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Motion Impossible: Tom Cruise Declares War on TV Frame Interpolation (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: At 9:46 last night, Tom tweeted an 87-second video in which he and his go-to director Christopher McQuarrie explained the concept of video interpolation and why it is the death of all good things. Video interpolation, they explained, is a digital video effect used to improve the quality of high-definition sport. "The unfortunate effect is that it makes most movies look like they were shot on high-speed video rather than film," said Cruise. "This is sometimes referred to as the 'soap-opera effect'." They explained that most HD televisions come with video interpolation switched on by default, they explained how to switch it off, and then they both nodded with total sincerity.
Now, it's worth noting that Tom Cruise is by no means the first film-maker to rail against motion smoothing. Back when he was still the Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn tweeted that he, Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson and Matt Reeves were also peeved about the default nature of video interpolation, to which Reed Morano replied that she started a petition to fix the issue a number of years ago, to little avail.
Why did it fail? Possibly because none of these people are Tom Cruise. Because Tom Cruise has made a career of total commitment. Take him to a premiere and he'll spend hours on the red carpet, shaking every single hand until everyone's happy. Put him in a movie with helicopters in it and he'll teach himself to fly a helicopter to the level of a veteran stunt coordinator. Break his ankle on the side of a building, and he'll stagger out of frame on his ruined legs rather than blow a shot.
Now, it's worth noting that Tom Cruise is by no means the first film-maker to rail against motion smoothing. Back when he was still the Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn tweeted that he, Edgar Wright, Rian Johnson and Matt Reeves were also peeved about the default nature of video interpolation, to which Reed Morano replied that she started a petition to fix the issue a number of years ago, to little avail.
Why did it fail? Possibly because none of these people are Tom Cruise. Because Tom Cruise has made a career of total commitment. Take him to a premiere and he'll spend hours on the red carpet, shaking every single hand until everyone's happy. Put him in a movie with helicopters in it and he'll teach himself to fly a helicopter to the level of a veteran stunt coordinator. Break his ankle on the side of a building, and he'll stagger out of frame on his ruined legs rather than blow a shot.
This "motion smoothing" shit is the absolute worst. I would tolerate it at least slightly more if it ACTUALLY worked right. But it doesn't It'll work for 5 seconds, then turn off for 5, then on again for another 5. It creates a very jarring effect on the scenes. The software/hardware/whatever that is used to determine that one frame is related to another, so automatically splice in more frames CONSTANTLY fails.
Though, what I don't get, is that any TV I've seen in the past few years either doesn't have this "feature" enabled, or doesn't have it at all. I just purchased a brand new TV, a late 2018 model, and this feature doesn't exist. Other TVs I was looking at before this purchase didn't have it either. I think the feature died along with the 3D TV era. Which leads me to wonder why, now, of all times this complaint is showing up, since the feature is pretty much already dead?
Motion interpolation isn't great. But when they say "soap opera effect" that tells me that they aren't against motion interpolation, they are against high frame rates in general. This is analogous analogous to saying that 640x480 is the *best* resolution, and going higher makes things worse. I notice the article doesn't even mention the term frame rate. So this isn't a technical discussion, this is an aesthetic one.
Decades of watching movies has trained us to accept 24fps as "cinematic" motion, but in reality it just looks bad. 24fps is just barely on the cusp of fluid motion, and it gives some of us headaches. That's part of why video games consider 24fps unacceptable, as well as VR, and IMAX. Some people will say that it "takes getting used to" but it really takes getting "un-used" to the bad quality they shoot in today.
Motion interpolation should die. But the fact that people love it is signaling these directors that shooting in 24fps sucks and they need to move on.
Have to agree. For all his batshit crazy Scientology, from the little I have read, he doesn't push it on anyone.
Further, as the article alluded to, he does almost all of, it not all, his own stunts. Rappelling down buildings, skydiving, driving cars, leaping here and there, he's the one doing it. Not a stunt double.
Also, on those rare occasions I have seen him in an interview, he seems like a nice person. Maybe it's the Scientology, but he doesn't come off as stuck up or demeaning.
Give the man his due. He is accomplished. More than most likely anyone who posts here.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Watching *compressed* video is very difficult. I prefer to run it through a decompression tool first. One slight miscalculation on my Fourier Transforms and everything goes to hell. :-P
Oh please. Scientology for the celebrities is a business proposition. The celebrity gets to hide their wealth or taxable income, and the church gets to use the celebrity's membership as a marketing gimmick.
There are more moral ways to hide your wealth than give it to a cult that causes financial, societal, and family pain to those most in trouble. Scientology isn't a religion- its a business that preys on the weak and helpless. I can't really respect anyone who puts millions into financing such an operation. Or helps such an operation stay afloat.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Apparently the 24 FPS rate chosen for movies is an important psychological trick. It somehow tells the brain "this is fake", which makes the viewer fine with sets and costumes that would be cringeworthy when seen live. At 48 FPS, you lose that all-important filter, and everything is cringeworthy.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Wow. Yeah, Forget the sex trafficking and slavery stuff the "church" arranges. Forget the threats of violence and intimidation. Forget that he is a principle financial backer for these scum bags -as long as he does his own stunts and "seems nice" (in fucking interviews? what a moron) it's all A-OK.
Compressed video...You get used to it, though. Your brain does the translating. I don't even see the code. All I see is blonde, brunette, redhead.
I recently got a new LG 65" OLED.
First thing after turning it on, was to go into the menu system and turn OFF all the stupid auto-correct stuff, including the motion smoothing stuff.
I then turned off factory "torch mode"...and began adjusting the colors to be a bit more realistic and cinematic.
ON thing I was a little concerned about, was it was a little dimmer than my plasma it replaced. I had read about this.
But then, I found an "ECONO" mode and turned that off and WHAM...the screen got way brighter than I needed and I had to turn it down.
So, if someone is telling you that OLED can't be as bright as the QLED (Closest competitor)....they may have not discovered turning off the econo-mode.
But yes, it is sad that you pay this much $$$$ for a good televisions and by default, it look like shit out of the box and you have to manually fix things.
Even sadder...most people do not do this and they look at a very expensive crappy picture.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Meh, if Tom Cruise thinks TV Frame Interpolation is a bad thing- then I'm all for it. Put it in everything I say! Even cheeseburgers.
I believe that is called "cutting off your nose to spite your face."
The real issue is that the interpolated frames wake up your body thetans, but Tommy doesn't want to get into that, because only people who have fully paid up for OT III are allowed to have this knowledge.