ARTICLE: Stroboscopic Effect Of Finite-Framerate Displays

[Chief Blur Buster]

It was time for me to write one of those flagship Blur Busters articles that the advanced readership loves so much -- and perks the ears of educated writers, researchers & scientists.

The Stroboscopic Effect Of Finite-Framerate Displays
From Blur Busters Display Lab: Flaws of the humankind invention of the 'frame rate' and 'refresh rate': Properly milking the diminishing curve of returns towards future retina refresh rates.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Wow --

Even at this early juncture, this article is apparently getting rave reviews by Blur Busters twitterverse, including employees of NVIDIA and media websites (e.g. Digital Foundry). I try to explain things better than the average website!

[Jason38]

Wow --

Even at this early juncture, this article is apparently getting rave reviews by Blur Busters twitterverse, including employees of NVIDIA and media websites (e.g. Digital Foundry). I try to explain things better than the average website!

Congrats! You deserve this praise! If it wasn't for you and your website I don't think I would have ever figured out why I couldn't tolerate LED screens. Now I can use a LED monitor with no issues and I'm pretty sure I have narrowed down what my exact issues are for buying future monitors. I'm so glad that you educate the right people so they can make better products.

[punpcklbw]

Yes, if you get rid of motion blur, you'll have to deal with the stroboscopic effect instead. It would take groundbreaking advances in the display technology to transcend finite framerates, comparable to the transition from early vector displays to today's raster displays.

The bandwidth requirements for a 1000+ Hz high-definition video signal would be immense. But do you actually need framerates this high? I suppose that double the flicker fusion threshold should be sufficient (what evaluates to the 140-180 Hz range being the sweet spot). The key is to split the signal into separate sample-and-hold and strobed components and display both. That wouldn't work for LCD and any back-lit panels, neither for CRT due to the lack of sample-and-hold ability. We're only left with advanced LED displays, where you can achieve lifelike (or close to that) motion by:

• Using sample-and-hold method for static parts of the image

• Using strobed method for eye-tracked moving parts

• Using sample-and-hold with introduced motion blur effect for any residual motion that is not eye-tracked

This way, you only have to distinguish what is eye-tracked by the user and what is not, requiring some realtime user eye tracking. But at least you wouldn't need crazy ass refresh rates to make it work. And even without any eye tracking this could be a step forward in image clarity and liveliness.

[thatoneguy]

Yes, if you get rid of motion blur, you'll have to deal with the stroboscopic effect instead. It would take groundbreaking advances in the display technology to transcend finite framerates, comparable to the transition from early vector displays to today's raster displays.

The bandwidth requirements for a 1000+ Hz high-definition video signal would be immense. But do you actually need framerates this high? I suppose that double the flicker fusion threshold should be sufficient (what evaluates to the 140-180 Hz range being the sweet spot). The key is to split the signal into separate sample-and-hold and strobed components and display both. That wouldn't work for LCD and any back-lit panels, neither for CRT due to the lack of sample-and-hold ability. We're only left with advanced LED displays, where you can achieve lifelike (or close to that) motion by:

• Using sample-and-hold method for static parts of the image

• Using strobed method for eye-tracked moving parts

• Using sample-and-hold with introduced motion blur effect for any residual motion that is not eye-tracked

This way, you only have to distinguish what is eye-tracked by the user and what is not, requiring some realtime user eye tracking. But at least you wouldn't need crazy ass refresh rates to make it work. And even without any eye tracking this could be a step forward in image clarity and liveliness.

This wouldn't fix stroboscopic effect at all.
+20khz is needed.