What Is Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus? Everything You Need to Know
When shopping for a new TV, the amount of counter-intuitive functions can be overwhelming. Manufacturers always boast about how their devices offer crisper images, better contrast, and more colors, each with a brand-specific name that makes comparing competitors difficult.
Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus is one such function. If you ask a sales representative, they’ll probably say it improves videos by automatically increasing their frame rate. While Auto Motion Plus displays more frames each second, the level of improvement is up for debate.
Here’s all you need to know about Auto Motion Plus and similar functions.
Understanding Frame Rates and Interpolation
A video is just a lot of static images displayed very quickly, giving the illusion of movement. The human eye begins to understand pictures as a continuous movement if around ten pictures are displayed each second. The amount of images shown in a given timeis called the frame rate. The illusion of movement in a video becomes more convincing at 24 frames per second (FPS) and above.
That’s the rate at which movies have been filmed for over a century. In the early days of cinema, when most of the process was made by hand, that meant cost reduction by requiring both fewer supplies (higher frame rate = more film needed to capture the same scene) and less workforce (to spin the film wheel during capture and the projector wheel during the exhibition).
Nowadays, we have enough technology to overcome these limitations, but most movies are still filmed at 24 FPS. Why is that?
Simple: because higher frame rates look weird. There’s no precise way to put it in words, so it’s better to show you how it looks. The video below shows a 24 FPS and a 60 FPS version of the same movie clip. From 5:40 onwards, it compares both.
That so-smooth-its-annoying feeling is the “soap opera effect.” This is because, in the past, soap operas were recorded directly to tapes, which use a higher frame rate, instead of 24 FPS films.
There areuses for higher video frame rates. Live TV and many sports are usually recorded or transmitted at 30 FPS, while content with lots of movement, like clips from action cameras, works well at 60 frames per second.
Does All Video Content Feature High Frame Rates?
On the contrary, some movies experimented with 48 FPS exhibitions a few years ago. Many theaters project at 48 FPS, but each frame is displayed twice. So it works as 24 FPS, then to project at full 48 FPS was a simple upgrade. However, the format wasn’t well received by audiences, and the trend faded.
Like the theater projectors, any screen we use these days goes well above 24 images per second. Entry-level phones, TVs, and monitors refresh 60 times each second (that’s called 60Hz, which, while not directly attached to the displayed content’s frame rate, is closely related to it). On the other hand, most of thebest gaming monitorsget to 240Hz and even higher.
For some media, like games, higher frame rates work fine. However, it just doesn’t sit right for movies and TV shows. That didn’t stop manufacturers from implementing what’s called frame interpolation.
How Does Samsung Auto Motion Plus Work?
Auto Motion Plus is Samsung’s version of frame interpolation. It’s easy to understand how it works. The image processor inside the television compares two subsequent frames (say, “1” and “2”) and tries to guess what a frame between them would look like.
Some scenes, like explosions, may introduce visual glitches, but the prediction is usually good enough. Then, the TV inserts the newly-created frame (“1.5”) between 1 and 2 before displaying the video. Instead of seeing frames 1, 2, 3, and so on, you’ll see 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5…
Often this goes even further. Some brands offer interpolation up to 120FPS, which means, for a usual 24FPS movie, no less than four “invented” frames are added for each real frame in the original video.
Even the manufacturers admit the function isn’t good—for some scenarios, at least. ThisSamsung support pagestates clearly that movies “are not intended to be viewed” using frame interpolation. It comes to mind, however, why this option is usually enabled by default.
Do Other Brands Have Auto Motion Plus?
Yes and no. All major TV manufacturers have some kind of frame interpolation enabled in their devices, but Auto Motion Plus is the name for this tech on Samsung TVs.
The easiest way to know its specific name on your TV is to Google the maker’s name followed by “frame interpolation” or “motion smoothing.”
Samsung Auto Motion Plus Has Few Pros and Many Cons
The pros and cons of Auto Motion Plus are easy to summarize. If you want every video to look like videogame cutscenes, keep Auto Motion Plus on. Else, go into the settings and turn it off.
Many people don’t know that Auto Motion Plus (and similar tech in other TVs) can be turned off. Browse through your TV’s menus, and the option will be there. Some models offer different smoothing modes (from 24 FPS to 30 FPS, which doesn’t look as bad as a more aggressive interpolation), so you may also want to try these.
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