I love watching a good action movie on a high-definition television screen. It would be even more awesome if the movie were in 4K resolution to get the best possible picture quality. However, it may come at a price: motion smoothing.
Motion smoothing is the high-frame-rate effect that makes the action look faster than it should. Without getting too technical, it’s a way to make video filmed at the standard 24fps (frames per second) run at the 60fps the TV is capable of using. To do this, it plays each frame two or three times.
This technique is to avoid motion blurring. It does, however, give off a “soap opera” effect (you’ll know what I mean if you have watched one before). It just looks strange.
Other than wiping away some of the blurs, I don’t know what the effect is trying to achieve. In my mind, all it accomplishes is speeding up the action. Why? Unless the scene is supposed to be sped up, there is no good reason to use the effect.
I understand that the high frame rate is connected with the high definition picture, but I think I can do without the added “bonus.” The first time I experienced this was when The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) first came out. With little (or no) warning, I felt light-headed and dizzy after watching a movie with the high-frame-rate effect. I just didn’t understand what I was seeing. I still love Five Armies, but would never watch the high-def version again.
Several notable film directors have voiced their disapproval for motion smoothing. Christopher Nolan, James Gunn, Rian Johnson, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Christopher McQuarrie make up that list. In a nutshell, they said that motion smoothing takes away from the director’s vision of a movie. Even though he’s not a director, but Tom Cruise has also voiced his opposition on the subject. It’s nice to know so many people I admire agree with me on this topic.
Thankfully, I do not own a TV that has that as an option. If I did, I would turn off the functionality. We can still enjoy crisp, Blu-ray quality picture without the high frame rate. Clarity necessarily doesn’t go hand in hand with adjusting the frame rate.
This is just another suggestion from me on how to engage in the true movie-watching experience. If you want some more advice, here is my article on my opinion about 3-D movies.
Happy watching!
