Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@milesabovetech
Topics: TV And Film, TikTok, Technology
Gregory Robinson
Topics: TV And Film, TikTok, Technology
Have you ever watched a TV show or movie at home and thought something was a bit weird about how it looked on screen? Especially if you watched the film at a cinema only a few weeks or months before?
Well, it turns out you're not the only one and a TikToker is urging people to turn off a setting on their TV sets to avoid this from happening.
TikTok user @milesabovetech, who shares short and informative videos about technology, uploaded a video about a setting that is found on new TVs.
"It literally ruins the way you watch movies and shows," he declares at the start of the clip, which has amassed over 109,000 likes and 1.6 million views in only six days.
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New TVs have a setting called motion smoothing. The TikToker says the setting ‘adds frames to the movies or shows that you’re watching so it looks smoother to the end user’.
This effect is known colloquially as the ‘soap opera effect’ and it should come as no surprise that big budget Hollywood action films or period dramas shouldn't look like that.
He goes on to add that movies and shows are usually filmed in 24fps and not 48fps or 60fps, which is why motion smoothing adds additional frames.
In theory, motion smoothing is meant to make films run in a cleaner way by preventing blurring however in practice, there can often be errors.
Even some of Hollywood's biggest names have complained about the setting.
In 2018, Mission Impossible: Fallout star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie released a statement asking home viewers to turn off the setting when watching the film.
If you own a modern high-definition television, there’s a good chance you’re not watching movies the way the filmmakers intended, and the ability to do so is not simple for you to access,” McQuarrie declared.
“Filmmakers are working with manufacturers to to change the way video interpolation is activated on your television, giving you easier access and greater choice on when to use this feature,” Cruise added.
To see how the films and shows you’re watching were intended to be soon, you must go into your TV’s settings and then either go into advanced settings or display settings depending on the TV you have.
From there you can click clarity and then select the setting called 'TruMotion’ and turn it off.
The name of the setting may differ on different TVs, including smooth motion, enhanced motion, Auto Motion Plus on Samsung TVs and Motionflow on Sony TVs.
Every film and TV fanatic should try this and see if it makes a difference.
Even if you have never heard of motion smoothing before, you have probably encountered it without realising.