You hurriedly travel home to open the new HDTV you just purchased. After connecting the countless wires and expensive components, you fire up your new machine to watch your favorite Blu-Ray movie. At first glance, everything is crisp and glorious, but then, something just doesn’t look right… what could it be?
Have you ever noticed on certain newer HDTVs that movies and some television shows look “too real,” as if they were shot with a home video HD camcorder? This irritating phenomenon that catches many HDTV owners off guard is called the “soap opera effect,” and happens because of “enhanced” refresh rates, extra interpolated frames and other gimmicky settings. Sure it looks great for the football game, but it effectively eliminates the beautifully crafted and color-corrected look that help make movies so captivating.
Thankfully, there is a fix (at least, for most televisions). Simply navigate into the television’s video settings (there may be a unique menu for every input) and look for settings called something like AMP (Auto-motion Plus), motion enhancement, cinema mode, etc, and turn them off. These settings often find themselves in the “Advanced” section of the picture or video menu. This may require some experimentation, but when you turn off the correct setting(s), the difference will be obvious to those with cinematically-attuned eyes.
The effects produced by these settings aren’t all bad, however. In fact, some people even prefer the overly realistic look. You should also consider leaving it on for any broadcast, cable or satellite television inputs unless you often watch movies on them.
In any case, good luck and happy watching!
Jordan can tell you all about that