While there are limits to what networks can deliver economically, there are also limits to what humans can perceive. Human perception is not infinitely sensitive, so some coarseness of data can be accepted, which tends to make life easier for the network developer.
For example, the limit of human auditory sensitivity is in the range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz per second. So there is no point in a network providing audio service above that pitch.
Television in the United States is shown at 30 frames per second. Generally, there is no need to show at higher rates because viewers can't tell the difference anyway. One exception where humans can tell a difference is for flashing lights. Flashing lights at 30 frames per second is noticeable. Human eyes are much more sensitive to brightness than to color.
Other important picture rates are listed here:
Film, 24 frames per second (fps)
European television, 25 fps
Computer monitors, 72 fps
Human motor response for interactive games is less well calibrated. Some people are quicker than others. If human motor response is less than 1/75th of a second (about 15 milliseconds), then computer monitors will fail to deliver interactive experience for interactive games. If less than 1/30th of a second, then TVs will fail.
Latency for interactive games, therefore, must be less than 33 ms on an NTSC monitor, and less than 15 ms on a proscan monitor. The latency budget for the network is even more stringent because processor delay of the game player must be added.
The threshold of human voice response used by the phone industry is 100 ms. If voice takes longer than 100 ms round-trip, then the conversants can't differentiate a speaker's pause from network delays. This is also a useful number to use as an upper boundary for any latency that requires hand-eye coordination. If you subtract the time it takes the monitor to display an image, then network and computer processing delays are bounded by 67 ms (100 ms–33 ms) for TV sets and 85 ms (100 ms–15 ms) for PC monitors.
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