How your TV settings ruin movies

[@Vox]

Want to see what a movie looks like when it’s shot and displayed at a high frame rate intentionally? Gemini Man was famously shot at a higher frame rate than normal, and it played in some theaters at 120 frames a second. Online, you can find clips of the 60 FPS version, like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rImVp6asmdZrpNk

[@shreeshanthkadam]

Looks soo good even in 144p

[@lukaazz6305]

any movie with a frame rate higher than 30 fps looks off imo

[@D.Enniss]

@@lukaazz6305 That's because we're far too used to see them at 24FPS (they're never 30fps)

[@ce5834]

we need for high fps movies.

[@lukaazz6305]

@@D.Enniss yea i think its because old movies used to have lower framerates so people have associated lower fps with a more cinematic feeling

[@ApprendreSansNecessite]

I use to be outraged by the over-sharpening of images on my parents TV when I understood that their vision was simply not great and that those halos around edges was what they needed for the image to *feel* sharp at a distance, so I gave up.

[@jamesb2028]

I came here looking for this comment.

[@liaselleaeri]

@@jamesb2028 wait huh? you already knew this very specific comment was gonna be here? whatttt???

[@a..4255]

@@liaselleaeri probably a comment talking about sharp images help people with bad vision 🌚👁️👀👁️👀👁️👀👁️👀👁️👀🙂👍👍👍

[@nickgreen2905]

That doesn't make sense. An over sharpened image does not appear sharper to someone who can't make out the difference. I guess your comment makes sense if the oversharpening is something they cannot perceive due to vision problems.

[@unicornpisssss]

@@liaselleaeri its a phrase people use saying like "I was hoping someone had the same thought as I did and commented it first so I dont have to"

[@indeans48]

Cool, now do one about how the poor quality of built-in speakers in modern TVs has caused a drastic rise in the use of subtitles because everything is an unintelligible mess.

[@kaylanotsmiley7006]

Maybe it’s intentional so you can go out and purchase higher quality sound equipment? Ie the Sound Bar.

[@DeathRoadVolMU]

@@kaylanotsmiley7006 I have higher quality sound equipment and it's still absolute trash to try to listen to. Dialogue is still so hard to hear and then I'm afraid of waking up the kids when any action sound happens.

[@julienforest9881]

@@DeathRoadVolMU If you’re lucky your AV receiver might have a limiter you can set which automatically reduces the volume over a certain threshold. You will lose sound dynamics but gain in quietude.

[@JaapvanderVelde]

Who ever used builtin speakers in earnest? An amp and a couple of speakers are like $20 at a thrift store, you can get an OK soundbar for a few hundred, or get a decent audio setup at about half the price of whatever TV you have.

[@96mryomama]

Also all the "open concept" interiors are the worst possible settings for acoustics.

[@SilverEye91]

This is sooo good! I really hate how TVs ruin the look of content, so a filmmaker mode is something I desperately want! Now if only they could stop ruining computer mouse input as well

[@Nate-bd8fg]

Oh god I go through so many hoops everyday with my computer to make sure I'm using raw input

[@giovannip8600]

WDYM?

[@Anonymous-yb1ho]

@@Nate-bd8fg gaming mouse baby

[@Nate-bd8fg]

@@Anonymous-yb1ho that's one small step yes

[@yourmommashouse]

@gary oak that’s only going to get you ball park. Every single panel is different. Buy 2 of exactly the same tv and input the exact same settings, calibrate them and I bet you they will have different values.

[@Suho1004]

When I was visiting my parents over the summer, we watched a movie on their television and it looked absolutely horrible. It was so bad that I had to stop a few minutes in and look through the settings until I found a way to turn off the adjustments. My parents had somehow never been fussed by it, but when we started playing the film again the way it was supposed to be shown, my mom said, "Oh, wow, I see what you mean."

[@CaptainPIanet]

My friends were the same way. Except they didn't notice the before and after lol. It was almost unwatchable for me

[@jj-if6it]

my parents have a TV that must have a terrible refresh rate and I doubt they even notice

[@kaitlyn__L]

I’ve had this exact same experience. “Wow, you can actually see the hairs on their face and the weave of their clothes!” Adjusting the colour balance so the sky and grass wasn’t neon was important too.

[@urrrccckostan]

So it’s not genetic-but more likely generational. Like working at a video store in the 90s trying to explain the concept of widescreen to older people.

[@heilo263]

I don't understand how folks go to movies in the theater and then notice no difference on TV motion smoothing. I feel like I'm in la-la land sometimes.

[@khalilahd.]

I honestly never know what to expect from Vox but I’m never disappointed 😅

[@PHlophe]

The rise of Khalilah Ali next em Vox

[@Deathmastertx]

The sort of videos Phil does are my favourites. Though, honourable mention to Estelle's earworm stuff.

[@fandroid6491]

Using comic sans in the thumbnail is genius.

[@enzopied3015]

666 likes

[@Sparkleberry5]

Lol "69"0th like

[@KhanyoMjamba]

We need to also talk about sound mix and sound projection at home. I find myself having to watch English language films with English subtitles on.

[@shamidkpzd]

Yep. I have to watch things in subtitles these days.

[@spencehutchinson1904]

Plus it just sounds so crispy and compressed.

[@EdwinWalkerProfile]

I went to see Nope at the cinema recently and oh gosh I've become so reliant on subtitles.

[@tsunamisantista6683]

That's is really an issue

[@rogoznicafc9672]

@@spencehutchinson1904 bcz it it if you watch movies on streaming sites

[@fwizzybee42]

Clearly some of these are over brightened but the trend of everything being so dark it’s downright impossible to see what the heck is going on has got do be the driver for this. Sound is the same. I’m constantly having to adjust my settings between things that are recorded so you can actually hear the dialogue and things where the effects and music are 10x louder than the dialogue.

