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RCA L40FHD41 TV review: input lag and upscaling tested using the piLagTesterPRO

This 1080p TV from 2010 has a good picture better than average input lag and only slightly slow response times. It retailed for around $500 when new. 

Overview/Image quality

At 480 this tv has minimal aliasing but does blur the pixels a bit. Every other resolution has aliasing, with the worst being native resolution (1080p), where it's pretty bad. See photo of 1x1 pixel checkerboard at right. 

All resolutions crop as well, about 20 pixels off each side. There is an asterisk here, though: there's no way to adjust the zoom/cropping/stretching from the on screen menus, but perhaps with a remote (which I did not have) there's a way? I could only test with the factory defaults. 

It has all the standard inputs, including 3 HDMI, VGA, and 2 yPbPr.  I only tested HDMI.

Input Lag

This display has no game mode, scene, or color preset.  None of the image settings seem to change the lag or response time of the display at all.  

I used a piLagTesterPRO to measure input lag. This device sends a frame of video over HDMI and measures how long it takes to display it. This TV was able to properly sync to the refresh rate of the Pi, producing consistent lag values each time it was turned or or inputs were switched. 

Full Test Results 

I report two kinds of values. 1st response measures how long it takes for the TV to start responding (I use a 5% change in display brightness). This overly optimistic value doesn't tell how long it takes to see anything useful, but matches what other reviewers call input lag. full response is a more realistic measure of lag, and requires the display to reach 80% of full brightness. This combines both input lag and response time, and is closer to what you would actually experience in a game.

topbottom
Resolution1st responsefull response1st responsefull responsescan outresponse time
480i39.049.055.065.016.010.0
480p21.131.038.348.017.29.9
720p20.330.037.247.016.99.7
1080p20.630.036.446.015.89.4

At native resolution this display actually does pretty well, taking just 20ms to start responding, and about 10ms more to finish drawing. It takes a full 16ms to paint the whole screen, so the realistic lag is 46ms. To deinterlace at 480i it only adds another 18ms (~1 frame) but the results aren't that good for moving stimuli. 

I measured the responses time for black to white, but also various levels of gray to gray. It was slowest going from full black to full white, a full 12-15ms. Most of the other transitions took much less time, around 6-7ms. This suggests this TV doesn't have overdrive. I will say that a moving bar on a black background looked pretty blurred. Motion looks decent on this set,  but not standout at all. 

Results compared to other displays

To allow quick comparison between many displays I've summarized the results across all the displays I've personally tested with the piLagTester Pro.  Min lag is the first response at the top of the screen, real lag is the full response at the bottom. 

DisplayYear madeNative Resnative min lag480i real lag480p real lag720p real lag1080p real lagnative response timenative scan out
Dell U2410 (game)20101080p4.062.228.326.526.56.0016.20
Panasonic TH-58PE75U2008720p13.0*34.034.034.034.06.000.00
Dell E198FPb20081024p2.739.035.05.0012.70
Samsung S27C23020141080p2.936.636.137.018.2514.97
Dell U2410 (sRGB)20101080p20.562.445.043.143.16.1316.13
Vizio VO370M20101080p2.583.049.047.024.35.4715.67
RCA20101080p20.365.048.047.046.09.6816.63
Sony 40VL130 (game)20081080p22.866.349.047.347.39.0815.43
Polaroid FLM-373B2007720p28.082.049.049.049.07.0014.00
Emprex HD 32022007720p27.0126.051.050.08.5015.00
Philips 42PFL3603D/F720091080p29.084.050.050.050.05.0016.00
LG 42LC2D2006720p28.354.650.850.46.3015.95
GPX TDE3245W2016720p28.0102.051.051.051.08.0015.00
Sony KDL-46EX40020101080p28.087.052.052.052.08.0016.00
Vizio VO22L FHDTV10A2008720p28.094.061.061.061.018.0015.00
Sony 40S20L12007720p48.490.172.973.49.6014.00
LG 47LW6500-UA20121080p66.6149.7149.081.780.92.2711.83

(* effective; tv refreshes display instantaneously)

This TV ranks pretty well on input lag. I've sorted this list by 720p real lag, and it's near the top of the TVs I've tested. Though, to be fair about half the TVs on the list are only 5ms slower. So it's better than average to be sure, but not a standout like, for instance, the Panasonic Plasma TH-58PE75U I tested, or all the computer monitors I tested.

Conclusion

This is a better than average TV for gaming. Many TVs are slower, though not by much for progressive content. The poor aliasing at 1080 was very disappointing, but the 480p results were actually quite good, other than being blurry. And 480i was quite fast by LCD TV standards. It's sad that 65ms of real lag is fast, but in a world where 480i can be as slow as 150ms, you take what you can get!

 I would not get it unless you can get a genuine remote for it, however, as the built in controls and menus don't allow adjusting aspect ratio, etc. 

Other models 

I tested the L40FHD41YX9. I think the last 3 digits are not meaningful, so I called it the L40FHD41 in the review.  There's another model, L32HD41, which has the same motherboard design, so it seems highly likely that it will have the same input lag, response time, and upscaling as the L40FHD41YX9, just in a smaller form factor. 

Sony KDL-46EX400 TV review: input lag and upscaling tested using the piLagTesterPRO

This 1080p TV from 2010 has a great picture but middle of the road input lag.

