Roku owners face the grimmest indignity yet: Stuck-on motion smoothing
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Sounds like a job for Filmmaker Mode!
Ugh, the early ChromeCasts has a similar problem. It's remarkable an issue like this made it through QA.
Ugh, the early ChromeCasts has a similar problem. It's remarkable an issue like this made it through QA.
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Damnit, Roku. You were supposed to be the easy, simple, go-to choice. Now I'm potentially looking at tossing a bunch of perfectly useful TVs because you can't just stick to the basics.
Motion smoothing is probably my most hated features on any TV. I can't understand how, outside of very specific applications, people enjoy watching TV with it enabled all the time.
Does Costco sell an AppleTV multipack?
Motion smoothing is probably my most hated features on any TV. I can't understand how, outside of very specific applications, people enjoy watching TV with it enabled all the time.
Does Costco sell an AppleTV multipack?
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Funny assumption that. Consumer grade products seem to be getting less and less QA love over time.
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I believe my Samsung Smart TV most likely incorporate this feature because sometimes, when I'm watching something, the quality doesn't seem quite right. It's hard to quantify, but the picture often looks a bit unrealistic and low-budget, even for top-tier productions.
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I have one of those TV's. They also don't play well with any sort of home theater setup. I have to reset it through the advanced features every time to get them to send surround sound out properly. It is super frustrating. I would stay far away from them.
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Samsung TV here, recent Q series I believe....no matter what settings I have the TV, all you can seemingly do is reduce the smoothing. It can be dramatically reduced mind you, but for some reason my eyes are super sensitive to it and I notice it in a lot of shows still.
It makes me wish I could return the TV but I'm long past that option.
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I don't have a Roku TV, but I've finally replaced my Roku devices with a combination of FireTV and AppleTV.
The last straw for me was when they began placing ads in the menu between the existing menu choices. FireTV has some ads on the home screen, but they don't actually interfere with navigation.
I'd been using Roku for almost 15 years and they finally drove me away.
The last straw for me was when they began placing ads in the menu between the existing menu choices. FireTV has some ads on the home screen, but they don't actually interfere with navigation.
I'd been using Roku for almost 15 years and they finally drove me away.
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That's rough. The first thing I do when I'm setting up a new TV and/or receiver combo is shut down every single thing that plays stupid games with image processing. They have a tendency to render the games I like unplayable, and look terrible besides. Seeing your inputs show up onscreen 250ms-500ms after the button press doesn't cut it, and even if it did it just feels so bad.
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Source? Everything I've seen indicates that soap operas have been shot on video since the beginning, which was 29.97 fps (NTSC). Maybe it was different in countries using PAL? Things shot on film would have been 24fps.
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Indeed , this is true, the guy taking about soaps at 24 fps does not know the story behind the term soap opera effect
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Glad I unplugged mine after the TOS change. Since I don't have the bandwidth to stream much I just use it as media player which works fine with unplugged from the internet. If I ever get broadband I'll just buy an Apple TV.
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^ This. I always go for dumb monitors/TVs then get the smarts through add-on boxes. A new Firestick is an awful lot cheaper than replacing my nice 47" plasma screen, which still has a picture that's more than good enough for my viewing set up / eyesight, and doesn't randomly start doing 'clever' things to it
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It's worth noting that soap operas were in fact shot at NTSC 29.97 fps interlaced, or effectively 59.94 half-resolution fields per second, which is why > 30fps video content has that feel. This worked just fine in the era of CRTs, where scanline timing and phosphor decay was A Thing. Very little else besides live sports and news broadcasts (and the aforementioned soap operas) in the NTSC era were shot interlaced, and interlacing itself is almost completely obsolete except in things still transmitting via ATSC, like OTA broadcast HDTV.
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This is the stuff that makes me say, either watch your entertainment on a computer or buy an Apple Tv and skip most of this stuff. I've slowly been burned by Roku over the years, anyone else been dealing with remotes simply up and dying on them?
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Having worked in QA I can say with a reasonably high degree of confidence one of two things is true:
1. It was noticed by QA and disregarded.
2. QA is underfunded andor mismanaged.
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Motion smoothing is like a penis: if you have it and like it, that's fine. But don't shove it down others' throats without consent. Or show it to them.
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I know a certain crowd of folks are going to downvote me, and I don't care (I usually get downvoted for not following groupthink), but the only smart device you should be buying/connecting to your TV is an Apple TV box. Pick a TV for it's picture quality, then slap an Apple TV 4k on top. I've owned roku, Amazon, Google, and others, and Apple is the only one that delivers an awesome experience, and without ads. I am not saying they are perfect, but they are miles ahead of the competition. The only thing that would be better is a PC running Kodi or something, and even then, it is debatable since you lose access to high quality streaming.
EDIT: And the sooner we all get over this "It's Apple, I ain't gonna buy", "Android is better", and "but it doesn't do XYZ" where XYZ is some obscure piece of functionality, the better. Once Roku, Google, Amazon, etc. realize they have to compete to win, things will change.
EDIT: And the sooner we all get over this "It's Apple, I ain't gonna buy", "Android is better", and "but it doesn't do XYZ" where XYZ is some obscure piece of functionality, the better. Once Roku, Google, Amazon, etc. realize they have to compete to win, things will change.
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But your content still is the same frame rate. The Nyquist limit still exists.
In old movies, train and wagon wheels look like they're turning backwards once they go past 12 Hz. Motion smoothing doesn't fix it and make them go the right direction, it just makes them go backwards more smoothly!
Now, a little motion smoothing for perceptual judder normalization is okay. Perception of judder goes up with image brightness, so acceptable judder in traditionally dim movie theaters wasn't nearly as bad as with bright HDR content on a HDR TV. So a little smoothing to compensate for that improves preservation of creative intent.
But more than that is an insult to eyeballs and the human spirit.
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So far I've been able to use a combination of Pi hole, and changing the roku ad server in the secret menu to block the worst of the home screen ad situation. If they start forcing unblockable video ads onto the home menu I will gladly ditch them in an instant.
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I would agree with you about buying a TV for it's picture and then hooking it up to a smart device. You got me, I won't use an Apple product but hey, we each got our thing right?
I use a Roku 4k box attached to my LG C series TV. Works great. Probably as well as the Apple does for you.
So at least we can agree on the TV for picture, external box for other shit. Because I can replace that external box in just a few seconds. AND my TV stays conveniently offline so I don't get the damned software updates for it.
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That's honestly fine. Both options can suck. The stutter from low framerate is annoying. The "soap opera effect" is also annoying. I don't like interpolation artifacts, but I also don't like the stuttering mess you see in panning at low framerates. You just have to pick which you hate less.
What's not fine is not giving people the option.
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Dumb TVs might as well not exist, especially if you're looking to buy a high quality panel.
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Sure, but you can simulate one by not connecting it to the fucking internet and getting all your content from an appletv or equiv. That's what I did with my Sony OLED, no regrets
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rainynight65
Ars Scholae Palatinae
On every TV I bought in the past twelve years, motion smoothing was enabled by default. On my latest TV, the setting is not global but per input. Terminology across brands and models is inconsistent, as is the settings structure that leads you to the place where you can turn this shit off.
I'm not surprised that some people just can't be bothered wriggling their way through at times inscrutable options. But I do seriously wish motion smoothing wasn't the default option rammed down my throat when I turn on a new TV.
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There's no need to disable the TV, just disconnect it from the internet and plug in something better, like a Chromecast or an Apple TV. I've used my Roku TV like that since I got it, as Roku is kind of garbage for use outside the USA.
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