Which brings us back to frame interpolation, aka motion smoothing. And yes, its default settings are usually far too dramatic. But I’ve found that lower settings are less offensive. A bit of interpolation adds just enough information to “clean up” the picture during moving scenes, giving you a clearer, less stuttery image without making it look like an episode of Days of Our Lives.
That said, finding this balance can vary from TV to TV, and some brands do it better than others. Remember, the TV is taking frames from your movie and guessing how frames in between them should look—which can result in artifacts, or glitches, in the picture when it guesses wrong. O’Keefe says these artifacts are more common on higher interpolation settings, but it depends on the TV, its interpolation algorithm, and its processing power—and, to an extent, on how much you notice them to begin with.
In my…
