What is the name of the 'smoothing effect'?

[KeyserSoze]

I had a Sony KDL40v3000 over xmas and remember when watching DVDs it applied something to it making panning shots really smooth, almost unreal like it was increasing the framerate.

I just got a Sony KDL37P3020 was slightly disappointed that I didn't get this feature.

What is it called?

[Refrenz]

Its 100Hz processing, where the TV makes up extra frames to make the picture (i.e. panning shots) smoother. The effectiveness of 100hz depends on how well a particular TV manufacturer has implemented it on their TVs. With Sony (who call it 'motion enhancer') they've done a pretty decent job of 100Hz processing.

[KeyserSoze]

apparently the KDL40V3000 doesn't have 100Hz

[Tempest]

It's not the 24 frames/sec thing is it?

[alphatyrant]

That only applys to Blu Ray disccs though, doesn't it....I've got this TV an it could be one of the additional settings in the display menu, but generally I have them switched off as they're supposed to hinder not help the picture?

[Refrenz]

apparently the KDL40V3000 doesn't have 100Hz

My KDL320D3000's 100Hz processing is tucked away in a menu option called motion enhancer, but there's also a menu option called film mode which is separate to the 100Hz processing so if there's no 100Hz processing on that particular telly, film mode 1 is probably on as that can sometimes give an almost video/live telly feel to a picture.

[DeadKenny]

First thing is the judder with panning shots is down to the conversion of a 24fps film to 60Hz when it comes to both NTSC and most 720 and 1080 TVs that display in 60Hz rather than 24fps.

You have to understand there that 60Hz is interlaced TV involving 2 'fields' per second (each field being half the number of lines, or every alternate line, and 2 fields makes up 1 frame).

To get from 24fps to 60Hz a 3:2 pull-down (http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm) is applied. i.e. a frame is shown for 3 fields, and then the next for 2, or rather one frame has a field shown for twice as long.

Progressive scan helps as it de-interlaces the picture. The interlacing whilst showing a frame over a second, involves showing a frame building up over time, whereas with progressive it shows the whole frame in one go. However the judder is retained due to showing a frame for longer than the next.

100Hz processing can try to help, but to be honest the best I've seen from Sony CRTs is actually the 50Hz DRC mode on a 100Hz set. As I understood, it was like a 50Hz progressive mode of sorts. I found it much better for NTSC. Flickered but less judder.

100Hz itself doesn't solve the problem though. It's just twice the field rate. The conversion from 24fps still applies (in NTSC it's actually 120Hz).

Should note that 25fps PAL (50Hz) and 30fps (60Hz) NTSC TV shows don't suffer from the judder problem because each interlaced 'field' is shown for equal lengths of time (2:2 pulldown).

Also films on PAL SD (DVDs and TV) are generally converted from 24fps to 50Hz by speeding up by 1fps and doing a 2:2 pulldown, thus no judder (but a speed increase instead).

Now Blu-Ray and HD DVD are different because they actually store the source movie in 24fps on the disc. If you have a HDTV which can handle 1080p/24 (i.e. 24fps), then it shows without pull-down... thus no judder, and no speed up.

:dork:

[KeyserSoze]

It must have been Film mode then. Thanks.

So do people generally prefer to enable it? Not sure if I miss it or not. I think maybe it was so different to what I was used to i found it kinda exciting at the time.

[DeadKenny]

On many TVs, film modes often turn off extra processing. A lot of the processing is done to compensate for poor TV signals. Though with progressive players I believe it can optimise for film rates. In the TV though usually it's just a mode that optimises the processing (or usually turns most of it off).