Motion Judder--Do You See It?

In our High-Def Video Superguide roundup of nine Blu-ray and HD DVD players, only two of the players we tested--Sony's BDP-S1 and Pioneer's Elite BDP-HD1--were capable of sending 1080p output at what's referred to as 24p.

24p is industry terminology for outputting at 24 frames per second. As Lincoln Spector, one of the authors of that story, says: "Quick technical explanation: Film projection has been standardized at 24 frames per second since the late 1920?s. But standard video in North America moves at 60 interlaced fields per second--a field being either all of the odd lines or all of the even lines in the image.

"To get these incompatible standards working together, alternate frames are shown for 3 fields, then 2 fields--resulting in a mild distortion called "motion judder." Anything that redraws the image 24 times a second--or some variable of 24 like 48 or 72--produces steadier, more accurate movement."

Some viewers are oblivious to motion judder; others--especially those who understand what it is after they first see it--can't escape being irked by the distortion, which is alternately referred to as being caused by 3:2 pull-down.

In order to eliminate motion judder, industry experts say you need a player that supports 24p output, and a TV that supports 24p input, as the TV we tested using, Pioneer's Elite PRO-FHD1, does. (TVs that support 24p are still rare.) Others say that they're addressing the 3:2 pull-down issue without moving to true 24p output.

Regardless, what I'm wondering is--how many of you are aware of this issue, and find your viewing experience is impacted by it?

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