Insignia NS-42L780A12 LCD HDTV Review

Motion Performance

Motion was quite good on the Insignia NS-42L780A12. Moving objects were a bit blurry, but it was not too extreme. Hard, vertical edges exhibited a bit of stair-stepping as they moved, and those were really the only problems. There was little to no artifacting due to the processing of motion. There is an advanced picture setting, Insignia Motion 120Hz, that can improve motion smoothness, but since it draws in extra frames, it can make film look odd. More on how we test motion performance.

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps

Since modern TVs display at 60fps and the 24fps of film and Blu-ray doesn't divide evenly into that number, they have to do perform a 3:2 pulldown to convert the frame rate. Usually they offer some kind of "Film mode" to assist in this endeavor. We thought the Insignia NS-42L780A12 lacked such a mode, then found it hidden inside of the Insignia Motion 120Hz setting. Unfortunately, it did not help at all. It did quite a poor job with our Blu-ray source, and a high-frequency pattern was totally beyond its capability to display correctly, flickering like crazy instead. With the 24p Film Mode enabled, the flicker was no better, and was also covered with strangely round artifacts. Footage of a panning stadium, its empty seats a real-life example of high-frequency patterning, had a staticky crawl. If you plan to watch Blu-ray discs on this TV, be aware that certain, complex images might produce a strange result, and the Film Mode will do nothing to help. More on how we test 3:2 pulldown and 24fps.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling was good on the whole, although high-frequency patterns gave the Insignia NS-42L780A12 some false coloration in its native resolution. None of the resolutions forced an overscan. More on how we test resolution scaling.

480p

In 480p, Moiré (Moire) patterns displayed correctly, but with a bit of pixel blur. Text at medium and larger fonts were a bit less than perfectly legible, due to this 'blurry pixel' look. High-frequency patterns were no problem.

720p

In the 720p resolution, the Insignia NS-42L780A12 exhibited minor errors in displaying Moiré (Moire) and high-frequency patterns, though it didn't exhibit as much false coloration as in its native 1080p. Legibility of text took a slight drop from 1080p, looking blurry at medium-sized fonts.

1080p

In its native resolution, the Insignia NS-42L780A12 had no problem displaying Moiré (Moire) and high-frequency patterns accurately, but in doing so it gave them a false greenish or pinkish coloration. Legibility was excellent down to 7.5-point font size, at which point it could still be read, but looked a bit smeared.