iPad Pro How good are the 120hz for playing videos?

[djrod]

I never quite liked the iPad for watching videos because of the low refresh rate compared to a classic TV, also the blacks in my iPad Air 2 are more grey than anything and it's very annoying, is the new 10.5 better at these?

Thanks!

 

[rillrill]

I think the statement is, for now, they play at whatever refresh rate the developer sets - mostly 30 or 60 frames a sec. so no improvement right now...

 

[upandown]

I think the statement is, for now, they play at whatever refresh rate the developer sets - mostly 30 or 60 frames a sec. so no improvement right now...

How do you figure no improvement lol.

To the OP, yes it is better since it can go down to 24hz to match 24fps which a lot of media content is created at. From my viewing it's much smoother with zero judder in movies. (Ie action)

As far as black levels, I think it's similar to the 9.7 IPP. Which isn't great. But since the contrast is so good for bright scenes it's really enjoyable. I'm waiting for displaymate to evaluate

 

[djrod]

So I bite the bullet and bought a 10.5 pro today...
The blacks are so much better than the Air 2!
But the 120hz improvements are nowhere to be seen when playing videos either from Safari, YouTube or iTunes movie trailers in iOS Beta 2. Let’s hope this get fixed sometime!

 

[fs454]

So I bite the bullet and bought a 10.5 pro today...
The blacks are so much better than the Air 2!
But the 120hz improvements are nowhere to be seen when playing videos either from Safari, YouTube or iTunes movie trailers in iOS Beta 2. Let’s hope this get fixed sometime!

There won’t be improvements because the content is intended to have the look that it has. Singling out “judder” and trying to eliminate it plows over the intentions of the content creator for no reason other than technical prowess. Cinematic content is supposed to look cinematic, not smooth.

 

[zoomp]

Playing out movies in 120 Hz is the worst thing ever marketed on these so-called new TVs. I work in the field, and anyone that shoots 24 hz intends to, because they don't want their films to look like TV news.

 

[jcphoenix]

Playing out movies in 120 Hz is the worst thing ever marketed on these so-called new TVs. I work in the field, and anyone that shoots 24 hz intends to, because they don't want their films to look like TV news.

Yeah I submitted a request to the developer of Infuse (the video playing app) to add support for changing the refresh rate to what we prefer. As is, the videos in that app appear to be playing at a higher refresh rate (possibly 120 Hz) as the motion is overly smooth. Their team is looking into it.

It's not completely unwatchable like when people turn on that disgusting Motion Plus (or similar) setting on their TVs, but it's not presented the way it's intended to be, it's still irritating, and I would prefer to have the option to play at 24Hz. It'll look proper AND have the bonus of making the battery last longer.

 

[badmojo69]

I like the fake look of movies at high refresh rates...makes it look real.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

I believe some of you are confusing a 120hz refresh rate with 120 FPS frame interpolation, which isn’t surprising since TV manufactures have been advertising this as simply “120hz” for years.

The motion-smoothing feature you see on TVs generates artificial intermediate frames between the real recorded frames of the video source (primarily using what they call block matching). This brings the video frame rate up to 120 FPS, but 4/5 of the frames are these interpolated constructs. The algorithms aren’t great, so you can get artifacts when a lot of things are moving at once. Even in the best cases it significantly changes what you’re seeing vs the creator’s intent, but that’s more of a personal preference matter.

Once you have 120 frames, you do need a 120hz panel to display them, which is why this term is used in marketing.

This interpolation can be done in software – if you’re interested, there’s a program called SVP which can perform interpolation to any frame rate on a PC. I don’t know if anything like this for the iPad, but it’s technically possible to make and the iPP is fast enough to do the processing on the fly.

A 120hz display is simply capable of refreshing 120 times per second; this does not mean there will be 120 frames of data to display in all situations. If the source is artificial (scrolling animations) then you will as long as the system can render fast enough. If you actually have 120fps video, that would work too.

The advantage of this display for normal (24fps) video content is that it can actually refresh at 24hz, making the timing between frames uniform.

When you play 24fps content on a 60hz display, there’s no way to perfectly match the frame rate to the refresh rate, so you end up displaying one frame for 2 refreshes and the next for 3 refreshes (and repeat). This creates a sense that the movement is not steady, almost like it is constantly slowing down and speeding up. This is called telecine jitter, or 3:2 pull down. Many people have ONLY seen video on a 60hz screen so they may not even be aware of it, but the motion is much more stable on a 24hz (or any integer multiple) display.

——

TLDR: Don’t confuse TV “120hz” interpolation smoothing with a 120hz panel refresh rate.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I believe some of you are confusing a 120hz refresh rate with 120 FPS frame interpolation, which isn’t surprising since TV manufactures have been advertising this as simply “120hz” for years.

