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.

	top		bottom
Resolution	1st response	full response	1st response	full response	scan out	response time
480i	39.0	49.0	55.0	65.0	16.0	10.0
480p	21.1	31.0	38.3	48.0	17.2	9.9
720p	20.3	30.0	37.2	47.0	16.9	9.7
1080p	20.6	30.0	36.4	46.0	15.8	9.4

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. 

Display	Year made	Native Res	native min lag	480i real lag	480p real lag	720p real lag	1080p real lag	native response time	native scan out
Dell U2410 (game)	2010	1080p	4.0	62.2	28.3	26.5	26.5	6.00	16.20
Panasonic TH-58PE75U	2008	720p	13.0*	34.0	34.0	34.0	34.0	6.00	0.00
Dell E198FPb	2008	1024p	2.7		39.0	35.0		5.00	12.70
Samsung S27C230	2014	1080p	2.9		36.6	36.1	37.0	18.25	14.97
Dell U2410 (sRGB)	2010	1080p	20.5	62.4	45.0	43.1	43.1	6.13	16.13
Vizio VO370M	2010	1080p	2.5	83.0	49.0	47.0	24.3	5.47	15.67
RCA	2010	1080p	20.3	65.0	48.0	47.0	46.0	9.68	16.63
Sony 40VL130 (game)	2008	1080p	22.8	66.3	49.0	47.3	47.3	9.08	15.43
Polaroid FLM-373B	2007	720p	28.0	82.0	49.0	49.0	49.0	7.00	14.00
Emprex HD 3202	2007	720p	27.0	126.0	51.0	50.0		8.50	15.00
Philips 42PFL3603D/F7	2009	1080p	29.0	84.0	50.0	50.0	50.0	5.00	16.00
LG 42LC2D	2006	720p	28.3	54.6	50.8	50.4		6.30	15.95
GPX TDE3245W	2016	720p	28.0	102.0	51.0	51.0	51.0	8.00	15.00
Sony KDL-46EX400	2010	1080p	28.0	87.0	52.0	52.0	52.0	8.00	16.00
Vizio VO22L FHDTV10A	2008	720p	28.0	94.0	61.0	61.0	61.0	18.00	15.00
Sony 40S20L1	2007	720p	48.4	90.1	72.9	73.4		9.60	14.00
LG 47LW6500-UA	2012	1080p	66.6	149.7	149.0	81.7	80.9	2.27	11.83

(* 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.