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2020 Could be Remembered For Broad Availability Of “120Hz”
July 05, 2020
Displays targeted at gamers and creative professionals adopted 120Hz technology several years ago, sometimes referring to “120Hz refresh rates,” and in 2020, even budget smartphones include “120Hz display support.” Smartphone users at $300-$400 price points are about to have access to the imperceptibly fast display technologies that were once restricted to high-end computers and tablets, right at the same time higher frame rate cameras are becoming increasingly popular on phones, even as filmmakers commonly describe 24FPS as “more cinematic” than the faster-refreshing 30Hz, but both rates peacefully co-existed. For decades, 24Hz and 30Hz were considered so ideal for video playback that little traction developed for faster displays. Movies could distinguish themselves from more common TV shows, video games, and user-created content and higher resolution improved the detail of every frame, so there wasn’t an obvious need for a faster display. Digital video creators knew that switching from 30 to 60 frames per second meant having twice as many images to store per second, bloating file sizes in ways that might not let movies fit on optical discs or quickly transfer over the internet. As smartphones became more popular, 60Hz videos would have required twice the limited space on a pocket-sized device, and their screens might not be able to show video at that higher rate, arguably making the extra data wasteful. There wasn’t a specific single event that changed perceptions about the “right” speed for a display, but rather scattered changes from multiple directions. As 60Hz and 120Hz screens became easier to make, some TV makers saw an opportunity to sell them, even though 60FPS TV and movie content wasn’t available. They offered “motion smoothing” features that added extra, approximated frames each second, making 24FPS movies (and other content) run artificially at 60FPS, an effect that made cinematic productions look like overly fast TV shows, which caused Hollywood filmmakers to complain of heavily adulterated TVs images. Game companies preferred higher frame rates. Computer graphics chip designers and some video game developers began to push for 60FPS as a floor, with the prospect of even higher display refresh rates and content frame rates under some circumstances. Achieving 60Hz is considered to be ideal for games, but isn’t universally guaranteed. Many gamers still struggle to precisely explain why 60Hz or faster speeds are better than 30Hz, beyond to say that games look smoother at higher frame rates. Gamers (and others) have pushed for video recordings and streams of games to be offered at 60Hz, forcing YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, and other platforms to embrace the change and deal with the added bandwidth/storage demands. While Hollywood has largely stuck to 24Hz content, Chinese filmmakers and film financiers have embraced higher frame rates with the same verve as game designers, and some Chinese theaters currently display Hollywood films that were officially converted to 60 z.
Most of today’s videos remain at 24-30Hz, so why does someone need even a 60Hz display, let alone a 120Hz version?
But web browsing, scrolling through social media feeds, and other things dominate smartphone usage. Apple introduced “ProMotion” to its iPad Pro tablets three years ago, and the primary benefit has been that scrolling through anything is smooth enough to read text even while it’s moving up or down. On non-ProMotion screens, text scrolling is jittery enough that unconsciously it’s only read when it’s stopped. Gamers are big beneficiaries of faster displays. In January, Epic Games updated the iPad version of Fortnite to support 120FPS frame rates on iPad Pro models with ProMotion screens — a feature that lets gamers (with $799+ tablets) see up to twice the frames of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, or four times the frames of the Nintendo Switch, an advantage one YouTuber described as “so good it’s unfair.” The reasoning, which hardcore computer gamers will attest to, is that the smoother frame rates enable faster split-second reads on how you and your opponents are moving, as well as more accurate responses. Relatively few iOS/iPadOS game developers support 120Hz but Fortnite is a heavy hitter, and the ProMotion update is a sign of what’s coming elsewhere. Roughly 100 titles have been updated to support the “UltraMotion” 120Hz displays on Razer’s niche smartphones, including several high-profile fighting games, some popular MMORPGs, and the perennially successful Pokémon Go. Since Qualcomm’s latest high-end Snapdragon 865 chipsets recently added support for up to 144Hz displays, 120Hz isn’t the upper limit for smartphones, and could follow PC monitors to reach even higher refresh rates.