Overview/Image quality


At native resolution (1080p) this TV is pixel perfect: no aliasing, no cropping. This really should be the standard rather than the exception. The same is true of 480p/i, amazingly. It's almost true for 720p: no cropping, but a tiny bit of jagged edges visible on a 45 degree angle, as shown in the photo at right. This is very, very minimal by TV standards, however, and the result is that all resolutions look fantastic.
There are zoom/stretch options to crop more, and/or stretch 480p to fit the screen.

It has all the standard inputs, including 4 HDMI, VGA, and 2 yPbPr. I primarily tested on HDMI but I also hooked up a cheap yPbPr adapter and the results were identical except that 480i/p was noticeably blurrier. That could be the adapter. 

Input Lag

This display has a game "scene", which has two sub options: game-standard and game-original. But these actually work out to color/sharpening presets, they don't change the input lag.. It does offer noise reduction but not when in game mode. In fact, none of the image settings seem to change the lag or response time of the display at all.  

I used a piLagTesterPRO to measure input lag. This device sends a frame of video over HDMI and measures how long it takes to display it. Complicating things significantly, this TV is yet another display that does not actually sync to the input signal - instead it fills its own internal frame buffer from the video input and then draws that with a fixed additional delay of up to 16ms, randomly determined each time you turn on the set or switch inputs. At least it can actually draw at 60hz or 59.94hz so whatever lag you get when you turn on your console will be constant for that session, with no dropped frames. It can also draw at 24hz which is particularly nice for watching movies.

Because lag varies each time it is turned on, I've elected to report the average lag values here, since that seems fairest, but there's no right answer; for more discussion of this issue see the above link. 

Full Test Results 

I report two kinds of values. 1st response measures how long it takes for the TV to start responding (I use a 5% change in display brightness). This overly optimistic value doesn't tell how long it takes to see anything useful, but matches what other reviewers call input lag. full response is a more realistic measure of lag, and requires the display to reach 80% of full brightness. This combines both input lag and response time, and is closer to what you would actually experience in a game.

topbottom
Resolution1st responsefull response1st responsefull responsescan outresponse time
480i63.071.079.087.016.08.0
480p28.036.044.052.016.08.0
720p28.036.044.052.016.08.0
1080p28.036.044.052.016.08.0

There's a lot of repeats here - every resolution is the same except 480i, which is 35ms (!!) slower because of deinterlacing (two full frames) 

I measured the responses time for black to white, but also various levels of gray to gray. The timing only varied by a +/- 1ms, which is very good. I've seen displays that are 2-3 times slower when measured using dark gray to light gray transitions (smaller transitions can be slower than full black to full white depending on the display tech).

Results compared to other displays

To allow quick comparison between many displays I've summarized the results across all the displays I've personally tested with the piLagTester Pro.  Min lag is the first response at the top of the screen, real lag is the full response at the bottom. 

DisplayYear madeNative Resnative min lag480i real lag480p real lag720p real lag1080p real lagnative response timenative scan out
Vizio VO370M20101080p2.583.049.047.024.35.4715.67
Dell E198FPb20081024p2.739.035.05.0012.70
Samsung S27C23020141080p2.936.636.137.018.2514.97
Dell U2410 (game)20101080p4.062.228.326.526.56.0016.20
Panasonic TH-58PE75U2008720p13.034.034.034.034.06.000.00
Dell U2410 (sRGB)20101080p20.562.445.043.143.16.1316.13
Sony 40VL130 (game)20081080p22.866.349.047.347.39.0815.43
Emprex HD 32022007720p27.0126.051.050.08.5015.00
Vizio VO22L FHDTV10A2008720p28.094.061.061.061.018.0015.00
Polaroid FLM-373B2007720p28.082.049.049.049.07.0014.00
GPX TDE3245W2016720p28.0102.051.051.051.08.0015.00
Sony KDL-46EX40020101080p28.087.052.052.052.08.0016.00
LG 42LC2D2006720p28.354.650.850.46.3015.95
Philips 42PFL3603D/F720091080p29.084.050.050.050.05.0016.00
Sony 40S20L12007720p48.490.172.973.49.6014.00
LG 47LW6500-UA20121080p66.6149.7149.081.780.92.2711.83

If it weren't for the variable lag this TV would be pretty decent, since recall that on a good day it can start to respond after only 20ms , mildly better than many TVs listed here. But the average lag is more representative, and once you add in the response time this TV is on the slow end of average at best.  The 480i results are some of the worst I've seen, too. 

Interestingly I'm starting to develop quite a cluster of results around 28ms min lag, and 50ms realistic lag. Interestingly, these are all sets that don't sync properly, too. Shared hardware from the late 2000s? LG, Sony, GPX, Polaroid and Philips sets all show this timing. They do differ on how 480i is handled, however, but perhaps that was handled by a 2nd chipset.

Conclusion

This would be a poor choice for lag-sensitive retro gaming. For JRPGs the deinterlacing quality is fantastic, however. And the lack of cropping and aliasing really makes this set worth considering despite the mediocre lag. Just watching TVs or movies, it's also very good. The fact that it can refresh the screen at 24hz makes it great for watching movies with a minimal amount of motion jitter. 

Other models 

I would expect that the 40EX400 and 32EX400 would perform about the same as the 46EX400, based on the model numbers, and a quick skim of the specs (all are native 1080p displays). But I only tested the 46EX400. The 46EX401/40EX401 are supposedly the same model but at Costco.

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