The motion-smoothing feature you see on TVs generates artificial intermediate frames between the real recorded frames of the video source (primarily using what they call block matching). This brings the video frame rate up to 120 FPS, but 4/5 of the frames are these interpolated constructs. The algorithms aren’t great, so you can get artifacts when a lot of things are moving at once. Even in the best cases it significantly changes what you’re seeing vs the creator’s intent, but that’s more of a personal preference matter.

Once you have 120 frames, you do need a 120hz panel to display them, which is why this term is used in marketing.

This interpolation can be done in software – if you’re interested, there’s a program called SVP which can perform interpolation to any frame rate on a PC. I don’t know if anything like this for the iPad, but it’s technically possible to make and the iPP is fast enough to do the processing on the fly.

A 120hz display is simply capable of refreshing 120 times per second; this does not mean there will be 120 frames of data to display in all situations. If the source is artificial (scrolling animations) then you will as long as the system can render fast enough. If you actually have 120fps video, that would work too.

The advantage of this display for normal (24fps) video content is that it can actually refresh at 24hz, making the timing between frames uniform.

When you play 24fps content on a 60hz display, there’s no way to perfectly match the frame rate to the refresh rate, so you end up displaying one frame for 2 refreshes and the next for 3 refreshes (and repeat). This creates a sense that the movement is not steady, almost like it is constantly slowing down and speeding up. This is called telecine jitter, or 3:2 pull down. Many people have ONLY seen video on a 60hz screen so they may not even be aware of it, but the motion is much more stable on a 24hz (or any integer multiple) display.

——

TLDR: Don’t confuse TV “120hz” interpolation smoothing with a 120hz panel refresh rate.

Thank you for saving me 15 minutes of typing.

Mods, please sticky this!!!

 

[akdj]

Well written, said and explained Walrus
Many Thanks!

 

[chfilm]

So I bite the bullet and bought a 10.5 pro today...
The blacks are so much better than the Air 2!
But the 120hz improvements are nowhere to be seen when playing videos either from Safari, YouTube or iTunes movie trailers in iOS Beta 2. Let’s hope this get fixed sometime!

There's nothing to get fixed- the videos play exactly the way the filmmakers intended them to look like, unless you're watching 120fps videos.

 

[butoft]

I believe some of you are confusing a 120hz refresh rate with 120 FPS frame interpolation, which isn’t surprising since TV manufactures have been advertising this as simply “120hz” for years.

The motion-smoothing feature you see on TVs generates artificial intermediate frames between the real recorded frames of the video source (primarily using what they call block matching). This brings the video frame rate up to 120 FPS, but 4/5 of the frames are these interpolated constructs. The algorithms aren’t great, so you can get artifacts when a lot of things are moving at once. Even in the best cases it significantly changes what you’re seeing vs the creator’s intent, but that’s more of a personal preference matter.

Once you have 120 frames, you do need a 120hz panel to display them, which is why this term is used in marketing.

This interpolation can be done in software – if you’re interested, there’s a program called SVP which can perform interpolation to any frame rate on a PC. I don’t know if anything like this for the iPad, but it’s technically possible to make and the iPP is fast enough to do the processing on the fly.

A 120hz display is simply capable of refreshing 120 times per second; this does not mean there will be 120 frames of data to display in all situations. If the source is artificial (scrolling animations) then you will as long as the system can render fast enough. If you actually have 120fps video, that would work too.

The advantage of this display for normal (24fps) video content is that it can actually refresh at 24hz, making the timing between frames uniform.

When you play 24fps content on a 60hz display, there’s no way to perfectly match the frame rate to the refresh rate, so you end up displaying one frame for 2 refreshes and the next for 3 refreshes (and repeat). This creates a sense that the movement is not steady, almost like it is constantly slowing down and speeding up. This is called telecine jitter, or 3:2 pull down. Many people have ONLY seen video on a 60hz screen so they may not even be aware of it, but the motion is much more stable on a 24hz (or any integer multiple) display.
Wow, I have been spent days googling trying to find an article that talks about ProMotion and all that it can be used with. The example I gave was watching fast action videos such as sports on ESPN app or old football games on YouTube. I was wondering if the ProMotion would smooth out the video like TVs do with the motion-smooth feature. But I guess the new iPad Pros only have a 120hz panel and therefore wouldn't accomplish this (I doubt ESPN or YouTube streams 120 fps since that is now what cable TV does).
——

TLDR: Don’t confuse TV “120hz” interpolation smoothing with a 120hz panel refresh rate.

[doublepost=1517871009][/doublepost]Wow I have been googling trying to find a good article that talks about this topic. I was trying to see what all the ProMotion feature on the new Pros can be used with. I was mainly wanting to know if it could be used for watching sports (fast-action video) on the ESPN app or YouTube, where the ProMotion feature would smooth out the video similar to TVs. I guess not though since it's only a 120hz panel and I doubt ESPN app or YouTube streams 120fps video since sports are only broadcasted at 60fps for TVs.

 

[KrisLord]

8 month old thread.....