ONE television setting is so controversial that millions are being urged to switch it off right now.
Filmmakers say it ruins their movies and TV experts think it’s simply terrible.
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But it can often be activated by default on TVs, which is why you need to check for it right now.
The feature is called Motion Smoothing, although it may have a slightly different name depending on your TV model.
Modern televisions can typically display 60 frames every second – and sometimes even two or four times that number.
But a typical TV show or movie would be shot at either 24 or 30 frames per second.
TVs use Motion Smoothing to account for this mismatch.
They’ll use computational guesswork to create “fake” frames between the real ones.
This makes the footage appear smoother, but it can also result in strange visual artefacts.
That means you don’t get the true cinematic experience that the directors originally intended.
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Many TV experts warn against using Motion Smoothing.
For instance, a report from shopper watchdog Consumer Reports warns against the feature.
Film critic Bilge Ebiri accused motion smoothing of “ruining cinema” in Vulture.
Star Wars director Ryan Johnson described motion smoothing as “liquid diarrhoea” in a 2017 tweet.
And Top Gun star Tom Cruise urged Mission: Impossible Fallout viewers to turn the feature off to watch the movie back in 2018.
It’s simple enough to turn off in your TV’s picture settings.
But be warned: certain TV modes may activate Motion Smoothing automatically.
It’s commonly switched on if you activate Sports Mode.
Some fans prefer Motion Smoothing when watching sport, but not all do.
And in any case, make sure to turn it back off again once you’re doing watching the game.
Many TVs now also offer a Filmmaker Mode that give you the settings that movie directors would want.
It may be worth trying this out, and then adjusting your settings manually for your own desires.
Featured Image Credit: Unsplash / The U.S. Sun
