Tom Cruise says that your TV’s motion smoothing effect, the one that makes everything look like a soap opera, is crap and you should disable it. And we completely agree.
Motion smoothing is a technique used by the latest 4K and smart TVs to insert fabricated frames between real frames of anything displayed. It happens on regular HD sets, too.
It was allegedly designed to make sports, news programs, and other content look “better," using interpolation to create new frames that in turn allow for a higher screen refresh.
In practice, it makes everything look terrible — especially movies, since the effect will make them look like soap operas. Hence the nickname for this infamous technology: the soap opera effect.
MORE: Disable Motion Smoothing Right Now for a Better TV Picture
Unfortunately, for some reason beyond any rational human’s comprehension, the Samsung and LGs of this world ship their TVs with motion smoothing on by default. Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie say that you must turn this effect off to watch Mission Impossible Fallout, which is being released today for home viewing.
They are right. It will make that film and any movie look like the filmmakers intended it (unless you are watching The Hobbit, which was disgracefully shot in 3D at 48 frames per second).
Don’t worry. If you were unaware of this abomination and want to disable it right away, we got you covered: check out our guide to disable motion smoothing here.
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