[@TCJones]

I know, Some films are just to dark to see even with every curtain in the house shut, in the middle of the night, I have to turn my brightness up, just to see whats happening.

[@Nate-bd8fg]

@@TCJones most movies are designed for theaters. In a movie theater, the actual projector is incredibly bright. Brightness and contrast are different things. go ahead and turn up the brightness your screen actually displays at, but the contrast (which tv's like to call "brightness") "should" be unchanged

[@uncletrick1]

Preach brother!

[@coyotepeakentertainment]

Ironically, you just completely proved the point the video was getting at. The reason you're complaining about things being too dark and the sound being too variable is because you're not using the correct screen or audio setup for what you're watching. Your screen likely doesn't have enough dynamic range to show what the filmmakers intended. The sound is interesting - most movies are mastered for Dolby 7.1 surround sound. This means that there will very likely be an entire speaker, at the minimum, dedicated to the dialogue. You're probably playing sound out of stereo speakers, while still having some "surround" setting turned on - this means 7 tracks of audio are getting crushed into two, and obviously quiet things won't be able to beat the loud things.

[@akshit318]

It's probably because they are edited in pitch darkness

[@SteveSmith-cm1hx]

This is one of the best videos I've seen on this subject. I want to see what the director intended not some oversaturated, over bright, over blown picture. For me it ruins the movie watching experience. So on my LG C1 I set it to Filmmaker mode and that's it and it's been that way ever since I bought it last March. Great video and thanks a million for posting.

[@coisasnatv]

This "chef" analogy also works with "loudness war", today music is so dynamic compressed that it doesn't matter from where you get your music from, someone decided that a super loud music is good even though the original recording doesn't sound like that at all.

[@justGoscha]

I got too tired to explain this to people or complain about TV settings. You are always the odd one if you do this, even if you offer to fix it. Now that these videos are coming out from public figures I hope people finally adopt it. Unfortunately there is still the type of people that insist: "The higher frame rate the better. The directors intention doesn't matter. What matters is fluid motion." Especially for animation, where sometimes it is supposed to be choppy to have a greater impact. And interpolation can simply not draw inbetween animation with intention.

[@frankthetankricard]

Interpolation being bad aside, there's also the argument about 24 fps vs native 60+ fps footage having a completely different feel. At 24 the motion is reasonably smooth and going higher you lose the cinema feel that has been intentionally kept through decades of evolution of film production. Smoother motion beyond a point is not strictly better, only different.

[@maildaemon]

@@frankthetankricard In the same vein, it's not strictly _worse,_ either. I feel that some are returning to cinema gatekeeping when they say so. Art is subjective.

[@PouyaMan]

me be the one who cares about PQ but don't mind the interpolation if it's not too severe. I in fact sometimes prefer the more fluid look than the choppy nature of 24hz (I know, I know). Edit: I'd also like to add that I grew up with home video and CRT TVs for watching most of movies. Very few cinema sessions. As such for me 24fps doesn't have any particular feel, it just feels juddery. Goes to show that a big part of the 24fps argument is just pure nostalgia/we are used to it. And to go against the argument of "you wouldn't change a chef's creation", I absolutely would! if I don't like the taste of a food I order, I'm self conscious enough to adjust it to my liking without prejudice... 😅 And finally, there is some merit to the default setting of TVs, most people don't watch movies in light controlled rooms. A lot of dark scenes look horrible during daylight with lots of reflection. If default is cinema mode, a lot of TVs will get returned for has PQ. Sometimes we have to put our snobbery aside and understand most people simply don't care about intention of director and just want to watch their movies and enjoy them.

[@franklyqueso]

it's important that modern technology allows movie snobs to seamlessly out themselves in a social setting.

[@hello_kaiel]

I understand what you mean, I'm on the same boat, but I still make my movies 60fps either through AI or interpolation cause I like it that way, that's it, I like them looking like real life.

[@kurtdewittphoto]

Every friend and realative's house i've gone to in the last 10 years have had smoothing turned on, and I always ask if I can adjust their settings. I'm really thankful for this video. More people need to realize how modern TVs are ruining movies.

[@boewu_1465]

Samsung smart fridge has the highest quality for watching movies

[@key6723]

No capppp

[@AceChampElite]

It’s my main rig to play Skyrim

[@abishaakmal7455]

@@AceChampElite but can it run Doom?

[@Game_Hero]

@@abishaakmal7455 No, but it can run Crysis

[@RickPaquin]

Might be an OLED screen. My Samsung cell phone and tablets with their OLED are the absolute best for ANY type of video viewing. Most lower end TV, including most Apple products are a disappointment due to their lack of OLED screen technology. It's really a more premium video technology that should in the discussion because it provides more optimum contrast depth without washing out the white portions of the video. The black portions of the screen are really black, as the film producers intended.

[@MlleKnobs]

Thank youuu! I've been trying to understand why this happens for such a long time. I knew something was off, it was basically like watching every single movie as if it were shot by a youtuber. Somehow the magic of cinema had been ripped off of movies and I couldn't figure out why because I didn't even know how to describe it.

[@pokepress]

Some TVs also have a “game” mode that will turn off some of these features to improve latency. It’s designed for video games, but can also be useful here.

[@xichael]

Yes! Surprised he didn't mention that.. This is the first thing I set when I encounter a TV

[@AceChampElite]

These Vox nerds probably don’t know what video games are

[@waxywabbit1247]

I'm pretty sure this mode will increase saturation and contrast. Which is helpful in a game to decipher individual elements but is still different from how the director mastered the film.

[@ZX3000GT1]

@@waxywabbit1247 Actually it does the opposite. It'll turn off every single processing features that may interfere with latency and, at least on my TV, makes the picture look dimmer and less saturated. What I'm guessing is that it's done so that you can control the brightness and saturation to the game/console itself (a lot of games have brightness/saturation settings after all).

