One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for reducing motion blur in a liquid crystal display (LCD) by pulsing each frame with a relatively short pulse of backlight illumination while driving pixels within the LCD with compensated intensity values to account for LCD settling time and vertical position. An LCD drive compensation unit implements the disclosed technique to generate an intensity value for each pixel that is scanned into the LCD. The technique advantageously reduces motion blur while preserving uniform vertical display accuracy.