The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) is spearheading a new certification program for display motion blur. The Clear Motion Ratio (ClearMR or CMR) should show better than previous metrics how sharp a display is to display images in motion.
Manufacturers can use the new logos for all kinds of screens. They are likely to be most popular for PC monitors, but smart TVs, notebook displays and scoreboards can also be certified. The whole thing works independently of the panel technology, i.e. with all possible LCDs, but also with OLEDs. LG and HP are the first two manufacturers with certified gaming monitors. ClearMR is not to be confused with the Response Time logos.
Up to now, the Motion Picture Response Time (MPRT) was used to evaluate motion blur, but this only described the lighting duration of the pixels in milliseconds and enabled poor conclusions to be drawn. ClearMR uses a more complex test procedure and describes the ratio of sharp versus blurred pixels – after all, not all pixels switch at the same time in an uneven image.
Logos from 3000 to 9000
At the start, the VESA 1000 levels from ClearMR 3000 to ClearMR 9000. The number gives a percentage range of how far the number of sharp pixels outweighs the blurred ones. With the ClearMR 3000, for example, a display must show 25 to 35 times (2500 to 3499 percent) more sharp than blurred pixels; with ClearMR 3000 around 35 to 45 (3500 to 4499 percent) more.
In the test procedure, VESA records a test scene with a high-speed camera while checking the luminance using a colorimeter. The pixel sharpness is then analyzed in the video recording. The displays must not exhibit excessive visual artifacts, such as over- or undershooting, when the liquid crystals in LCDs align too quickly or too slowly.
Meanwhile, the ClearMR is nothing for people who are specifically looking for a PC monitor with a reliable strobing function: VESA does not test such – according to its own statement, in order to create fair framework conditions. With backlight strobing, a display switches off the backlight between each frame so that the human eye does not perceive the images as mixed.