[@kiwisoup]

@@waxywabbit1247 it's not about making a game visually better for gaming, it's about improving latency by disabling post processing

[@max2themax]

TV's should definitely tackle the sound of movies better... I absolutely understand that the best way to view a movie is with a proper speaker setup, but most people can't afford that or don't even know how to do it. TV's have speakers right out the box and they should account for making a movie sound properly. Usually I have to either suffer though really loud music in order to hear what people are saying in a dialogue or turn on the subtitles and never really hear what they say.

[@Doug_Hannon]

Yes, I am unable to use an expensive sound system because the subwoofer carries through to the apartment below me, so I can only use a stereo sound bar. I very frequently have to adjust the volume because dialogue is super quiet and then action scenes have insanely loud music.

[@theHumanBryno]

I recently saw someone suggest that Blu rays or digital content have different audio tracks for different settings, so that you wouldn't have to watch a movie with a remote and turn it up and down in between action and dialogue.

[@jun_suzuki42]

Ah i thought my TV having this issue when watching movies, such a turn off.

[@smileychess]

Look for settings like Night Mode, News Mode, or Compression. These will typically reduce the difference between the loudest parts and quietest parts. It’s often called night mode because it makes it so you can turn the volume down and still hear the dialog.

[@ishkapiska4516]

Sound bars are not so expensive anymore..

[@VagrantMediaDocs]

I’m thankful the UHD Alliance is holding these TVs to actual filmmaking standards. I cant stand watching movies on these newer TVs especially when the TV settings keep resetting after I turn the TVs off. When is the Filmmaker Mode Setting becoming available?

[@Xarbrough]

It's so good to see I'm not alone! When motion smoothing started to be a thing there often was no way to turn it off and because a lot of people didn't complain I was worried we would be stuck with it forever. But there's hope...

[@PokhrajRoy.]

VOX is answering one of the biggest questions I’ve had since a child (an avid TV Viewer) about the TV lol

[@bbloomfield6497]

Um.. then you must still be a child? This tech in consumer televisions is barely 15 years old.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

@@bbloomfield6497 I am, in Moira Rose’s words, a “Bébé”.

[@cosmosisrose]

@@bbloomfield6497 15 years ago I was definitely a child but I’m not one now - I’m 20. which is still super young of course but not a child haha. I initially agreed with you though because I thought this technology was younger.

[@cashnelson2306]

Since you were a child? And you never thought to just google it?

[@puglife6291]

My 2012 flagship Panasonic Plasma is set to THX cinema mode, with sharpness dropped to zero all filtering and frame creating switched off and 24hz mode and pure direct image mode switched on. The image looks like a film projector, get the 24p character and solid grain visibly displayed. Also make sure all filtering and frame creation is switched off in bluray player settings too.

[@howchildish]

This explains so much! I was watching a show with a lot of action scenes and couldnt shake the feeling that there were a ton of distortions. Now i know.

[@tylove7992]

LOL I watched "The Fellowship of the Ring" on my parents' new tv, and it looked like a bunch of nerds LARPing😂. I'm gonna mess around with these settings when i go back to their house.

[@HoennMaster]

A lot of people are aware of these things, but we are scared to mess with the settings because we don't fully understand all of them and don't want to mess it up “permanently”. 😅 Changing settings for every movie or tv show can be daunting.

[@matthewweflen]

Most TVs have a "reset to factory" function in their picture settings menus.

[@Furiospinosi]

That's why The Annoying Video Geek Who's Gonna Fix It For You was created by our almighty God

[@klatchabobby]

But you’re not changing them for every movie. That’s the point, you’re disabling the TV’s default settings once

[@heilo263]

Who needs or wants to change settings for every movie or TV show? That's not a realistic scenario. All we want is the standard to be presented in the way the show maker meant as much as feasible. TV makers can do this, but they just aren't.

[@heilo263]

@@matthewweflen Most TV's factory settings have motion smoothing enabled.

[@TyRoot]

Could have done without the intro setup, but you're doing the Lord's work VOX.

[@abramjessiah]

Thank you for tackling this subject. I swear there are TVs where it's impossible to turn off all the motion smoothing and dynamic contrast. I wish you had shown more examples though, as most people don't seem to notice how bad it ruins the experience.

[@inakilambrechts1114]

I've been trying to tell people about the motion smoothing problem for a LONG time, and there was no information at all about the issue or about how to solve it, finally they are doing something about it.

[@UNBOXBURRITO]

Thank you for making this! More people need to know and care about this. TV manufacturers are basically ruining art. The filmmakers are artists and it's like a museum deciding to show art behind some rainbow film glass and you have to constantly keep peeling it off.

[@DF12]

As a video editor, it is shocking to me that TVs can just add frames that were not in the final edit. Frame rate is super important, creatively, and it should not be messed with in the same way the sound should not be messed with.

[@redhotgalego]

On the sound though, there's also lots of processing and filters added by players, headphones, etc. It's a problem beyond film.

[@ZX3000GT1]

Why shouldn't I? I have the freedom to watch the movies I bought however I want. After all, isn't art subjective? What you think is super important might not be as important to some other people.

[@mstyles2182]

As a content creator and professional artist, I think it’s important to know how to view the original intent but it’s equally important to give the one paying for art the ability to enjoy it however they please and indulge their own preferences. 24fps was not a “creative” decision, it was a practical one based on the lowest common denominator to make it look passable and to keep costs down, particularity with cg heavy films…to me it looks like a stuttery mess after getting used to motion smoothing turned up halfway on a set known for being the best at handling motion blur

[@aruak321]

@@mstyles2182 it is a creative decision today though as you could very easily release a movie with a higher frame rate (especially on a streaming platform), however aside from a few experiments pretty much no one opts to since it looks subjectively worse and audiences complain about it.

