IFA 2006, Berlin, Germany – Yet again, Philips has raised the performance bar in LCD television by its leadership in display innovation. Drawing on a unique combination of advanced technologies, ClearLCD is a major breakthrough in LCD picture quality, drastically cutting the LCD response time down to 3 milliseconds.
This means a leap in motion sharpness, providing consumers with an unrivalled viewing experience. By combining the excellent resolution of LCDs with a response time of just 3 ms, FlatTV models with ClearLCD now set the standard, offering an overall performance better than both CRTs and plasma displays.
Extreme motion sharpness
Until recently, LCD technology was well accepted for computer monitor applications, but it still had drawbacks for TV applications. In fast-moving sport scenes, for example, motion artifacts were visible. And in low ambient illumination, the contrast and black-level were poorer than that of CRTs and plasma displays. ClearLCD has solved both these problems.
By changing the physical response of liquid crystals using a technology called Overdrive Control, Philips has cut several milliseconds off the response time. But even more impressive is the response time improvement made by Philips Aptura backlighting technology. This tackles the ‘hold’ problem — a perceived blurring caused by the human eye as each frame is ‘held’ by continuous backlighting then moved in steps with each new frame. With Aptura dynamic scanning, the backlighting is switched off most of the time, improving contrast and black level. An array of high-output hot-cathode fluorescent lamps (HCFLs) illuminates each part of the panel for only a moment, enabling the response time to be slashed by several more milliseconds.
In short, this allows the TV to accurately vary the amount of light in each pixel and the duration each pixel is lit, solving most of the perception problem. And finally the frame rate of ClearLCD is upconverted from the mains frequency, for example 50 Hz to 75 Hz, resulting in a substantial gain in response time. Consequently, ClearLCD is the combination of Overdrive Control, Aptura scanning backlight and mains frequency upconversion that results in a 3 ms response time.
ClearLCD’s upconversion also avoids mains field flicker, with ClearLCD illuminating individual lamps in the LCD panel at a frame rate of 75 Hz (instead of 50 Hz) or 120 Hz (instead of 60 Hz). Its high output, short duty-cycle backlighting ensures there’s no perceived luminance sacrifice, offers superb contrast in dark scenes, and widens the viewing angle, greatly enhancing shared viewing enjoyment in the living room.
Philips slashes response time of FlatTV products to 3 ms with ClearLCD
The European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) has named Philips ClearLCD technology European Video Innovation of the Year 2005-2006.