With screens climbing to 60Hz and 120Hz speeds, high frame rate cameras began to take off for action sports and “prosumer” videographers interested in using Hertz in a different way. Since some cameras can take one picture every 120th or 240th of a second, what if the resulting videos could be played back at 30 frames per second? Every real world second would take 4 or 8 seconds to watch — “slow motion” — and viewers could pick up on details that would be impossible to see at regular speeds. Current-generation iPhones and iPads have the option to record “Slo-mo” videos at 120 or 240Hz, at 1080p resolution. iOS 14 betas suggest that the next iPhones will be able to record higher-resolution 4K videos at these speeds. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 has the memory speed and bandwidth to create 960Hz videos at 720p resolution —that’s 960 individual images per second — for mind-bogglingly slow motion, such that every real-world second would take 32 seconds to watch at 30Hz. New 120Hz cameras can also be paired with 120Hz screens to deliver smooth real-time videos. While there isn’t much of an application for this yet with traditional 2D screens, VR and AR headsets can use higher frame rate videos and displays to mitigate nausea. One drawback is that high framerate cameras consume a ton of storage and wireless bandwidth. iOS and iPadOS warn users that 4K 60Hz video recording requires 400 megabytes per minute, which could fill a base model 64GB iPhone 11 in around two hours, assuming relatively few apps or other files are also installed. If 4K 120Hz and 240Hz recordings are added the storage requirements will roughly double or quadruple — though most people won’t create two-hour-long (or even 30-minute-long) videos at these speeds.
A 120Hz screen is a “nice but not mandatory to have” feature that many people won’t notice 99% of the time. Smoother scrolling through a device’s UI and apps is certainly better, but in a way that people have struggled to quantify, and smoother videos still have some iffy bandwidth tradeoffs, particularly when viewed on tiny screens and streamed over spotty cellular networks. While smoother gaming is nice, only serious computer gamers (and the companies that supply them) care at this point about higher than 60Hz titles. And of course, the higher bandwidth uses more batter power and requires more frequent charging, which has engendered sub-optimum solutions on lower priced devices. Source: VentureBeat
July 05, 2020
Displays targeted at gamers and creative professionals adopted 120Hz technology several years ago, sometimes referring to “120Hz refresh rates,” and in 2020, even budget smartphones include “120Hz display support.” Smartphone users at $300-$400 price points are about to have access to the imperceptibly fast display technologies that were once restricted to high-end computers and tablets, right at the same time higher frame rate cameras are becoming increasingly popular on phones, even as filmmakers commonly describe 24FPS as “more cinematic” than the faster-refreshing 30Hz, but both rates peacefully co-existed. For decades, 24Hz and 30Hz were considered so ideal for video playback that little traction developed for faster displays. Movies could distinguish themselves from more common TV shows, video games, and user-created content and higher resolution improved the detail of every frame, so there wasn’t an obvious need for a faster display. Digital video creators knew that switching from 30 to 60 frames per second meant having twice as many images to store per second, bloating file sizes in ways that might not let movies fit on optical discs or quickly transfer over the internet. As smartphones became more popular, 60Hz videos would have required twice the limited space on a pocket-sized device, and their screens might not be able to show video at that higher rate, arguably making the extra data wasteful. There wasn’t a specific single event that changed perceptions about the “right” speed for a display, but rather scattered changes from multiple directions. As 60Hz and 120Hz screens became easier to make, some TV makers saw an opportunity to sell them, even though 60FPS TV and movie content wasn’t available. They offered “motion smoothing” features that added extra, approximated frames each second, making 24FPS movies (and other content) run artificially at 60FPS, an effect that made cinematic productions look like overly fast TV shows, which caused Hollywood filmmakers to complain of heavily adulterated TVs images. Game companies preferred higher frame rates. Computer graphics chip designers and some video game developers began to push for 60FPS as a floor, with the prospect of even higher display refresh rates and content frame rates under some circumstances. Achieving 60Hz is considered to be ideal for games, but isn’t universally guaranteed. Many gamers still struggle to precisely explain why 60Hz or faster speeds are better than 30Hz, beyond to say that games look smoother at higher frame rates. Gamers (and others) have pushed for video recordings and streams of games to be offered at 60Hz, forcing YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, and other platforms to embrace the change and deal with the added bandwidth/storage demands. While Hollywood has largely stuck to 24Hz content, Chinese filmmakers and film financiers have embraced higher frame rates with the same verve as game designers, and some Chinese theaters currently display Hollywood films that were officially converted to 60 z.