[@mstyles2182]

@@aruak321 the issue isn’t how easily it can be “released”, it’s that it can’t easily be created when taking into account all the post processing and extra CG frames that would need to be rendered. You would also need to have a higher bit rate for data transfer and make sure your servers and enough of your customer’s internet speeds are fast enough to handle it to make it financially feasible…

[@MrZattack101]

Good to see filmmaker mode being adopted. I think interpolation is okay for sports, but that's basically it.

[@jmcd21182]

It's also great for live event programs like concerts and comedy shows or Nat Geo and Discovery stuff. But like they said the software just isn't ready yet to not produce artifacts 🥺

[@Jericho93py]

For anime its really good, or documetaries

[@tiortedrootsky]

@@Jericho93py sacrilege...

[@Garry646]

It's really confusing to see everyone taking a dump on interpolation when 60Hz TVs and monitors technically can not recreate 24fps (much less 23.967fps), and the motion just ends up being uneven and choppy because it periodically has to show the same image for longer to sync up the screen refresh rate to the movie. Coming from gaming where we now laugh at 30fps and hearing this video just say "we're not used to it, so it shouldn't exist" doesn't make much sense to me. I understand 60 fps out of the studios would require a lot more money and effort, so wishing for that is a lost cause, but saying you shouldn't try to mask the obvious incompatibility between content and device without offering a better solution is not gonna work. I agree that there should be a way to make the TV show everything truly 1:1, and I did calibrate my sets the best I could for true color, gamma and contrast(I especially hate dynamic contrast when the brightness changes every time I open the menu, so it's for sure doing some shenanigans it shouldn't). That being said, motion interpolation is an imperfect solution to a real problem. P.S. I have no problem with 24fps in cinemas

[@tiortedrootsky]

@@Garry646 yt is disgusting... it deletes my comment again... i dont know what to change so it would get through... sick and tired of it.....

[@adamjuice]

FINALLY! I've been quietly unnerved by this odd, uncanny look of newer TVs for years, but I could never explain it. Now we know what it is! Bravo

[@BL3446]

Its also worthwhile to note (that wasnt really in this video) is that TV has wildly different hardware than film/projector setup like in a theatre. TVs are backlit (often from multiple places on the screen) which makes things like contrast, saturation, and overall dark colors difficult to match. Motionblur/smoothing is one thing, but many of the color setting talked about cannot be fully fixed.

[@chronodreaming]

Looks like you haven't heard about OLED

[@ishkapiska4516]

Depends on the kind of tvs, some are edge lit tvs(the cheaper ones), some have more local dimming zones then others, and then there’s OLED

[@frankvee]

I’m with you 100%. Unfortunately most people can not see the difference or they simply don’t care. But I applaud your drive to educate the public.

[@thejunkface]

What’s really infuriating is that when I go to a friends house and they haven’t turned the motion smoothing setting off and so I do it for them and they say they can’t see any difference. How do you not see the un-natural and creepy way that the people in your favourite movie are moving?!

[@shadowmixx]

To me, the answer to that is simple. Some people just can't make a distinction. LOL! Everyone is different. It's the same for audio. I know people who couldn't tell you the difference between analog and digital, or a .mp3 from a .wav file if their life depended on it. For some, it's just not that deep. It's more about enjoying a thing, and not caring about other intricate parts of it. Because of this, I have learned to be more tolerant of others, and consider some things from their perspective.

[@willy4819]

Why are you deciding what’s best for them? Just let them watch it how they want, what they don’t know won’t hurt them

[@ginogatash4030]

​@@willy4819 as their friend they want them to have the best experience, it's a pretty normal thing to do.

[@ginogatash4030]

It can be hard to see the difference when it's not side by side and they have no idea of what you're talking about and what to look for.

[@Jiggy609]

I hate regular people. How can you not see a difference

[@gasparguruoftime5475]

For years my friend would have me cat-sit while him and his wife went on vacation. Every single time I'd turn off his motion smoothing "feature" on his TV and every single time he'd apparently notice and turn it back on lol. These days he has it off thankfully; somewhere along the line he must have learned that it's trash.

[@chansherly212]

not changing the visuals from what the director intended is all well and good , but if there is a TV setting to up the dialog volume compared to background sounds in a Nolan movie, i'm all for it! (Edit: Without having to read the entire movie from subs! Man why should I have to, for a language I already understand?)

[@BariumCobaltNitrog3n]

HA! Never gonna happen, but a great idea. It is feasible though, they are on separate tracks, as is the music, so if your system has that capability...

[@fabian5002]

Yes, it's called Subtitles ON 🤭

[@FranciscoBurrola]

Use a home theater system, movies with sound mixed in 5.1, 7.1 and Atmos, mostly likely will have the dialogue coming from the center channel speaker, you can turn down the level for all the other speakers so you can have the dialogue coming out louder than the music and sound effects

[@monochet]

@@FranciscoBurrola this is exactly what I did.

[@unliving_ball_of_gas]

@@FranciscoBurrola or just turn up the center

[@nathanconley1548]

Thanks for the quick and easy step by step instructions on how to fix this "problem" so I can see for myself, on my TV, the difference .

[@framegrace1]

It's all good, but i had to disable the "Filmakers mode" in order to actually see the movie. Unless the room is totally pitch black, on some movies you just see a black screen with some smudges on any low light scene. How about film directors edit the films thinking on the conditions they will be seen, not as if everyone sees them on cinemas? I had to remove the Filmakers mode while seeing "Sandman" on Netflix, a production that will NEVER be seen on a cinema... why are they editing it as if that was the case?

[@jbnelson]

What tv do you have?

[@OgdenM]

I just watched Sandman.. And so much yes.

[@Carewolf]

Yeah they should still allow brightness, that is independent of any other setting, and just depends on the light of the room the TV is in.

