Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
Consumer Reports joined Into Tomorrow this week to help us avoid the “soap opera” effect on our TVs:
Does your new HDTV’s picture seem to have a weird “soap opera” effect? Fear not, Consumer Reports electronics spokesman James McQueen is here to tell you how to fix that.
Don’t worry; there’s nothing wrong with your HDTV, says our TV guru Claudio Ciacci. This soap opera effect is a common problem that comes up when a feature called smooth motion is activated, causing movies to lose much of their filmic character.
It’s referred to as the “soap opera effect” because films end up looking hyper-realistic, almost like daytime soaps. Those shows are usually shot with cameras running at a higher 60 frames per second, or 60Hz, which naturally yields smoother motion.
Movies, by contrast, are usually shot at a relatively slow 24Hz, with motion that can look a bit jerky during camera pans, but that’s the “film look” we’re accustomed to seeing.
An easy fix for the soap opera effect is to turn off the smooth-motion feature. But with some TVs, it’s tied to anti-blurring processing—which is helpful in reducing blur during motion scenes.
So by turning the soap opera effect off, you also lose any blur-reduction benefits. For TVs that have sub-controls in this feature’s menu, be sure to turn down the setting called anti-judder and turn up the anti-blurring processing. That should preserve the authentic film look.
For more info on this story, visit ConsumerReports.org.
