Blur Busters Forums

I have the same TV and when I set my PC to output 120hz (does not work at 144hz) and the TV is in game mode with VRR off, it does strobe at 120hz by default. No need to enable any of the motion settings, in fact these should all be set to off when in this mode.
The TV brightness then controls the pulse width, same as with 60hz and strobing explicitly enabled.
I have verified this with test UFO.

120hz with TV brightness at 15 looks very close to 1-2ms MPRT.

I have successfully gotten this strobing "feature" to work with xbox and ps5 120hz mode as well, here its also important to disable VRR for it to work.

This TV strobes at 120hz in filmmaker mode too (maybe to emulate a plasma TV like motion handling?) If you have a phone or camera with slowmo capture you can actually see the strobing in these modes to hard verify its working.

Update log 3647:

I have just made a very, very interesting discovery about my QN90D.

Sadly no progress on the 120hz BFI situation, but at 60hz, oh boy, what a treat...

So I initially tested the 60hz mode in HDR full brightness, in order to see how it looked, if it seemed to approach the HDR400 pseudo-standard.
Under those circumstances I estimated the motion clarity to be around ~2.5ms MPRT.
However, I have just noticed that lowering the regular brightness setting, directly affects the pulse width of the backlight strobing.
Meaning that, the closer I get to zero, the closer I am to 1ms or even sub-1ms.
The difference is clear.

So, at full brightness I already get noticeably more motion clarity than the GX with 60hz Motion Pro High, and much brighter than that obviously, but I was still a bit irked because it was not a night and day difference, adding on top of that the slight ghosting/trailing on moving objects on bright backgrounds.
But if I bring down the brightness to regular SDR 100 level, I absolutely do get a great approximation of a giant CRT.

Which leads me to believe that the clearer, dimmer RTINGS BFI test pictures seen on the QN95D and other Samsung LCDs, might just be the result of different brightness settings at the moment of the test.
I'm still happy I've picked the QN90D over other Samsung LCDs, because it is among the very best anyway, and perhaps the last without the god-awful matte finish, and the QN95D never had 120hz BFI to begin with, so I'm clinging to the hope that this feature will one day be restored on the QN90D.
I hate to still endorse a product that has been nerfed by a brand that has little regard for consumers, but it is one major breakthrough I can't ignore.

So, with this TV I get the following possibilities depending on use case:
-HDR 2000 (600+ nits fullscreen) up to 144hz/fps
-HDR 400 nits at 60hz w/BFI at around ~2.5ms MPRT
-SDR 100 nits at 60hz w/BFI at around ~1ms MPRT
(or close enough)
All on one singular display.

I sincerely hope the 120hz BFI situation is resolved but I am still excited at the possibilities this TV offers.
Despite the compromises and disappointments, I have attained my initial goal of low-MPRT big screen TV.

stolen wrote: ↑

26 Jun 2025, 05:14

I have the same TV and when I set my PC to output 120hz (does not work at 144hz) and the TV is in game mode with VRR off, it does strobe at 120hz by default. No need to enable any of the motion settings, in fact these should all be set to off when in this mode.
The TV brightness then controls the pulse width, same as with 60hz and strobing explicitly enabled.
I have verified this with test UFO.

120hz with TV brightness at 15 looks very close to 1-2ms MPRT.

I have successfully gotten this strobing "feature" to work with xbox and ps5 120hz mode as well, here its also important to disable VRR for it to work.

This TV strobes at 120hz in filmmaker mode too (maybe to emulate a plasma TV like motion handling?) If you have a phone or camera with slowmo capture you can actually see the strobing in these modes to hard verify its working.

My god, thanks man, you are correct.
I wonder why the hell would Samsung do things in such an unintuitive manner, but yes, the brightness settings gives complete arbitration between brightness and motion clarity.
Though I'm not strongly impressed by the 120hz strobing compared to the 60hz mode (let's say that there's a few ULMB monitors that will do much better at 120hz), there is no comparison when it comes to contrast levels and residual brightness.