[@stephengris2988]

@@Carewolf exactly this. So long as it’s actual brightness (how much power is going to the backlight or the LEDs) vs adjusting the content itself to appear brighter, that’s pretty much the only setting we need control over.

[@Carewolf]

@@stephengris2988 It needs to boost the brightness of the rendered colors to work right, but it just shouldn't do it in a way that changes saturation or hue.

[@ericepperson8409]

I'm not a fan of watching just about anything at a lot people's houses anymore. It's maddening how many ppl just accept the the really bad default settings designed to make their set look the brightest and clearest sitting on a retail store's wall under the bright glare of fluorescent lights. I have ended up getting a lot of compliments from guests that for some reason they enjoy watching movies more at my place. The first thing I do is turn off all the motion blurring and tone down all the "torch" mode color settings.

[@Vinxian1]

One thing to note on image smoothing. It's a problem. However, slow panning shots that look great on IMAX at 24 fps look awefull on sample and hold screens. And considering all modern tv's are sample and hold it's a problem. Image smoothing *does* make those specific shots better

[@LutraLovegood]

And depending on the panel type you also get extra ghosting and trail blur that you wouldn't get with a good projector. It's all a trade-off.

[@nateb69]

Some do a better job than others. Some manufacturers try to remove judder whilst maintaining that 24p look overall.

[@Nekudza]

I'd argue that they often look awful in the cinema as well. Especially noticeable on horizontal camera movements, especially if you sit in the first 3-4 rows

[@The124cbr]

More people need to be talking about this! Maintaining that long established 24fps footage is NOT the best way for the industry to proceed given how much of that content will be viewed on screens that simply look awful at that framerate. With these sample and hold screens, content should be getting shot at 60fps.

[@Nekudza]

@@The124cbr it's not that simple unfortunately as in videogames for example. First of all we've used to 24 and many people hate the "soap opera effect" even if picture is much clearer at higher framerates. Remember that Hobbit was shot at 48 fps and many didn't appreciate the looks

[@opusmaximum]

I am really grateful for the filmmaker mode. It is such an improvement.

[@RH1812]

Weird how manufacturers just didn’t make ‘smoothing’ an option and standard the default. Would save a lot of stuff not looking like poor video

[@MommysGoodPuppy]

manufacturer have done their research and having smoothing on by default sells more tvs, basically people just want their ketchup

[@pappo666]

You could probably blame this on consoles since not many use a tv for tv and movies anymore at least it dont seem to be as normal as it used to be

[@p0k314COM]

Good manufacturers (like LG) always have build-in disable switch, and additionally intensity of effect (often).

[@TerryLondon]

@@pappo666 game console users want to use Game Mode - the mode with 0 enchancements. Otherwise player feels a huge input lag created by post processing of game frames.

[@p0k314COM]

@@TerryLondon But game mode change colors in bad way. This is mode to fast switch between colors of pixels. Its built to avoid black2black, and use gray2gray - it decrease input lag, but cost quality of picture. Its is important for games, but terrible for movies.

[@SHONSL]

This intro is SO GOOD! Kudos !

[@InsightfulUndercurrents]

Even though I love my LG OLED, the fact that it took 30 minutes to edit the settings to get a true cinema image is a joke. I know manufactures are adding film maker modes, but even they need a few edits to get it great.

[@WilliamJSisti]

I decided to just spend the $300 to have my Sony A80J ISF calibrated.

[@Nate-bd8fg]

@@WilliamJSisti what?? That's a thing???

[@WilliamJSisti]

@@Nate-bd8fg yup. They bring a measuring device and a signal generator. Then they adjust the colors. Took the guy like 5 hours of tweaking

[@jbnelson]

True. And they forgot to mention that on content not mastered with Filmmaker Mode metadata, it reverts back to Standard (or whatever mode the tv was on before). So you should really calibrate your SDR, HDR, and Filmmaker Mode profiles so that you keep the best picture on all content.

[@needsmoreclipping]

@@WilliamJSisti Couldn't have spent less to buy the gear to do it yourself.

[@ThrustersX]

Wow, this is the content that I didn't ask but definitely needed since I we have a LG TV.

[@jsmurray2]

This problem really needs to be addressed more often. Filmmaker-mode is relatively new, and while it is awesome on tvs that have it, it is not the end of the story. Firstly, most people never bother to look into the settings at all, figuring the manufacturer has pre-set the display optimally, and for this reason I think filmmaker modes should be the default setting. Worse, tvs like the samsung in this video use still have sharpening on by default, and even have an "eco brightness" mode which automatically adjusts brightness based on ambient room lighting. Really, manufacturers know how to optimally tune their products, but instead juice up colors and motion to better sell at big box stores like best buy, where all consumers see is brightness, color, and contrast, with little to no regard for accuracy.

[@BB-ed4om]

If someone never messes with the picture settings, I don’t think they’re missing anything as they obviously don’t care.

[@oliverm8146]

Its impressive how they make a simple topic so captivating

[@SamsReality]

The production value on these latest Vox videos has been absolutely excellent. Great work Vox team!

[@maemilev]

*Don't forget the audio side of things too!* HDR is the most sickened settings to play with!

[@jbmaru]

Thanks Vox for the explanation, I always knew there was something wrong when watching a movie on one of those TVs. Part of the reasons why I haven't rushed to buy one.

[@SkelaKing]

Same thing applies to music. Audio engineers spend a huge amount of time mastering music just for you to crank up the bass in your cars EQ settings. Unless you know your specific speakers frequency response, I always leave my EQ’s at noon

[@nathanaelhahn]

You're heroes for bringing this out into the public

[@tikatoo]

The examples shown here are a pretty bad look for TVs, though I will add one asterisk to the notion of "the director's vision": there are _some_ cases where the director is just wrong. I notice this mostly in audio, where for some movies I have to be actively futzing with the volume for the entire dang movie, 'cause if you set the volume so you can hear the dialogue, then the action scenes are deafening, and vice versa.

