Nuking The Soap Opera Effect on HD TVs

The newer Samsung Smart TVs have something called "Auto-Motion-Plus," which is a setting in the "picture" control section of "menu." Menu is on your keyboard, or your hand-held remote. It's a key you hit. Or an option on the remote.

This has nothing to do with the "ClearMotion" feature, so don't worry about that. This is a small thing with a big impact on your viewing experience.

On Panasonic TVs, it is called "The Soap Opera Effect," and that is the generic name for the problem caused by over-enthusiastic feature-adders in these companies.

Those of you with these TVs might wonder how to get rid of the notorious "Soap Opera Effect" and with the help of a member here, Sergio Luiz, I have found the settings necessary to properly watch a movie on your TV. This is ESPECIALLY applicable to streaming content, as well as television content. (I haven't gotten into the Blu-Ray player yet, as there are so many movies to stream in full, Blu-Ray quality, but I imagine it could also have an effect on your discs.)

It's a setting that most people set to "off," once they find it. It actually has four options, including "off," which you can find when you hit "Menu"-->"Picture" and then scroll all the way to the bottom, where you'll find some special picture settings, including "auto-motion-plus." Select it, and then choose which one you want. "Clear" is closest to "off" without actually turning it completely off. Some films many require "off." For general television, and films on television, you may want to step it up to "clear," which has some of the effect to avoid "judder" and "blur." That is why they have it: "judder" and "blur."

In some films, you want a little "blur," because the film is shot to create different depths of field, and that often makes it cinema, not tape. And the Soap Opera Effect ruins this.

Here is a screen shot I found on the 'net, as I don't know how to get a shot off my TV, except to shoot with my camera. (OH! Yeah! I'll be back tomorrow with that.) For now, here's a shot:

auto_motion_610x343.JPG

And here's from MY TV (it's "tomorrow"):



It takes the amount of frames per second shot for a film, which is 24, and inserts computer-generated information to make it into 30 frames per second. This is known as "interpolation." On Samsung TVs, like mine, if you select "standard" or "smooth," you will see the full-on "Soap Opera Effect," and everything will look SO clear, that it will look like an old soap opera made with video tape, or sent out live, which they used to do. It does NOT look like film. At first, when you don't know it, it blows your mind with the clarity. But you soon realize that you are not seeing the film as a film. It looks like you are on the set. This was particularly noticeable when I watched the Full HD Blu-Ray quality stream of The Graduate. The whole feel of the picture was knocked out. The scene underwater was ruined, and I thought I was at an aquarium, with Dustin Hoffman on the other side of the glass. It was that "real." The scene has always had a surreal quality - or it's supposed to, and that was just totally gone.

The setting that caused this to happen was "standard" in the "auto motion plus." And that may be great for live sports, or watching a concert, it is NOT for a film.

This has little or nothing to do with Samsung's "ClearMotion" which is a whole other thing with the refresh rate improvement. So don't worry about turning "auto-motion" either to "off" or to "clear." I would advise NEVER going all the way up to "smooth" even for sports, as that would be totally artificial-looking.

There are also "modes," in the picture settings, and this mostly just affects brightness and contrast. I chose "movie" for The Graduate for the second half, and while it seemed better, it only put a band-aid on the root problem, which was the "Soap Opera" setting, which needed to be turned "off" for this film. It's a judgement call between "clear" and "off." Your choice.

And "movie" mode is also a choice, but a different choice: it will make your film darker. You can just experiment with that. I like Elvis movies brighter. This will NOT get rid of "The Soap Opera Effect," though. Do not be fooled by "movie" mode.

In fact, if I were watching an Elvis concert, on film, I might want a bit of this Soap Opera Effect set to "standard." (Never "smooth." That is ridiculous.) Makes it seem more "real." Up to you. Keep in mind that it's not really "real," though. It's computer magic that most people do not like.

If you get good enough, any of these settings can be totally customized. But really, you don't need to do that.

I hope I explained this well-enough. I can't take screen shots from my TV, until I just photograph it. And I wish I knew exactly what the name of the setting is that you scroll to in the "picture" settings after hitting "menu." It's all the way down. You can't miss it. I will take some pics off my TV tonight, and post them in here tomorrow, or if I'm lucky with the WiFi, tonight.

rjm

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Last edited by rjm on Tue May 21, 2013 4:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

You should watch the Blu ray Viva Las Vegas and Elvis on Tour with it on!

You should watch the Blu ray Viva Las Vegas and Elvis on Tour with it on!

I watched most of Viva last night! Extraordinary! The colors POP!

I have a new appreciation for the film.

rjm (see new screen shot from my TV in initial post above)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

Auto motion is just one of the names that different manufactures use. Motion2 and Tru motion being a couple others. It's been around for some years via PC with software such as Cyberlink and Mirillis just to name a few.

http://downloadmirillis.com/gfx/clips/M ... clip01.swf

Auto motion is just one of the names that different manufactures use. Motion2 and Tru motion being a couple others. It's been around for some years via PC with software such as Cyberlink and Mirillis just to name a few.

Interesting. I can see it for creative video editing, but not to ruin a classic film.

I never did like Cyberlink Power Director, btw. It would not do what it claimed to be doing at the time. They say Sony Vegas is best: but too expensive for me just now. I can kick butt with Movie Maker plus add-ons. My "Comeback" will be in July.

Ah, going off-topic. It's late. Time to go to sleep.

The TV set is awesome! And now, I know how to use it!

Night all,
rjm

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

No you are being confused with Cyberlink, this is written in Cyberlink PowerDVD. This is used in the playback software - not creation

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