Why do some HD things look funny on TV?

[corranhornjje]

Some things shot in HD look fine, but there's something about some shows and commercials that just looks off. It's not that they're stretched or anything like aspect ratio issues. It's something with the frame rate that makes everything look very unnatural. I see it in movies all the time too. Watched some clips from Night at the Museum on BluRay at Best Buy and it just looks like fake video instead of a film.

 

[Jodo]

Aye, I watched some of Scrubs at Sears a while back, and it made me relise how much I enjoy my old TV. :lol Evryone/evrything looked like a cartoon or something. Not even realistic or anything, it just had a realy strange look to it.

 

[cboath]

It's hard to say without seeing the set and shows in question.

A couple things that can make your picture look weird or odd:

LCD's with 120Mhz or higher refresh. By default they have the refresh set to it's max which tend to make things look ultra real (in a bad way) or make things unnaturally pop out from their backgrounds. My parents got a new set like that and watching the local news was headache inducing because of the refresh. Knocking it down solved that issue.

Another thing i've noticed (and TNT is where i've seen it most) is that some stations seem to get the HD version of a series - great, right? - but the broadcast is bizarre. It tooke me a while staring at it to figure out what was off, but i did. What they seem to be doing is showing the episode in HD, and it is, but only the middle portion is in the correct aspect ration - the 4:3 area of the screen - the portions of the screen on the outer areas (where the black bars would be in portrait mode) are actually stretched wide for some reason. No idea at all why this happens. I've seen it on more than one set, so i know it isn't me

 

[DARTH SABER]

It sounds like you're talking about "dynamic motion" or "true motion" feature that is available on some HD tvs.
The tv gives you the option of keeping this feature on or turning it off .


DS

 

[Got Maul]

Yah, I its the true motion stuff. Turn it off - its cool and kitchy at first, then gets annoying and nautious over time.

 

[Kris]

its cool and kitchy at first, then gets annoying and nautious over time.

It never was cool to begin with. :sleep Disabled it the second I installed the new TV here.

 

[Solo4114]

This is why I intend to buy a plasma.

My understanding is that LCDs have issues with their refresh rates, which is why you have the dynamic motion or 120Hz/240Hz feature. This involves frame interpolation, which basically "fills in the blanks" in what, to me, looks EXTREMELY unnatural.

My dad's in the market for a new TV so I took him to a local home theater store yesterday. We were watching a Samsung LCD -- one of last year's B650s. It had 120Hz, and they were playing an SD DVD of Vantage Point. Lots of action on the screen, etc. To me, it looked.....weird. Almost too perfect or too smooth. That's when I figured out it was the motion interpolation. I gather the 240Hz sets smooth this out better so it doesn't look as unnatural, but this is all designed to fix the motion blur that older LCDs have, and as a result, it took things in a wacky direction that makes it look like....I dunno...video tape? Like everything's too....steady? Something like that. It's hard to describe but to me it just looks unnatural.

My dad, however, couldn't really see the difference. The store guys flipped the station to the Olympics, however, and those looked just fine.

So, basically, yeah, try knocking down the motion interpolation feature or at least reducing it and see if that helps. Or buy a plasma. I hear they don't have this issue. They may have OTHER issues, but not this one.

 

[Jeyl]

I actually like the look.

 

[jt001]

...as a result, it took things in a wacky direction that makes it look like....I dunno...video tape?

Exactly!!!! I really hate that video tape look. Everything look so smooth, or artificial. Call me old fashioned, but I LOVE the film grain!

 

[propsculptor]

How do you knock down the motion interpolation feature?

This is why I intend to buy a plasma.

My understanding is that LCDs have issues with their refresh rates, which is why you have the dynamic motion or 120Hz/240Hz feature. This involves frame interpolation, which basically "fills in the blanks" in what, to me, looks EXTREMELY unnatural.

My dad's in the market for a new TV so I took him to a local home theater store yesterday. We were watching a Samsung LCD -- one of last year's B650s. It had 120Hz, and they were playing an SD DVD of Vantage Point. Lots of action on the screen, etc. To me, it looked.....weird. Almost too perfect or too smooth. That's when I figured out it was the motion interpolation. I gather the 240Hz sets smooth this out better so it doesn't look as unnatural, but this is all designed to fix the motion blur that older LCDs have, and as a result, it took things in a wacky direction that makes it look like....I dunno...video tape? Like everything's too....steady? Something like that. It's hard to describe but to me it just looks unnatural.

My dad, however, couldn't really see the difference. The store guys flipped the station to the Olympics, however, and those looked just fine.

So, basically, yeah, try knocking down the motion interpolation feature or at least reducing it and see if that helps. Or buy a plasma. I hear they don't have this issue. They may have OTHER issues, but not this one.

 

[Solo4114]

RTFM? Honestly, I don't know. I suppose it depends on your TV.

 

[Aegis159]

All of the sets that have the AutoMotionPlus (Samsung) or whatever else the other companies call it, have the ability to turn the feature off. Some of them also have variable settings to the feature as well.
Personally I've found that it depends on what you're watching whether the feature is good to have on or not. It's great for sports programming. However several of the HC channels that are out there now, like TNT and TBS, are so compressed signal-wise that the shows get flutter issues in slow pans and other types of camera shots because of the AutoMotion feature.

Really, I've found that it just depends on the subject matter whether I turn it on or off.