Sony ZD9 is 100HZ native,but only supports 60fps input?

[El_D1ablo]

is this true?

the tv pannel is 100HZ yet its inputs will only let it reach 60HZ..

what is the point off advertising the screen as 100hz then?

or am i missing something here

[cass_n]

Hi @El_D1ablo,

Good question.  I asked one of our product experts about this, who says:

"The 100Hz here refers to the refresh rate of the TV or how many frames of TV it can show per second. In Europe the broadcast standard for content we watch is 50hz, or 50 frames per second. A 100Hz TV, like the ZD9 will use a technology called ‘interpolation’ to double the amount of frames from 50 to 100 and in conjunction with our Motionflow XR technology will deliver smoother motion.

The ZD9 is also compatible with 60Hz content which is typically output from games consoles or computers, some streaming services or broadcast TV in the US, in this case the TV could interpolate the frames to 120Hz showing 120 frames per second.

At the current time there is no content available above 60Hz or 60 frames per second."

I hope this is helpful?

Cheers,

C

[Kuschelmonschter]

You always have to differentiate between input and output refresh rate. Input on today's TVs can typically be switched between 24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz. 100Hz/120Hz output helps with motion, either by interpolating frames or inserting black frames. Or in case of 24p content you can do a perfect 5:5 on a 120Hz panel.

In my opinion it is misleading that TVs are still marketed as 50/100Hz instead of 60/120Hz in Europe. I am only using Android and apps on my TV, so no external HDMI devices at all. Here is what I found out...

Android on Sony renders at a permanent 60Hz. There are APIs to change refresh rate which Sony does not support though. I tried to verify that by playing a 50fps and a 60fps sample with moving bars where you can clearly see when source frame rate and display refresh rate don't match. I of course disabled Motionflow so that no interpolation is performed. The 60fps sample played perfectly smooth while the 50fps sample showed the infamous micro-stuttering. So even in Europe, those TVs clearly run at 60 resp. 120Hz.

But if you look at Netflix, Amazon Video or YouTube, it actually makes a ton of sense as most content ist 24/30/60fps which plays much better at 60/120Hz. As for PAL content (25/50fps), you will need some interpolation for 3rd party apps to get things smooth, as the Sony TVs as already mentioned do not support refresh rate switching via public API.

The only time when Sony switches input refresh rate to 50Hz is when you watch Live TV via the integrated tuners. So there are some private APIs which can do that.

Things are of course different when using external players connected via HDMI inputs where the connected player controls refresh rate.

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A 100Hz TV, like the ZD9 will use a technology called ‘interpolation’ to double the amount of frames from 50 to 100 and in conjunction with our Motionflow XR technology will deliver smoother motion.

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When you disable Motionflow, no interpolation takes place. When you play 50fps content at 100Hz, each frame is simply presented for two refresh cycles which is perfectly fine.