I'm calling it: QN90D, Best TV for motion clarity, mission accomplished!
Unless maybe it can be proven that the QN95D or QN900D work in a similar way, but the QN90D appears to be the brightest anyway, the QN95D has double the dimming zones though and the QN900D is 8K.

Before the CX is toppled, I’d want to clarify about other aspects that would affect the experience:

1 - how is the flicker perception when using the QN90D’s strobe as opposed to the CX’s rolling scan? Does the QN90D simply strobe the whole screen at once, or does it use local dimming panels to try and simulate a rough rolling scan?

My understanding was that overall, a whole screen strobe tends to look more flickery than a rolling scan.

2 - how are the strobe crosstalk artifacts, particularly at the top and bottom of the screen?

I own a CX and would be curious to know if this QLED panel really does outperform it!

roginthemachine wrote: ↑

27 Jun 2025, 18:12

Before the CX is toppled, I’d want to clarify about other aspects that would affect the experience:

1 - how is the flicker perception when using the QN90D’s strobe as opposed to the CX’s rolling scan? Does the QN90D simply strobe the whole screen at once, or does it use local dimming panels to try and simulate a rough rolling scan?

My understanding was that overall, a whole screen strobe tends to look more flickery than a rolling scan.

2 - how are the strobe crosstalk artifacts, particularly at the top and bottom of the screen?

I own a CX and would be curious to know if this QLED panel really does outperform it!

I'm not throwing away my GX, sometimes I will want the perfect blacks and instant pixel response time resulting in an absence of LCD-related motion artifacts...
But it's so dim that it's barely passable for SDR.
In fact, since I have a brighter G1, I think I'm gonna rely more on frame gen + Motion Pro High 120hz, or software BFI + Motion Pro Medium 120hz to make the GX redundant for PC use.
And for consoles, in most cases my Kuro would be a better choice than the GX, so for me the use cases will likely become limited.

As far as MPRT though, yes the difference is very clear.
If I lower brightness level to the one on my GX, I definitely get much clearer motion.
It is not exempt from artifacts, a fullscreen crosstalk test reveals afterimages across the whole screen, however the effect is mild and only really seen on certain color transitions. I'm not sure it's strobe crosstalk or ghosting or slow color transitions but while I can see it on the crosstalk test, I can't really see anything, say, on a the game motion test.
In most real content it's not really perceptible, while the blur on the GX Motion Pro High is.

Regarding the flickering, at 60hz it may well be slightly more bothering than on the GX, but not by much, it's say it is mostly due to the increased brightness, of course flickering hurts the eyes a lot more on a whole screen bright image.
At 120hz it should be fine for most of us who aren't hummingbirds.

Also, since I have found a way to use the NVidia 3D Vision kit with any strobing 120hz display, using the 3D Fix Manager software, I'm delighted that I'll get a chance to experiment with this soon.
Apparently rolling-scan OLEDs aren't great for this but LCD that strobe at 120hz should work well.

Nice! I’m purely a console gamer and don’t have the space for multiple displays, so really on the lookup for the single best option with respect to motion clarity. But because I play lots of retro gaming content, including 50hz content, the nature of the flicker becomes a big factor

If you’re able to take a slomo video, or just give a report as as to how the flickering appears to work (ie is it obviously just a global full screen strobe, or is there a rolling aspect to it), that would be great!

I’m tempted to hunt for this one second hand now, to try it out. My CX is dying …

Yes, I know what you mean.
With the rolling-scan LG OLEDs, you're at least guaranteed it works at 50/60/100/120hz with perfect cadence.
I haven't tested 50hz for judder on the Samsung, I haven't checked if 100hz BFI works.
I haven't done tests on movies either, in which case I assume 120hz 5x strobe is the best I can expect, or maybe interpolation to 30fps 4x strobe which I tend to prefer on instant response OLEDs. But a strobing 48hz or 72hz mode would be best...

-Since the focus is on HDR in modern games, a high-performance strobing display that sorta work at the bare minimum HDR 400 nits level has been a bit of a holy grail for me.
On that front, the CX/GX is dead in the water, being barely enough for dark room SDR when Motion Pro High is turned on at 60hz.
And sadly Motion Pro Low and Medium result in image duplicates at 60hz, they're only an option at 120hz.

