On most TVs this will not only eliminate or greatly reduce smoothing, it will make the picture more accurate in general, particularly colors. Step 2: Make sure smoothing is actually off. Some TVs keep the soap opera effect turned on even in Movie or Cinema mode. Not cool. CNET checked out a few of the TVs in its lab -- here's what we found, and how to make sure it's off.
Most of these names have remained consistent over the last few years that smoothing features have been around, so if you have an earlier TV from one of these brands, you should be able to find the smoothing function with some digging. Our reviews generally recommend turning the soap opera effect off entirely, although some models with custom settings adjustments can deliver improved motion resolution with no smoothing.
No matter which TV you have, it's worth getting to know where this setting is. It's possible you'll want it on when you're watching sports or other "video"-based content 30fps or 60fps.
Then, for movies and fictional TV programming, you can turn it off. This will give you the best-of-both worlds approach with minimal motion blur with sports, and no SOE with movies. Originally published in Update, Dec. Got a question for Geoff? With The Hobbit, reviewers railed and moviegoers unleashed their nerd rage online. And I'll admit, the hyper-detailed, super-smooth look made my brain hurt for the first thirty minutes.
I had the distinct feeling that Gandalf's magic wooden staff was actually made from magic painted foam. But my eyes acclimated quickly enough to appreciate the more lifelike 3-D effect and to geek out on dwarf battles. None of this excuses your television for showing anything other than what a director intended. But why should filmmakers avoid innovation just because we're too lazy to adjust? The first people to own cars were probably a little freaked-out that their new ride moved so fast and didn't smell like a horse's anus.
But they got used to the change. You and your film-addicted brain will, too. Notice the lack of detail in the sand and how the clouds are blown out. The contrast control adjusts how bright the bright parts of the image are. There is an upper limit, however. If you set the control too high, it "clips" the whites, making near-white details totally white.
This effectively erases any detail in bright objects like clouds without making the image actually brighter. To set contrast by eye, you'll need something with a lot of bright areas of the image.
Baseball works pretty well for this -- a fly ball, pop fly, home runs, something with shots of the sky -- or skiing depending on season, clearly or something with clouds.
What you're looking for is a bright image, but still with highlight detail. In other words, the bright areas of the image still have detail, and aren't just awash in white. Once you've found something you think will work, turn the contrast control up until you start losing detail. Clouds will cease being clouds, snow will just be glare.
Now turn the control back down till you see detail again. Somewhere in this range will be ideal. On the left, what the teahouse should look like.
On the right, when the brightness control is set too low. Notice how the shadows disappear completely. On most TVs, the brightness control doesn't actually control the TV's "brightness. Like with contrast, there's a fine line between too high and too low. In this case, too high and the image will appear washed out.
Too low and all shadows will disappear into black. A closeup from the image above. Notice how you can't see anything in the shadows in the image on the right. To set brightness, you're looking for the opposite type of content from contrast. Dark movies, like Aliens or The Dark Knight, are perfect for this. Some famously dark TV episodes might be too dark to use for this. Turn the Brightness control down until everything disappears into blackness or something close.
From there, turn it back up so you can see detail in everything, but the image doesn't look washed out. Another test for this is a darker scene with someone with long hair. The underside of their hair I don't know what people with hair call it away from the light can be a good place to spot shadow detail -- also dark coats at night.
Use the best choice for your type of TV. If you have an HDMI connector, that will give you the best picture and sound. Depending on your setup, you may need to use a composite cable instead, which is the one with the red, white, and yellow plugs on each end.
Whichever cable you use, plug one end into the DVD player, and the other into the corresponding port in the TV. If you are using the composite cable, plug the other end of the cord into the terminals on the DVD player marked Line Out.
Be sure to insert the plugs into the terminals with corresponding colors. The red and white plugs are for sound, the yellow is for video. Plug the DVD player's power cord into an electrical outlet in the wall. Always plug in the power cord after you have connected all the other plugs.
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