HOLLYWOOD movies might look absolutely rubbish on your TV because of a stray setting.
The good news is that you can make those glossy films look beautiful again in just a few seconds.
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It’s all linked to two possible settings, or technically one (it has two common names).
They are: Motion Smoothing or Motion Interpolation.
To make things more confusing, it might be called something else entirely depending on your TV model. Looking out for “motion” is usually the key.
It might sound harmless, and potentially even good – but it’ll sabotage films in an instant, and you might already have it turned on.
STOP! MOTION
So why is Motion Smoothing bad?
When your TV is playing a movie, it’s just showing a series of still images very quickly – resulting in video.
Your TV can only refresh the image on the screen so fast, and this is known as the “refresh rate”.
If a TV has a refresh rate of 60Hz (and it likely will) then it can update the image on screen 60 times every second.
Some pieces of content will be produced at 60 frames per second – and that’ll give you a perfect match.
But Hollywood films usually aren’t produced at 60 frames per second. Instead, they tend to be delivered at 24 frames per second.
That means they won’t line up perfectly with the refresh rate of your TV.
Over the years, we’ve become accustomed to how movies look at 24 frames per second. It’s part of what we see as “cinematic”.
But Motion Smoothing attempts to correct the mismatch by bringing the movie that you’re watching up to 60 frames per second.
It does this by guessing at what the “in between” frames might have looked like – and inserting them.
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These artificial frames bring the 24-frames-per-second content to 60-frames-per-second to match your telly.
This makes the content look much smoother, which often gets compared to “soap operas”.
But plenty of people think that the fake frames ruin the cinematic feel of a movie, and give it an odd look.
So if you’re watching a movie, try turning Motion Smoothing off to see if it helps.
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TV-maker LG explains: “If you are not a fan of this soap opera effect trend (in-your-face too realistic camcorder video picture texture & feel), especially whenever watching movies, you can easily switch to the dreamier reality escaping imagery as intended by film directors.”
The tech giant added that switching off its motion-smoothing features can help you “emulate a night out at the theatre”.
But it added that keeping motion smoothing on for watching sports can make it much more realistic.
One catch-all solution for many TVs is to turn on Filmmaker Mode.
WHERE CAN YOU GET FILMMAKER MODE?
Some of the TV brands that serve up FMM include:
- BenQ
- Hisense
- LG
- Panasonic
- Philips
- Samsung
- Vizio
But it’ll depend on your specific model – just go into your TV settings to see if you have it.
Picture Credit: Samsung
It’s increasingly common on modern TVs and adjusts a whole host of settings – including switching Motion Smoothing off.
The idea is that it shows movies as their creators intended, so check if it shows up in your TV settings.
It was created by the UHD Alliance, and is backed by top filmmakers including Christopher Nolan (Inception, Oppenheimer) and Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street).
There’s no cost to switching it on: you just need the right TV model.
FILMMAKER FAV!
Top Hollywood talent has talked up Filmmaker Mode…
“Modern televisions have all kinds of incredible possibilities in terms of their technical capabilities,” said Christopher Nolan, in a promo for Filmmaker Mode.
“But that also means that we need to be sure that the original intent of the filmmaker is carried through to the presentation.”
And Martin Scorcese added: “Most people are watching these classic films at home rather than movie theaters.
“And the filmmaker mode is of particular importance when presenting these films, which have specifications unique to being shot on film.
“Including the size of the frame, their aspect ratios, their approach to light and shadow, to color or black and white.
“In each case, absolutely specific and unique to the given film. Filmmaker mode is a long overdue and welcome innovation.”
Picture Credit: UHD Alliance
