Not all HDTV's Can Keep Up With The Action

Via the NY Times:

Sit for the first time in front of a high-definition TV tuned to a nature program broadcast in HD, and the reaction is almost always the same: a dropping of the jaw. But if you’re a sports fan or serious video gamer, the same set showing the Super Bowl or a car-racing game might elicit a different response: the screen cannot keep up with the action.

Fast movement results in a blur, what the TV industry calls ghosting, because the screen’s ability to refresh the image cannot keep up with the action. So viewers for whom action matters need to pay as much attention to how fast images are processed as to the size of the screen.

As the price of big-screen HDTVs continues to drop, more people are giving up their bulky cathode-ray tube TVs for slim plasma or L.C.D. TVs. “Sets are already 25 percent cheaper this year and will continue falling through the holiday season,” said James L. McQuivey, the television market analyst for Forrester Research. “It has gotten to the point where big retailers like Best Buy only carry a handful of non-HDTV sets,” he said.

The scarcity of tube sets is unfortunate for gamers and sports fans. Although flat-panel HDTVs are light enough to hang on the wall, high-definition cathode-ray tube TVs provide the best picture because they produce the blackest of blacks and the most contrast, and they have a fast response time.