-I don't expect rolling-scan BFI to make a comeback on OLEDs which is shame when you see the brightness performance of the S95F.
Although the problem with strobing OLEDs will always be full screen brightness. The diffeence between small window and full screen brightness tend to be much higher on OLED than LCD, limiting the degree to which rolling-scan can be used to trade brightness for motion clarity.

-I don't know when TVs will come with much higher panel refresh rates, dedicated solely to built-in low-lag frame-gen. Currently Samsung TVs interpolate content up to 165hz with minimal lag, but to me it's not enough. I will consider sunsetting (moving to another room) my G1 whenever we reach 240hz (even though G1 Motion Pro High 120hz is 316hz sample-and-hold equivalent and basically lag-free).

-Hell, I'm not convinced Samsung or anyone else will improve further on strobing LCDs, this years' QN90F, to me, seems like an inferior product. So from my vantage point it's the right move at the right time.

I'm not saying it is the perfect TV. Although exceptional by LCD standards, It doesn't have perfect contrast or the color volume of the best QD-OLEDs. And regardless it's nature, the flicker is noticeable (to me, not dramatically more than on my GX, but mileage may vary).
I'm just saying it's the best option when motion clarity matters, with HDR brightness being a big fat bonus. There's not really anything else I can recommend that can be purchased new.
But I also would definitely not bin a working CX/GX/C1/G1, so be sure yours is truly on the way out if you part with it.

JimProfit wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2025, 04:44

My god, f*** Samsung for breaking features on their own TVs.

Deleting the only reason the get one of their LCDs and not offering the same feature for their OLEDs? Mhh yeah that sounds like Samsung

lextra2 wrote: ↑

04 Jul 2025, 15:26

JimProfit wrote: ↑

14 Jun 2025, 04:44

My god, f*** Samsung for breaking features on their own TVs.

Deleting the only reason the get one of their LCDs and not offering the same feature for their OLEDs? Mhh yeah that sounds like Samsung

Read the newer posts.
120hz BFI does work, it's just unintuitive how to achieve it.
I would have kept the TV for it's 60hz BFI performance alone though.

The confusion stems from the fact that initially RTINGS reported the TV (QN90D and many others) to work at 120hz w/strobing, and when I mentioned to them that the motion options were disabled at 120hz, they said it was the same for them and updated their review, suggesting a firmware update may have been responsible.
I don't know if Samsung did indeed change their mode of operation via firmware update, or if it was an oversight from RTINGS, but at 120hz, you absolutely do notice the motion getting clearer and clearer as you lower the brightness (because brightness setting = pulse width control).
I have notified RTINGS of this development and asked them to check on a bunch of other Samsung LCDs, hopefully they'll check and publish the most accurate info on their website.

As for 120hz BFI on OLED, it's tricky.
-Literal Black Frame Insertion at 120hz would require a native 240hz panel and only doubles the motion clarity of the selected refresh rate (120hz equivalent for 60hz BFI, 240hz equivalent for 120hz BFI)
-There was also Rolling Scan/Sub-Refresh BFI on LG OLEDs from 2020 and 2021, which went beyond doubling the motion clarity and didn't require a higher refresh panel, but very few models have had this feature (LG CX/GX and C1/G1, maybe some Panasonic models from the same era?).
Samsung to my knowledge never had either of these features, so they never actually nerfed the feature.
And to their credit, they're at least pioneering the low-lag interpolation/frame generation built into their TVs, so that low fps content can take advantage of the panel's native refresh rate, at no brightness loss...

In a world where the new battleground is HDR peak brightness, the fact that Samsung does excellent backlight strobing on their very bright LCDs, and low-lag interpolation on both their LCDs and OLEDs, is something to be applauded.

Sadly they don't do Dolby Vision, have terrible menu layouts, are not exactly the most reliable brand, and they now slap horrible matte filters on their high-end TVs, which is something to be decried.

More testing done and a few observations.

