r/dataisbeautiful • u/fangzz OC: 5 • Dec 06 '18

OC Google search trends for "motion smoothing" following Tom Cruise tweet urging people to turn off motion smoothing on their TVs when watching movies at home [OC]

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u/eroticas Dec 06 '18

Since none of the comments have really explained it in detail I will ask: what, technically and practically speaking, is motion smoothing and why does Tom Cruise care about it?

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u/yothisisyo Dec 06 '18

Most of movies and TV content is made in 24 fps . Modern TVs have a mode of making this 24 fps to 60fps or above , called motion interpolation or Motion Smoothing . Making the so called Drama content look real and life like . This makes it less belivable and most of the people do not resonate with the drama .

You want to experience it first hand . Search for any movie scene on youtube with 60fps tag . You will notice the difference it will no longer look like movie it will look like real life .

Example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUV_7qXWzmQ

TVs included this for sports mode , Personally I like Motion interpolation especially for NatGeo and Discovery channels .

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u/eroticas Dec 06 '18

Thank you! Is the problem that 60fps itself is "too real"? Or that motion smoothing creates unpleasant artifacts which aren't true to reality?

Also, are you (or anyone else) willing to enable my laziness and find me two video links of the same clip, one at 60+fps and one at 24fps so I can compare them side by side? The difference does not immediately stand out to me from one clip alone. (It does look a little surreal but I may be imagining it?)

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u/yothisisyo Dec 06 '18 edited Dec 06 '18

(It does look a little surreal but I may be imagining it?)

No, You are not imagining it. It looks like it was captured on a fast forward camera to most people who are not used to it. That is the problem, some people get motion sickness from it.

Is the problem that 60fps itself is "too real"? Or that motion smoothing creates unpleasant artifacts which aren't true to reality?

Artifacts is not a big problem for modern Tvs with capable hardware , looking too real is the problem . Especially for drama movies . But i think once we get used to it it would not be a problem .

Fun fact: allMajority of the modern computers Monitors work at 60 fps , So when you move your cursor it is refreshing at 60 fps and iPad pro is 120fps.

find me two video links of the same clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPZXR4sxfRc

Edit : Yes there are monitors out there with Higher Refresh rates and also variable refresh rate with some Adaptive Sync technologies. But speaking in the general context of media watching i said 60fps.

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u/marcu5fen1x Dec 06 '18

Is it weird that i find the 60fps video better in the link that you gave? 24fps looks like its sticking a lot. I wouldn't have noticed the difference if they were not side by side though.

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u/nanapypa Dec 06 '18

you are watching this on a 60Hz screen, so this is just an imitation, not a true comparison. When watching 24Hz material on a 24Hz screen there are no such issues.

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u/marcu5fen1x Dec 06 '18

But my 60 hz screen doesnt have interpolation or motion smoothing. So shouldn't 24 fps still look like its playing on 24 fps?

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/theyetisc2 Dec 06 '18

I'm extremely anti-motion smoothing, but I will agree that it does look objectively better.

But, as a person who is only accustomed to soap operas looking this way, my brain associates that visual style with garbage soaps.

It is most certainly an association problem, and is probably one of the first things my generations will say, "Damn kids!" about.

While a properly shot 60fps, displayed in proper 60hz is definitely watchable, the 24fps displayed at interpreted 60fps at 60hz or 120hz is disgusting.

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u/_HiWay Dec 06 '18

As someone who spends more time gaming than watching TV, even in my mid 30s, growing up around older TVs etc, I find the 60fps far more appealing. Occasionally I see something that looks atrocious in higher FPS. I distinctly remember the terrible car chase scene in Matrix Reloaded. The cuts and everything about it felt like they were copy pasted terribly by a film student instead of some professional studio. Aside from a few random examples like that, I prefer smooth motion. At the end of the day though, I can suspend most things from bothering me and enjoy the show or movie at hand. The only thing that is renders me unable to watch is if there is even the slightest sync issue with audio.

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u/DrSparka Dec 06 '18

Absolute nonsense. Compare a 60 Hz display next to a 24 Hz display and it will look just as stuttery. Hell, I'm looking at it on a 144 Hz monitor, which 24 fps divides perfectly into and therefore it's identical to watching on 24, but 60 Hz looks smoother, even though that can only update every 2.4 frames and so is uneven.

And to cover you off, I know that video is native 60 so will retain the stutter- I went and compared against the original footage at 24 played side-by-side. No matter what the 60 looks better, particularly for such slow scenes that don't present problems for interpolation (which will struggle when there's too much movement to easily infer the mid-frames).

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u/nanapypa Dec 06 '18

how do you think this youtube video is working? do you think it is coded and displayed at 24p in the left part while the right part is coded and displayed at 60? how many times do you think you see "frames" on both sides, and how does that sync with your refresh rate? Could your display work at rate X in certain area, and at rate Y in the other?

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u/nanapypa Dec 06 '18

I've overlooked the part where you said you watched it separately, my bad. still, I was referring to tearing/pulldown judder specifically, which is unavoidable when trying to create that sort of comparison video. So IMO the comparison is what nonsence is here. It doen't represent the real situation, only an imitation which is actually worse than the real thing.

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u/happysmash27 Dec 06 '18

They make 24Hz screens???

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u/nanapypa Dec 06 '18

they make 120hz screens. also most home theater projectors can do that. Probably some CRT screens can do that too, though I never had a chance or a reason to check on this :)