60 Hz or 120 Hz on a TV--matters or doesn't matter?

[conceptualclarity]

The debates I've seen on this online are back and forth and, for me at least, inconclusive.

It appears to me there are still a lot more 60 Hz than 120 Hz being sold.

 

[Svoll]

I would actually compare the 120hz and 240hz TV to see if you notice the drama effect. Since everything is so detailed, it gives some a feeling of like watching it live and you notice some of the props are foam =P, its great for sports, but everything else, it kinda ruins it for some.

My family brought a 240hz and instantly my mom disliked it due to the drama effect as she describes it. We tried tricking her, but its noticable to her instantly everytime we tried to trick her and turn it on.

I feel it boils down to personal perference, maybe we are so used to 60hz and some form of mystery and camera trick and angle, its harder to trick higher hz TV. In my area, during black friday and cyber monday, all the 60 hz are sold out while the 120 and 240 are still in store. it could be the price, but the difference is 30-50 between them, so you might be on to something. 60hz 4k TV sold out before I even got into the store. Wasted 6 hours waiting!

 

[MalwareBlockerYT]

I'd say that Hz on a TV don't matter nearly as much as they do on a monitor. If you are a serious PC gamer then you would love 144Hz & this is why I have 144Hz on my main panel & then 2 60Hz panels. When doing PC gaming you can easily/quickly see the difference in refresh rate but on a TV I have never really seen that much difference.

 

[RoadRashWolfenstein]

The thing is back in CRT TVs, the hertz where real. Literally. Originally a video was 30 frames per second, but that would have cause much discomfort to watch, that's why they doubled the Hz and the picture at that time was interlaced. 60 Hz TV flickered 60 times a second while the 120 Hz where doubled, hence more comfort for the eyes to the point that it was reducing epilepsy crisis in photosensitive epileptic.

Most of today's screens are LCD, meaning that the picture you're seeing is generated from pixels that are simply changing color. The back lighting being LED, which is a direct non flickering light, that is making screens very comfortable to watch.

So on a modern LCD TV the number of hertz is virtual and is not what the refreshing process used to be. When a manufacture announces that a TV is 120 Hz or 240 Hz, the processor of the TV interpolate what is going to be between frames and adds more frames. Even on a 240 Hz TV you are still watching content that is received in 60 Hz, meaning that what is going from point A (first frame) to point B (second frame) is 60 Hz, and the TV adds frames between point A and B. That is what makes the picture looking more smooth.

Of course that was very simplified and that depend on how the TV manage it. You can have 2 TVs with the same refresh rate but one will render better, as the processor better handles the picture.

If you're interested in that matter i suggest you read this article, it's very detailed yet simple to understand.