New HDR10+ Advanced Standard Will Try To Fix the Soap Opera Effect (arstechnica.com)
(Tuesday November 04, 2025 @05:30PM (BeauHD)
from the new-and-improved dept.)
- Reference: 0179966254
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/2229238/new-hdr10-advanced-standard-will-try-to-fix-the-soap-opera-effect
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/hdr10-advanced-joins-dolby-vision-2-in-trying-to-make-you-like-motion-smoothing/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
> Today, Samsung provided details about the next version of the HDR10 format, which introduces six new features. Among HDR10+ Advanced's most interesting features is HDR10+ Intelligent FRC (frame rate conversion), which is [1]supposed to improve motion smoothing .
>
> A TV using motion smoothing analyzes each video frame and tries to determine what additional frames would look like if the video were playing at a frame rate that matched the TV's refresh rate. The TV then inserts those frames into the video. A 60Hz TV with motion smoothing on, for example, would attempt to remove judder from a 24p film by inserting frames so that the video plays as if it were shot at 60p. For some, this appears normal and can make motion, especially camera panning or zooming, look smoother. However, others will report movies and shows that look more like soap operas, or as if they were shot on higher-speed video cameras instead of film cameras. Critics, including some big names in Hollywood, argue that motion smoothing looks unnatural and deviates from the creator's intended vision.
>
> Intelligent FRC takes a more nuanced approach to motion smoothing by letting content creators dictate the level of motion smoothing used in each scene, Forbes [2]reported . The feature is also designed to adjust the strength of motion interpolation based on ambient lighting.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/hdr10-advanced-joins-dolby-vision-2-in-trying-to-make-you-like-motion-smoothing/
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2025/11/03/samsung-responds-to-dolby-vision-2-with-new-hdr10-advanced-standard-and-a-major-streamer-is-already-onboard/
> Today, Samsung provided details about the next version of the HDR10 format, which introduces six new features. Among HDR10+ Advanced's most interesting features is HDR10+ Intelligent FRC (frame rate conversion), which is [1]supposed to improve motion smoothing .
>
> A TV using motion smoothing analyzes each video frame and tries to determine what additional frames would look like if the video were playing at a frame rate that matched the TV's refresh rate. The TV then inserts those frames into the video. A 60Hz TV with motion smoothing on, for example, would attempt to remove judder from a 24p film by inserting frames so that the video plays as if it were shot at 60p. For some, this appears normal and can make motion, especially camera panning or zooming, look smoother. However, others will report movies and shows that look more like soap operas, or as if they were shot on higher-speed video cameras instead of film cameras. Critics, including some big names in Hollywood, argue that motion smoothing looks unnatural and deviates from the creator's intended vision.
>
> Intelligent FRC takes a more nuanced approach to motion smoothing by letting content creators dictate the level of motion smoothing used in each scene, Forbes [2]reported . The feature is also designed to adjust the strength of motion interpolation based on ambient lighting.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/11/hdr10-advanced-joins-dolby-vision-2-in-trying-to-make-you-like-motion-smoothing/
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2025/11/03/samsung-responds-to-dolby-vision-2-with-new-hdr10-advanced-standard-and-a-major-streamer-is-already-onboard/
For me at least it doesn't just mess up the motion (Score:1)
It screws with the way the lighting works. Even on Old pre HDR TVs if they had that motion smoothing stuff it made everything look like it was shot on the cheapest camera with the cheapest the lighting imaginable.
I remember seeing braveheart running on a $2000 or $3,000 TV back in the day and I didn't realize it was braveheart because it looked like a really really cheap TV set.
So they not only need to fix the motion but they need to fix what it does to the image and the lighting. That's a huge part