Have you ever heard of Motion Smoothing? I haven’t either. Apparently the new HDTVs come with it already defaulted on, and Tom Cruise wants you to turn it off, dammit, when you sit down to watch movies at home.
He even took time out from filming the Top Gun sequel to tell everyone how to resolve this, and that he really wants you to do it. Like now. Don’t make this man have to jump out of a high altitude plane with a broken foot to fix it for you.
Here’s the amusing article we found about how serious Ethan Hunt/Maverick/Charlie Babbitt/Lestat de Lioncourt/Jack Reacher and Jerry Maguire are about putting this travesty to an end.
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Take a look at this earnest and short video:
Motion Smoothing is also known as The Soap Opera Effect, for reasons I’m not very clear about. If I sound flip, it’s intentional. I have no idea what soap operas look like, and I’d like to see a side-by-side depiction of normal film viewing and motion smoothed viewing. I’m going to leave that video comparison up to someone else to create, and feel free to share your findings here. I’m just reporting the news. [pullquote]If Tom Cruise says this is the only way to have a proper at-home movie experience, we’d be smart to listen.[/pullquote]
Note: I decided to be less lazy about this. Here’s another article discussing the sins of motion smoothing, saying, “These problems are created because the TV is essentially predicting, at an exceptionally fast rate, what each next ‘real’ frame will be, and inventing a frame that’s half way there.”
And here’s an actual side by side comparison. See? I knew someone would make it so.
I’m on my way to see what the settings are on my TV. I had no idea my television was trying to pull a fast one on me. Amazing the things we can learn from the internet! 😉
What people are saying
about the RunPee app.
Brilliant idea with great information
I’ve been using RunPee for a few years now and it’s basically a requirement of going to the movies for me. The best part of course are the “pee times” that give you cues, synopses and times for when you can pee without missing the most important parts of the movie. There is also information about the credits- length, extras and if there are any extra scenes at the wayyy end. Super helpful to just know that it is or isn’t worth staying. There is a timer function that will buzz your phone when it’s a good time to pee. I also appreciate that the app is very conscientious about it being an app you use in a theater- dark background, all silent alarms etc. I will always enjoy the experience of the theater even if I could watch things at home- but I’ve even used it at home to check for things like after credit scenes or other information too.
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Don’t miss your favorite movie moments because you have to pee or need a snack. Use the RunPee app (Androidor iPhone) when you go to the movies. We have Peetimes for all wide release films every week, including Wicked, Gladiator II, Red One, The Wild Robot and coming soon Moana 2, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Kraven the Hunter, Mufasa: The Lion King and many others. We have literally thousands of Peetimes—from classic movies through today’s blockbusters. You can also keep up with movie news and reviews on our blog, or by following us on Twitter @RunPee. If there’s a new film out there, we’ve got your bladder covered.
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