What is the “Soap Opera” effect and where does the name come from?

Of all the confusing terms you may have heard about TVs, “soap opera effect” is probably the most intriguing. What does this mean and is it something you should know? The answer to this last question is absolutely yes. As for this effect, it’s officially known as a feature called motion smoothing, but some brands may give it a slightly different name.

When this feature is enabled, there is no natural motion blur, making shows and movies look like one of those iconic soap operas your grandmother watched every afternoon. Motion smoothing can help reduce blur in sports, and you may enjoy the effect for content like news and reality shows. But to get the most out of your fancy new TV when watching an intense thriller or watching an action movie, you need to turn off motion smoothing to get the best possible picture.

When you enable motion smoothing (or motion interpolation), it helps correct apparent blur in high-definition content. To do this, it analyzes the video frame by frame, then digitally fills in the blanks between each frame with what it believes to be the image. should look like those before and after. This is to compensate if a movie or show is filmed at 24 or 30 frames per second (fps), for example, but your TV can handle 60 to 120 fps. This adds more detail, which is fantastic for sports and even video games. But for other video content, this results in movement that feels unnatural, camera changes that seem off, and movement that’s too smooth to have the same level of impact.

Consider that soap operas are typically filmed at higher frame rates than movies and other TV shows. Usually filmed at 30 or 60 fps versus 24 fps for traditional movies, your brain processes watching movies very differently. This motion blur adds to the experience, giving it expected but appreciated imperfections. When you smooth out this motion blur, scenes look hyper-realistic and it throws you off balance. It’s entirely possible that you prefer it. But filmmakers and even actors like Tom Cruise have urged viewers to turn off the feature and accept the cinematic experience as intended. Movies, after all, are supposed to look like escapist entertainment, not the real-life scenes of a documentary or the traditional look of a salacious soap opera.

Many TVs automatically turn this feature off if you choose something like Cinema, Movie, or Filmmaker mode. Otherwise, it may already be enabled, even on all the best smart TVs. Since each TV manufacturer has a different name for motion smoothing, it can be difficult to find it in your TV’s settings. Do a quick online search for your TV’s make and model to see where it is in the menu. In most cases, it’s buried under picture and display settings.

For Amazon Fire TVit’s under Display & Sound, Advanced Settings, and Action Smoothing; while with Roku TVsthese are picture settings, advanced picture settings, action smoothing or action clarity. Where to find it on a Google TV It depends on the brand, but it’s usually called Motion Enhancement, Motion Clarity or Motion Clearness and under Settings, Display & Sound, Picture, Advanced Settings. LG TruMotion can be found under All Settings, Picture Mode Settings, and Picture Options. For SamsungGo to All Settings, Picture, More Picture Settings, Picture Clarity Settings and turn off Auto Motion Plus. Sony TV Motionflow is found in Settings or Home, Picture Settings (or Display & Sound), Picture, Motion. Finally, Vizio Clear Action is found under Image and Advanced Image Settings.

You can turn this feature back on to watch sports or play video games, and even enjoy reality TV shows and news as a guilty pleasure. But for everything else, turn it off. If you notice that movies and shows look a little weird, chances are you have this feature turned on and you don’t even know it.