion, extremely versatile too thanks to the many options to slightly offset the downsides of strobing, and the unmatched brightness VS motion arbitration.

-The Bravia 7 II is the current best alternative you can definitely purchase today for the aforementioned purpose. Not my preference but bright and glossy with decent strobing.

-The Bravia 9 II has some extremely impressive performances (ludicrous brightness, color volume, zone count + good strobing), but you'd have to be ok with the matte finish, same story as last year's QN90F.

-Both of these new Sony RGB-MiniLED TVs may be the better compromise for strobed HDR gaming.
What you lose in motion clarity compared to the older Samsung's, you gain a lot of brightness in return.

-The R95H, while not terrible in and of itself, is a letdown, with the Bravia 9 II being preferable in every meaningful way.
Upon re-checking the comparison, I do notice some very good real scene HDR brightness results, even better than the Bravia 9 II which retains an advantage in more hypothetical, small windows tests.
But we may need to reconsider this TV again as another step further in compromising motion clarity for a small HDR brightness advantage.
Would it be fair of me to say that this TV's strobing still yield a better motion clarity than the LG CX/GX w/Motion Pro High? And remains obviously a lot brighter? That gotta count for something.
I'm definitely not sold on the overall package though.

-All the ingredients are there to make an even better LCD TV, but who knows when there will be another that ticks all of my boxes.

[Clear Motion Seeker]

Thank you for your great summary.

I'm possibly considering the QN90F now as the matte coating isn't really an issue in my case, since i'm always in a dim environment for viewing.

I'm just a bit afraid of crosstalk in rapid movements, but it doesn't seem to be that affected.

[troyan]

Do these new Bravia TVs strobe properly at 60hz?

[JimProfit]

Do these new Bravia TVs strobe properly at 60hz?

Since the RTINGS pursuit shot is focused on the middle of the screen, we don't know for sure about strobe crosstalk on the top and bottom of the screen. Not to mention, things may vary depending on panel size, room temperature, individual units even.
Same with ghosting.
While everything here has to be considered with a slight grain of salt, we can infer from the capture shots how good the motion looks at the middle of the screen (where most of the action usually takes place).

RTINGS comment is as follows: "The Sony BRAVIA 9 II has an optional backlight strobing feature, which is commonly called black frame insertion. It flickers at either 60Hz or 120Hz to match the frame rate of the content you're watching, which is great. Unfortunately, the pulse timing is a bit off, causing two secondary images. They're faint and difficult to spot with most real content, though."

I should point out that the comments on the Samsung's were at least as alarmist regarding image duplication, but in the real world its way, way ahead of the GX (240hz equivalent w/Motion Pro High and the advantage of near-instant response times and no crosstalk I can detect).

Here is the pursuit shot again, this time accompanied by the BFI graph. It does appear that on the max setting the screen strobes at 60hz only, with nice well centered bumps. While I would have appreciated pulse width control like on the Samsung's, I would say that Sony made something very decent this time around.

[troyan]

Thx. Looks like that even the Bravia 7 and 9 without II have proper strobing at 60hz. A shame that Sony doesnt produce anything smaller than 50".

[JimProfit]

Thx. Looks like that even the Bravia 7 and 9 without II have proper strobing at 60hz. A shame that Sony doesnt produce anything smaller than 50".

I never considered them back then because they are a lot blurrier than the QN90/QN95 models. The assignment was to find a TV with the least amount of blur possible while still being decent at everything. To me the advantage of the Bravia 9 didn't compensate for the lower strobing performance.

You did well to mention them though, because on second look, they are a bit better than many LCDs including most post-Motionflow Impulse Sony TVs, but I would still rank them below the LG GX OLED, so yeah, no chance in hell I would have bought one.
It did score high on pixel response time at least, showing relatively minor artifacting despite the blur.

I'll add the BFI pursuit shot for reference (someone may find one for cheap and be satisfied with what this does).
So do note this is for the older Bravia 9 from 2024, not the newer Bravia 9 II from 2026, which had a big jump in BFI motion clarity (see my previous post).

[troyan]

Found a polish website showing pictures of motion performance of TVs even with "BFI" - for example the new QN80H from Samsung: https://www.choose.tv/de/fernseher/test ... -qn80h_AIW

There are a lot more reviews.

I got my hand on a Samsung QN90B and this TV works so much better with BFI than my previous QN90D. The black smearing is so much better. And i can say the QN90B is better than my Sony W905A - much brighter and even HDR is a variable option.

[JimProfit]

Found a polish website showing pictures of motion performance of TVs even with "BFI" - for example the new QN80H from Samsung: https://www.choose.tv/de/fernseher/test ... -qn80h_AIW

There are a lot more reviews.

I got my hand on a Samsung QN90B and this TV works so much better with BFI than my previous QN90D. The black smearing is so much better. And i can say the QN90B is better than my Sony W905A - much brighter and even HDR is a variable option.

Good find! That's one more way to assess strobing modes, one that's not behind a paywall.
I didn't really consider the newer QN80H, the RTINGS capture is good but doesn't stand out compared to other Samsung QN models we've discussed here. Not to mention they are dimmer than the QN90D and QN95D, so any differences in the base strobing mode can be compensated by lowering brightness a little bit more.
A good option if you want something glossy, with obviously good motion clarity, but less so if brightness matters a lot to you.

I still think you were a victim of the panel lottery on your QN90D or that is a size-specific issue, but regardless I am glad you now have a superior alternative to what you had.

EDIT: I just noticed that the website you linked to used the exact same pictures for its BFI tests on both the QN90D and QN95D. Probably an error rather than something intentionally deceiving, but that's one obvious inconsistency I was able to spot pretty quickly. So I will still go by the more detailed RTINGS pursuit shots in the future, though I'm glad to have a free "second opinion" of sorts.
In any case I wouldn't honestly say that this QN90D or QN95D shot looks worse than the one they did for the QN90F and QN80H, it's just that afterimage are more visible because the brightness is higher. Also it might be due to ambient temperature at the time of the test.

RTINGS pursuit shot of the QN80H for post-erity.