There’s only one reason to have motion smoothing enabled on your TV

Understanding the proper

settings for your TV
can be difficult. Most people will just leave the settings that the TV were set at when they first turned it on. They probably don’t realize there are a lot of ways to enhance your TV through some simple changes or that there are potentially different modes for viewing.

Motion smoothing is one such feature you can enable, and its goal is to make for a very real viewing experience. It wants you to feel like you’re in the room with the people on screen. But what you may not realize is, in certain circumstances, this is a massive hindrance to your overall viewing experience. There are some exceptions, but here’s why you shouldn’t have motion smoothing as a preset option on your TV.

What is motion smoothing?

You don’t always need to use it

Pocket-lint / Sharp

Motion smoothing, or motion interpolation, is a feature that does have a good use case. It reduces the blur that comes from fast and rapid movements by adding extra frames between the original frames that you’re seeing.

Motion smoothing is also known as the “soap opera effect” because it makes everything look very realistic. You can feel like you’re in the room with the characters in a scene. But, this can be disorienting because many shows or movies aren’t meant to be viewed this way. It makes things look like they are shot on video when many movies are shot on film and don’t want or need additional frames added in.

Why the “soap opera effect” can be jarring

There’s a lot going on, so why not smooth it?

Think about what actually happens when you’re adding in frames and smoothing out the action. It is taking something that wasn’t meant to be shot this way and altering it. It may seem extreme, but motion smoothing is changing what a filmmaker has created. It’s a nice feature to have in a few instances, but there are reasons why Tom Cruise is against it.

It makes your viewing experience too real. It can actually take you out of understanding that you’re watching a movie. This is an odd phenomenon, but the “soap opera effect” moniker is pretty dead on. Anybody that has watched a soap opera knows that you’re meant to feel like you’re up close within the scene. It’s what draws you into the drama. But movies shot for a theater screen aren’t often made for audiences to feel like they’re a part of the movie. They are meant to realize they are sitting back, relaxing, and viewing a piece of content.

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When you should keep motion smoothing on

There are use cases for it

Pluto TV / Tim Mossholder / Unsplash / Pocket-lint

Motion smoothing is great for watching sports. The fast-paced action of a basketball or football game can make it feel a bit jarring and the TV may struggle a bit to catch up with the action. Having motion smoothing on will eliminate that bit of blur and lag and make it a more smooth and enjoyable viewing experience. While you may not want to make it feel like you’re sitting alongside Tom Cruise during a crazy stunt, you may want to feel like you’re in the stadium watching the game.

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Is motion smoothing called that on every TV?

Unfortunately, it isn’t uniform

Of course, because there are so many different TVs and different operating systems, they don’t all call motion smoothing the same thing. This can be a challenge for anyone who is cognizant of the feature and wants to be able to toggle it on and off. Motion smoothing or video interpolation are the industry terms for them in Hollywood, but manufacturers don’t all use the same terminology.

For example, on an LG smart TV, motion smoothing is called TruMotion. On a Samsung TV, you can find it under either Clear Motion or Auto Motion Plus (why does Samsung have multiple names for something?) On a Sony TV, it is called Motionflow. More TV operators have used action smoothing, motion clarity, and LED motion clarity. It’s smart to search for what your specific TV brand calls it so you know how to turn it on or off.

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Some people may like the look of motion smoothing on their TV. They may want to feel like they’re inside the content. That’s okay if you are that person. But many people may be watching a movie or show and it just may not be hitting their eye quite right. That’s because motion smoothing is changing the frames per second (FPS) to make it seem more lifelike.

When adjusting FPS, it speeds up what you’re actually seeing by just chopping and adding more to what you need. Sometimes, motion smoothing can make your content jump from 24 FPS, which is standard for most viewings, to 120 FPS. This can be that jarring effect that just doesn’t view properly. Adjusting it on the fly depending on what you’re watching can be an annoyance. But knowing when to deploy it can help you to enjoy the content more.