[@Justin_Bailey_NES]

**Christopher Nolan has left the chat.**

[@KeiferKif]

That because the movie has been mixed for theatres, they should have a streaming mix and a theatrical mix

[@QuintusAntonious]

Or they add artificial camera shaking because they think it adds tension or drama, when in reality is just makes half the audience motion sick.

[@RealBradMiller]

Yup.

[@johnny5k]

Thank you Vox for another great explainer video on something I’m passionate about & most people don’t have a clue about!

[@ri3sch]

At the same time, there’s a discussion to be had in regards to whether people have to consume content as the creator intended or consume what they find is their best experience. I think choice and making all choices easily available to the average person is the best path, which is sort of what the tv manufacturers did when creating different display modes

[@Beregorn88]

You can't consume it as it was intended anyway (unless you have the same professional monitor it was used for producing it) so you may just watch the way you enjoy it...

[@TheRockinDonkey]

@@Beregorn88 Right. If the movie's any good, it really won't matter that much how you watch it. And once you share your art it's no longer entirely up to you how that art will be consumed or interpreted.

[@charlie9086]

@@TheRockinDonkey The tricky part is, that people will watch your Art on the worst monitor they could find and then afterwards complain about the filmmaker for the bad visual quality...

[@prettyhatemachine101]

I’m almost as outraged over this issue as I am with KZbin videos that can’t simply explain what the title of their video says without filling them up with multiple sad and unsuccessful attempts at being funny and clever. This is would be an even greater video without it.

[@SilverEye91]

Well, aren't you a bundle of joy.

[@alondite215]

For anyone wondering how to get the best image quality out of your set without having to spend money on professional calibration (or equipment to do it yourself), the general rule of thumb is to set your picture mode to whatever your TV's equivalent of the "Film" preset is (film, movie, cinema, etc.), turn off all enhancements, anything related to motion or "smoothing," set the color temperature to whatever the warmest setting is (if it isn't already; most film modes do this by default) and turn the sharpness down to 0 (again, if it isn't already). If you have a newer, higher-end display, it may have a "Filmmaker Mode" or ISF presets (the ones on my LG CX are lebaled as "ISF Dark Room" and "ISF Bright Room." These are generally the most accurate presets you can get, so they're your best bet if image quality and accuracy is of prime importance to you.

[@SkyRied1]

Thanks, you're much more helpful than the video itself.

[@cranberriesdoodle1450]

Thankyou for including Rob McElhenney talking about this, I changed mine right after I watched the it's always ☀️ podcast.

[@CBGBBB]

I would like to have an advanced tv where movies and shows could have optimal settings codes that the TVs could read and adjust the settings automatically for

[@AlexSchwartzATV]

I like how there is "movie" and also "filmmaker" modes lol. Talk about confusing.

[@brett4264]

Well, if they'd quit making movies so dark that you can't tell what's going on...

[@AxTechs]

It's not dark, it's rich - Erik Messerschmitt, ASC (Mank, Mindhunter)

[@cbpd89]

I frequently have this problem. So I have to adjust my projector constantly because it ends up being either so dark you can't see a thing or so washed out you can't see a thing.

[@billyswong]

@@cbpd89 And then they wonder why TV makers invent "dynamic contrast" 🙄

[@leehookerstein]

For me and a few people I know we change the settings to make it look better for our viewing…like how filmmakers have their way of having settings. The view wants to view it their way. For me I keep the smoothing option on, with it off the movie just judders all the time and looks terrible.

[@needamuffin]

I always turn off the motion interpolation by default. Meanwhile, my parents can't even tell the difference between 60Hz and 30Hz so interpolation means absolutely nothing to them.

[@berengerchristy6256]

it truly blows my mind how people can't tell. you know most people can't tell that their new pro iphone has a screen with double the refresh rate either

[@d.x.1152]

Cause they have cheap vision.

[@walmanthegreat]

It’s not that bad grow up

[@needamuffin]

@@walmanthegreat I have, that's why my tastes have refined and I'm not content with whatever I'm given and I have the means and knowledge to change it. Sounds like it's you who needs growing up.

[@berengerchristy6256]

@@needamuffin it really depends on the person. if the can't tell how much does it REALLY matter? if they like it well then there you go. if I spent $5K on a tv and couldn't turn it off then I'd actually be mad kind of related, I wonder how NVIDIA's DLSS 3.0 compares with frame interpolation on tvs?

[@fossie157]

This made me immediately adjust my tv settings and my movie watch settings! Thanks Vox!

[@tofuprius3384]

I'm a bit of a display snob (mostly for photography work) but I honestly really hope more directors experiment with filming at higher frame rates. As I've gotten used to high refresh rate screens and video, I've noticed that a lot of movies shot at 24fps end up giving me a headache. I'm not sure if it's because of the frame rate itself or motion blur from the slow shutter speed that typically accompanies it. Action scenes where a narrower shutter angle was used tend not to bother me quite as much and frame interpolation actually seems to help as well. Either way, it's been frustrating to notice!

[@definingslawek4731]

have you watched gemini man? Did it look good to you?

[@BigCarso]

Absolutely. I prefer motion smoothing on. 120 fps or 24. The directors would shoot at 200fps if they had the tech, and didn't get complaints from old fashioned people. It's just not available

[@BattleBladeWarrior]

@@BigCarso I'm with you on that one. I for one like the smoother motion, because it more closely matches what we see in the real world.

[@BattleBladeWarrior]

If you haven't seen it yet, I'd highly recommend Avatar: Way of water. The movie was filmed with a higher frame rate, and even in 3D, it looked amazing in theatres. Everything was so smooth and gorgeous.

[@miz4535]

No the HFR scenes looked terrible. The train crash scene was a game cutscene, not a film@@BattleBladeWarrior

[@ingerasulffs]

That zoom in on Stilgar was like a frakin horror story revelation for me.

