What is 'response time' for an lcd tv?

Question

I need to choose between 8ms (sony) and 4ms (samsung). Is it a big difference? Is it a difference big enough to pay 150$ extra for the 4ms TV?

Answer 1

The response time is the time for a pixel to turn on and decay. If the decay time is too long, detail from preceding video frames will still be visible in succeeding frames, producing a bleeding or blurring effect. This is most noticeable in rapidly changing scenes like sports and fast-action video games. But note that the frame time is 1/60 second (for 720p or 1080p), or 16 ms. Thus 4 or 8 ms should probably make very little difference. I'd save my money. Besides, Sony has some of the best video processing out there. They really pay attention to the details.

Answer 2

4 ms LCD response times do help in controlling jitter. If you like watching sports, action movies or gaming on your TV, the extra $150.00 is well worth it.

Additional Notes: LCD TVs use a technique called sample & hold. They display a frame (sample) and then hold that frame  until the next frame is updated to the screen. They do NOT allow the image to deacy between frames. It's because LCD images do NOT decay that you get motion blur on an LCD TV. Sample & Hold is unique to LCD TVs. All other TV technologies allow the image to decay bewteen frames and, therefore, do not have motion blur and jitter. Jitter, the shaky edges of fast moving images is directly related to LCD response times. The faster the LCD response time, the less jitter you see. 4ms response times do make a difference in the amount of jitter one sees on an LCD TV (regardless of the TV manufacturer).