Most of today’s videos remain at 24-30Hz, so why does someone need even a 60Hz display, let alone a 120Hz version?
- One key advantage to a 120Hz screen is that it can be easily divided by both 24 and 30, so it can just keep each frame of a 24Hz movie on screen for 5 of its 120 frames in a second, while 30Hz TV shows can display each frame for 4 of the screen’s 120 frames.
- Older movies and TV shows are displayed as they were originally intended, without using artificial frame smoothers like the ones that upset Hollywood.
- Newer videos (including ones recorded with smartphone cameras) can be played back at 60 or even 120FPS.
But web browsing, scrolling through social media feeds, and other things dominate smartphone usage. Apple introduced “ProMotion” to its iPad Pro tablets three years ago, and the primary benefit has been that scrolling through anything is smooth enough to read text even while it’s moving up or down. On non-ProMotion screens, text scrolling is jittery enough that unconsciously it’s only read when it’s stopped. Gamers are big beneficiaries of faster displays. In January, Epic Games updated the iPad version of Fortnite to support 120FPS frame rates on iPad Pro models with ProMotion screens — a feature that lets gamers (with $799+ tablets) see up to twice the frames of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, or four times the frames of the Nintendo Switch, an advantage one YouTuber described as “so good it’s unfair.” The reasoning, which hardcore computer gamers will attest to, is that the smoother frame rates enable faster split-second reads on how you and your opponents are moving, as well as more accurate responses. Relatively few iOS/iPadOS game developers support 120Hz but Fortnite is a heavy hitter, and the ProMotion update is a sign of what’s coming elsewhere. Roughly 100 titles have been updated to support the “UltraMotion” 120Hz displays on Razer’s niche smartphones, including several high-profile fighting games, some popular MMORPGs, and the perennially successful Pokémon Go. Since Qualcomm’s latest high-end Snapdragon 865 chipsets recently added support for up to 144Hz displays, 120Hz isn’t the upper limit for smartphones, and could follow PC monitors to reach even higher refresh rates.
With screens climbing to 60Hz and 120Hz speeds, high frame rate cameras began to take off for action sports and “prosumer” videographers interested in using Hertz in a different way. Since some cameras can take one picture every 120th or 240th of a second, what if the resulting videos could be played back at 30 frames per second? Every real world second would take 4 or 8 seconds to watch — “slow motion” — and viewers could pick up on details that would be impossible to see at regular speeds. Current-generation iPhones and iPads have the option to record “Slo-mo” videos at 120 or 240Hz, at 1080p resolution. iOS 14 betas suggest that the next iPhones will be able to record higher-resolution 4K videos at these speeds. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 has the memory speed and bandwidth to create 960Hz videos at 720p resolution —that’s 960 individual images per second — for mind-bogglingly slow motion, such that every real-world second would take 32 seconds to watch at 30Hz. New 120Hz cameras can also be paired with 120Hz screens to deliver smooth real-time videos. While there isn’t much of an application for this yet with traditional 2D screens, VR and AR headsets can use higher frame rate videos and displays to mitigate nausea. One drawback is that high framerate cameras consume a ton of storage and wireless bandwidth. iOS and iPadOS warn users that 4K 60Hz video recording requires 400 megabytes per minute, which could fill a base model 64GB iPhone 11 in around two hours, assuming relatively few apps or other files are also installed. If 4K 120Hz and 240Hz recordings are added the storage requirements will roughly double or quadruple — though most people won’t create two-hour-long (or even 30-minute-long) videos at these speeds.
A 120Hz screen is a “nice but not mandatory to have” feature that many people won’t notice 99% of the time. Smoother scrolling through a device’s UI and apps is certainly better, but in a way that people have struggled to quantify, and smoother videos still have some iffy bandwidth tradeoffs, particularly when viewed on tiny screens and streamed over spotty cellular networks. While smoother gaming is nice, only serious computer gamers (and the companies that supply them) care at this point about higher than 60Hz titles. And of course, the higher bandwidth uses more batter power and requires more frequent charging, which has engendered sub-optimum solutions on lower priced devices. Source: VentureBeat
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