Films are shot at 24 frames per second. Televisions can show many more than that, so most of them invent the difference: the set generates frames that were never filmed and slots them between the real ones. The motion gets smoother and the film stops looking like a film. It looks like a soap opera, shot on video, which is where the nickname comes from.
Turning it off takes about thirty seconds. Finding it is the hard part, because no two manufacturers call it the same thing.
What it is called on your set
| Brand | Name of the setting | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | Auto Motion Plus, inside Picture Clarity Settings | Settings, Picture, Expert Settings, Auto Motion Plus Settings |
| LG | TruMotion | All Settings, Picture, Advanced Settings, Clarity, TruMotion |
| Sony | Motionflow | Settings, Display and Sound, Picture, Motion, Motionflow |
| Panasonic | Intelligent Frame Creation | Picture menu, Advanced Settings |
| Vizio | Motion Control, including Reduce Judder and Reduce Blur | Picture menu, More Picture, Motion Control |
| TCL and Hisense on Roku | Action Smoothing | Options button during playback, Advanced Picture Settings |
| TCL and Hisense on Google TV | Motion Smoothing or MEMC | Picture settings, Advanced |
| Philips and TP Vision | Perfect Natural Motion, or Natural Motion | Picture, Advanced, Motion |
On Samsung sets the choice is Off or Custom. Custom exposes two sliders, Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction. Judder Reduction is the one responsible for the effect people dislike, so setting it to zero while leaving Blur Reduction alone is a reasonable middle position for anyone who wants some help with panning shots.
On LG, turning TruMotion off disables frame interpolation but the set may still use backlight scanning, which is a different technique and not the thing that makes films look like video.
The shortcut that handles it in one step
If your television has Filmmaker Mode, selecting it turns motion smoothing off along with sharpening, noise reduction and the rest of the post-processing, and it restores the correct aspect ratio and frame rate at the same time. That is a single button instead of eight menu levels, and it is supported on sets from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Vizio and TP Vision. We cover exactly what it changes separately.
Cinema, Movie and Calibrated modes usually turn motion smoothing off as well, though not always completely, so it is worth checking the motion setting after switching modes rather than assuming.
Two things worth knowing before you turn it off
Judder is real, and you are about to see it. Twenty-four frames per second is not enough for perfectly smooth horizontal panning, which is why slow camera moves across a landscape can stutter slightly. That stutter is present in the cinema too. Motion smoothing hides it by making up frames, and turning the smoothing off brings it back. This is the intended look of the medium rather than a fault, but it surprises people who have never watched without interpolation.
Sport is the exception. Live sport is shot at higher frame rates and genuinely does benefit from motion processing. If you watch a lot of football and a lot of films on the same set, use a different picture mode for each. Televisions store picture settings per mode, and on many models per input as well, so you can leave smoothing on in Standard and off in Filmmaker Mode and simply switch.
That per-mode storage catches people out in the other direction too. Settings you fix during a standard dynamic range programme will not necessarily apply to an HDR film, which is one of several reasons films can still look wrong after you have adjusted everything.
If you cannot find the setting at all
Some entry-level sets have a 60Hz panel and no interpolation to disable, in which case the menu item genuinely is not there. Some Sony models list Motionflow in the specifications but hide the control, and adjust it automatically instead. And on most brands the motion controls are greyed out in Game Mode, because interpolation adds input lag and the set disables it for you.
If the option is missing and the picture still looks like video, check whether the app itself is doing frame interpolation before blaming the television, and check that the set is receiving 24 frames per second rather than a converted signal from a streaming box. Many boxes default to a fixed 60Hz output, and matching the frame rate to the content is a setting on the box rather than the screen.