[@AC-im4hi]

I personally prefer the over contrasted look on my TV even though I'm well aware it is not the intended look. It's good to be aware of all your options but ultimately it's your TV so put it on whatever mode you like the most.

[@Nikolasz1173]

@@BillRey Its his tv he can do with it watever he wants for f sake

[@hannuback]

I still have my CRT TV and I watch movies from DVD. It is one of the best models from Finlux and I've had it since 2005 when my grandfather died. People got fooled into thinking that CRTs aren't good enough, but for movies and old game consoles they're still great!

[@muIIiner]

this happened at my friends house and they genuinely thought it looked good

[@MotoCat91]

And so you left it alone since they already had it exactly how they like it right? Right?

[@jonbraddock5545]

Thank you! Been gearing up for a black friday 8K TV upgrade from 2k and am going to look for one that has "Filmmaker mode".

[@parzival3632]

This is why I watch all my movies on my computer. I work on Photoshop, as a result I had to buy an extremely color accurate monitor and I keep it calibrated on a regular basis. Watching movies on that monitor is just heaven.

[@lovemadeinjapan]

I forgot to add: another benefit of a computer is that you can set the output to 48fps. You can't on a console, AppleTV, Chromecast. Most monitors have a accepted range of 48-75fps. With a 24fps signal they stay black with a out-of-range message. If you set the computer to 48fps (47,952Hz to be precise) then the monitor will show each movie frame exactly twice. At 60 Hz (which is 59,94Hz to be precise) you get judder as even frames are shown 3 times, and odd frames 2 times.

[@odlanorirom]

...to each his own preferences....i like the MEMC or soap opera effect...my tv, my settings....

[@JoshChristiane]

The frame-blending has always driven me nuts in particular. Somehow people think that looks good...

[@The_Default_User]

dear vox, i need a video like this every week please

[@sunnysmiles6014]

I like a bit of extra saturation and a bit of gamma, makes the colors pop. brightness = bad gamma = good

[@pranvsharma]

I bought a new TV and noticed this a lot . Tuned on the filmmaker mode and now is better

[@ylihao]

Suggestion: How about an episode explaining why movies are usually made in 24fps?

[@LutraLovegood]

It was the cheapest that still allowed for generally smooth motion at the time, and we haven't changed that standard ever because of the huge inertia of both the industry and consumers even though technology and content have changed drastically since.

[@nateb69]

@@LutraLovegood It's now an entrenched "look" that separates storytelling from documenting. Personally, I hope it stays.

[@TheGreybush92]

I have a 2021 lg c1 and I watch every movie on film maker mode it’s great

[@Daysed.and.Konfuzed]

I still think brightness can be an even worst villain. Most TVs I've seen in other people's houses didn't have blacks, only 50 shades of gray.

[@Paulxl]

Not everybody has a OLED tv.

[@Daysed.and.Konfuzed]

​@@Paulxl Who said anything about OLEDs? Dude, we can have decent blacks since the times of the last CRTs. Most people don't have anything close to an ideal setting just because they never Google it. There's a bunch of guides on the internet showing how to adjust the basic settings, without even needing any professional measuring equipment neither.

[@aspecreviews]

Adaptive backlight/dynamic contrast/auto-dimming systems can help with that.

[@pablocoronado5739]

that’s so funny that i finally have been keeping up with the always sunny podcast started looking up automation plus after the episode

[@ahmedkamalhasin2070]

A few years ago I was watching movies with some friends at a sleepover at one of their homes and I noticed the smart TV made the movies almost 60fps artificially. Back then I still had a CRT TV and didn't know exactly about artificial frame rate enhancements but I could feel that the TV is doing something to the footage. Weirdly when I mentioned it to my friends they didn't get it and thought that was the way it should be. For me, it kinda ruined the movie-watching experience.

[@dacrokmistakilla]

Ho man i love this channel so much. Thanks for the quality work here.

[@FalconsEye58094]

Every company has their own word for it, officially it's called a soap opera effect, Sony called it motion flow. I remember seeing it on display with every TV in stores, I don't know why I hated it and everybody else looking at it seemed to agree

[@jmcd21182]

It's called Motion interpolation but soap opera effect is easier when explaining it

[@sucombo_unpredictable]

Thank you so much, however I didnt know that, you saved my TV-Experience for the next 5 Years.

[@mjdryden]

I fear the day when TV manufacturers stop letting us turn motion smoothing off. It looks absolutely awful and it's the first thing I disable on every TV I get.

[@Valkaneer]

Now this is what I wanted to see, now I want to know what TV's have Film Maker mode. I have always wanted to view the movie was the director wanted it to be seen.

[@inactivefan]

Does this also happen on monitors and/or laptops cause i mainly watch on those and i would love to know if i have to fix this

[@justGoscha]

It does not usually happen on screens that are for computers/laptops. Unless they are some kind of TV/Screen All-in-one product.

[@pamlegaspi]

I think in a way it does but mainly for colors. I'm a graphic designer and depending on which laptop i use, the colors of the digital art i'm working on drastically changes.

[@inactivefan]

Thank you both!