I'm completely happy on the motion blur side of things.
At 60hz the afterimage effect seen on UFOtest full screen strobe crosstalk test is almost never detectable on real world content.
Motion clarity at max (50) brightness is already great but at daylight viewing SDR-level (25) is is absolutely excellent.
There are two levels on the Game Motion Plus settings, one labeled "fast" another named "fastest". Those terms being relative to input lag.
Using the "fastest" mode doesn't seem to impact 60hz strobing performance.

While a few ULMB monitors can do clearer motion with less crosstalk/afterimage effect (most notably, my new PG27AQN, and my PG27VQ/PG278QR from 2018), these monitors don't hold a candle to the QN90D's contrast, peak brightness, and of course panel size.
KSF phosphor red trails seems to be a near universal problem in high performance ULMB2 LCDs which is another thing the QN90D is able to avoid.
I feel confident recommending a 43" model as a main monitor for PC use over these, provided your desk can accommodate such a large display (which isn't my case).

120hz Game Mode strobing (achieved by simply lowering the brightness the reach the desired compromise) is good but not per se clearer than the 60hz mode. It's less flickery and you get the input lag advantage of 120fps gaming, so it's good that it is there but it's not an automatic +100% boost in motion clarity VS 60hz.
50hz and 100hz strobing also work but I suspect these are automatically interpolated to 60/120, because I detect some artifacts. Since they do work in Game Mode I have to assume the lag would be minimal though, I don't have a time sleuth and can only rely on future gaming sessions to ascertain that fact.

Speaking of 120hz, for those few games where input lag is completely irrelevant (imagine let's say, an absolutely gorgeous turn-based RPG), I am happy to report that in 120hz Filmmaker Mode (and perhaps some other modes), there is a MASSIVE interpolation effect turned on by default.
Which means that at zero brightness loss, you get near CRT-level motion. I believe it reaches the motion clarity of the maximum flicker rate of the TV which is 960hz. I don't know how they can make interpolation so clear but I've seen it and it's real.
It's far, far clearer than my GX/G1 OLEDs interpolating the picture to 120hz with De Blur/De Judder cranked to max.
Again, like any traditional interpolation on any TV, it's very laggy so it's only for video or slow menu-based games, anything that requires responsible controls need to rely on Game Mode backlight strobing, with a brightness penalty.

The black levels are very impressive. Even with white text end credits the blooming is tolerable, though I'm not sure yet what Local Dimming settings is the best overall. I can still tell it is LCD if for instance I let my Ribbons screen saver play on the TV, but it is very, very impressive nonetheless.

One problem regarding black levels though, is that I'm experiencing black crush and I have yet to find a perfect solution.
I can play with local dimming, use the Black Details setting and for BT1886 gamma mode specifically, you can raise the picture a little bit, but I was playing an old dark game (Alien Trilogy on Duckstation specifically) and it was still harder to see than it should have been.

Black levels are set to Auto (Low) because in my case using High results in washed-out grey-ish blacks. I believe it is only for the 4:4:4 color space, which it appear we can only have by setting the input to PC Mode (or perhaps it is a limitation of my GPU, the DP>HDMI 2.1 adapter or Splitter that I use, I dunno).
Since motion options appear to be disabled in PC input mode, if you want to use Game Mode BFI and/or low-lag interpolation, you forfeit access to full color space, which in itself shouldn't be a big deal, but I fear my black-crush issues could only be solved that way.

I have no idea if doing stuff in the service menu will bring out even more potential out of the TV. I hope I can improve real-content HDR brightness in Game Mode (RTINGS test show a noticeable drop in real scene brightness, however the theoretical white window test seems perfectly acceptable in comparison to non-Game-Mode HDR).
I hope I can find time and hopefully the solutions to fix these few issues.

Overall I'm very impressed and excited and it would definitely be worth it to calibrate the TV to the best possible performance.
In general the TV doesn't suffer from the comparison to a CRT, Plasma or my older W-OLEDs. Some retain an edge over others in certain things of course, but I would say the QN90D is, as of today, my most well-rounded, does-everything-well option.
Which is high praise if you take a look at my humble personal selection in my signature.

I'm of course not suggesting that the picture quality competes with the latest, best QD-OLEDs however, that is simply impossible.
But at the moment these TVs have abysmal motion options so there we are.