[@omarassadi2455]

Yeah, as mentioned, bad colors are the primary issue with computer screens; I haven't personally run into any computer monitor with frame interpolation (I wouldn't be shocked if they exist, though). You can adjust a lot of the color issues with calibration. But a lot will also be a hardware limitation, something this video didn't discuss. One thing to keep an eye out for is panel type. On computers, these are typically TN, IPS, and VA. OLEDs will generally be the most accurate and have the widest viewing angles. However, OLED panels are incredibly rare on laptops and monitors; these are most common on things like phones and the highest-end TVs. These screens do not have a backlight as they emit light themselves. And when they want to display true-black pixels, they can simply turn off those portions of the screen. IPS will generally be the best in terms of traditional LED panels. These tend to have better viewing angles and better color reproduction than anything other than OLEDs. However, they are more expensive than TN, and "IPS glow", which results in a glowing effect in the corners of the screen, is common. VA panels also exist but aren't as common as IPS or TN. They generally tend to have worse viewing angles and colors than IPS but often better contrast and don't have that IPS glow. However, it's worth noting that "tend to have worse colors" is a statement of averages; there are high-end VA monitors that will destroy low-to-mid-range IPS screens in terms of color accuracy. Lastly, TN exists, and it's generally the worst offender. TN panels are the worst in terms of colors and viewing angles. However, they are cheap and have better response times than IPS, which is why many low-end, high-refresh-rate gaming monitors were often TN in the past. Regardless of the general technology used, not all panels are created equal; there are very cheap, low-quality IPS panels and very high-end expensive VA panels. Some monitors will perform better or worse than the average for their type. You'll want to look up proper in-depth reviews by people with good testing methodology before buying a monitor. RTINGS and TFT Central are the two websites that come to mind for me. The latter tends to be more in-depth, while the former has a very wide variety of tested products and an easy-to-use comparison table. If you have a truly terrible screen, there's only so much that can be done. But with a reasonably decent one, you can get decent results either through manual calibration using color cards or automatic calibration with something like the calibrators sold by Datacolor/X-Rite.

[@inactivefan]

@@omarassadi2455 im writing this all down in my brain thank you for the effort!

[@The.Home.Cinema.Engineer]

FINALLY!!!!!! ugh this video should have 1 billion views! People need to be educated about this!

[@Cooe.]

Now while it IS an absolute PLAGUE for any scripted content, motion smoothing frame interpolation features DO have their legitimate use cases! (Mostly for sports & other fast non-fiction content). It's not just bad tech for the sake of being bad tech as many think! For super high speed 60Hz/fps broadcasted sports like tennis, motion frame interpolation can SIGNIFICANTLY help with ball movement smoothness + stability & thus visibility + tracking for example.

[@RodolfoAmbriz]

I thought most sports were already recorded in high fps and minimum motion blur from source.

[@CamerHD]

@@RodolfoAmbriz but probably not sent to your TV in 120fps

[@prezent1979]

hello! the best way i could find of showing a motion smoothing like effect, is simply putting a 24FPS footage inside a 60FPS Premiere Pro timeline and the just selecting in the 'time interpolation' section "Optical Flow"! it looks EXACTLY the same as these TVs! this way you can also pause it and show the art effect clearly!

[@Thorax232]

What if there were a standard shape of metadata that could be provided by studios and read by smart TVs and even theaters? recommendedDeviceSettings: { contrast: 'x%', fps: 30, ... } and so on. This might be a nice way for film creators to suggest settings and devices to either match, or get as close as possible. Lower-end devices might have to make these fixes with artifacts, but the higher end could more accurately reflect how the film was intended to be viewed.

[@BAM5992]

Long time subscriber to this channel, really liked how this was made! A light touch of thematic elements to break up and smooth out all the information so it's not just a docu-info-video. Well done!

[@seawaif]

i remember me and my parents watching a movie at an air bnb - my dad and i were instantly distracted by the motion smoothing but my mum didn’t even notice. to me it stood out like a sore thumb and ruined the experience - it kind of make me feel sick!

[@MariannesStudio]

So interesting! I had noticed it but never knew why. Thanks for this video!

[@Marv-Kerscher]

What puzzles me about the filmmaker mode though is the brightness. I have trouble reading street signs in the picture for example, that I can read with a higher brightness setting. And I got the impression that the movies for which I have the comparison of having seen them in a cinema, they were brighter there. That got me wondering if it is actually supposed to have this low brightness or if this could be an Oled-TV-issue.

[@BattleBladeWarrior]

A lot of the time, you have to play with the brightness AND the contrast. If you just turn one up or down you can start blowing out the picture where it doesnt look right, but if you adjust the two together, you should be able to find the right balance between the darkest and lightest scenes. For example, if a scene is supposed to be pitch black, or has sections of the film in deep shadow, try to adjust the contrast/brightness and make sure your black looks as close to the "black bars" at the top and bottom of the screen as you can. Usually, if you match that up, all the other colors should look right as well.

[@kaitlyn__L]

If it’s HDR content, it has to be tone mapped to the OLED’s max brightness, which isn’t a consideration for laser projectors or LCD TVs. Eg the 1000nit max can be reached for small objects like muzzle flashes, but for bright daytime scenes it needs to be clamped down to 300-500. But you want to preserve all the ratios within the scene rather than just halfing everything. So each TV is a bit different in how it handles it…

[@aolson1111]

LCD tvs have both a brightness and a backlight setting. I think OLEDs only have brightness.

[@greenicecube25]

Thanks for the tip! It's improved my experience watching films

[@ActiumFilms]

Really not a fan of the scripted parts. Can you just keep the video informative?

[@pocketdialmusic]

My tv had been suggesting filmmaker mode but I didn’t turn it on because I assumed it was the tv changing it, good to know I should turn it on!

[@sumitchaudhary343]

My sony x90j motion smoothness is flawless . Now i cant watch a movie without it. It just feels so smooth

[@SonyEnthusiast]

Nice, I got a X80K 👍

[@krysnb84]

I’m going to have to try fixing this, thanks for the info and love the Scream ref hehe 🍿

[@NiekNooijens]

Yeah I was quite disappointed with my 4k tv at first because of this. So I literally turned off ever enhancement and then went through them 1 by 1 to see if they actually improved the picture. The only thing I have enabled, is HDR upscaling. Basically giving me a higher contrast on non-hdr content. Which looks awesome on Splatoon 2.

[@Ian-jh6mm]

You should also check out the tv calibration guide on Rtings, it’s brilliant