The Methods of My Madness: Understanding the Picture Settings I Use When Reviewing TVs
I'm Caleb Dennison, and welcome back to my channel. Today, I'm going to address some questions that have been popping up in the comments section. Many of you have asked me why I use certain picture settings when setting up and reviewing a TV. You want to know why I turn off motion smoothing, what's the deal with soap opera effect, and why I always choose movie or Cinema mode. Well, today I'm going to answer all your questions and give you a behind-the-scenes look at how I test and review TVs.
One of the main reasons I choose movie or Cinema mode over standard or Vivid modes is because of the color temperature. Most picture modes have a warm color temperature by default, which isn't necessarily bad, but it's not exactly what I'm looking for either. When we talk about accuracy in TVs, we're referring to the white point, which is a specific set of coordinates on a color chart. The standard we refer to as Rec. 709 was developed around the first HDTVs and describes a very specific color space. Movies and TV shows are made with this standard in mind, so when I tune a TV's color, I'm trying to get as close to that accuracy as possible.
Now, you might like standard mode because it feels more vivid or exciting, and that's fine if you prefer that look. However, for the sake of leveling the playing field and determining accuracy, we need to go with that warmer color temp. It also happens to be easier on the eyes in the long term, which is a nice bonus. By using a warmer color temperature, I can see how good a TV is performing in terms of its ability to reproduce the creator's intent.
Another reason I choose movie or Cinema mode is that these usually disable a bunch of superfluous processing that I don't want. These presets are just a solid starting point, and by turning off this extra processing, I get as much of the authenticity, accuracy, and predictability that I'm looking for in a TV review.
So, why do some TVs have motion smoothing turned on by default? Well, LCD displays aren't great at resolving fast movement, which means there's a lot of blur involved. This isn't desirable for all kinds of content, especially sports. The idea was to turn on motion smoothing to help get rid of that blur. However, I'm not a fan of motion smoothing myself. It tends to take out the dimension of an image and just makes it look flat.
But how does motion smoothing actually work in TVs? Essentially, the TV is interpolating and inserting new frames between the existing frames. Digitally guesses at an image that can stand in between one frame of fast-moving object and the next one and then injects it so you get less blur. Another type of motion smoothing is called black frame insertion or BFI (Best Field Interpolation). It works by inserting a black frame in between actual image frames.
The idea behind BFI is to mimic the flicker that you would get from a CRT TV, which is necessary for your eyes to perceive fluid motion. However, this can make the picture darker because it's cutting the amount of light down by half in most cases. Some TV makers are using powerful processors that keep just some of an image active in those black frames, keeping bright highlights for example, and that helps reduce the darkening of the image. But there will always be some darkening at the end of the day.
By sticking to these settings, I get as much of the authenticity, accuracy, and predictability that I'm looking for in a TV review. And that's what you'll see when you watch my videos. Thanks as always for watching everyone.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI don't know if I'm just now noticing or if this has been going on for a while now but a lot of you in the comments section are asking me why I do some of the things I do when I set up a TV you've got questions and today I'm going to answer them welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Dennison and there's no way I can answer all your questions in one video but what I can do is talk about why I insist on using certain picture settings when I set up and review a TV why do I turn off motion smoothing what is soap opera effect why do I always choose movie or Cinema mode and what's so great about warm color temperature I'm going to answer all of that and in the process give you a little peek at the methods of my madness before we get to it though I want to know would you be interested in like a behind the scenes look at how I test and review TVs if that sounds like something you'd like to watch let me know down in the comments and while you're down there please click like And subscribe because I need your help growing this Channel and as always we have shopping links to the products you see on your screen down in the description if you'd like to support us that way Danke Schoen let's do this so let's start with why I always choose movie cinema custom or ISF picture modes as opposed to standard or Vivid or Sports the first reason is color temperature those picture modes I just mentioned usually but not always and this is becoming a weird thing this year those usually have a warm color temperature by default why am I so in love with warm color temperature well it isn't so much that I'm in love with it it has to do with accuracy and by accuracy I mean what I need to achieve is a white point of d65 now on the technical side that means that we are shooting for a white color temperature of about 6504 Kelvin you're probably familiar with the color temperature of light bulbs right if you go to the light bulb section of your favorite hardware store you'll find lights labeled as cool warm or daylight what we want from a TV is to put out a white light with a very specific set of coordinates on a color chart why well standards basically back when broadcast TV was making its transition to color a bunch of Standards around color spaces were developed and in the standard we refer to as Rex 709 which was developed around the first HDTVs the color space is very specifically described and all hinges on that white point I just mentioned movies and TV shows are made with this standard in mind so when I talk about accuracy I might as well be talking about authenticity or reproducing the Creator's intent anyway when I go in to tune a TV's color I may have to reduce some blue or turn up some red to get to d65 but once I get there the rest of the colors should be as close to Accurate as they're going to get and from there I can tell how good a TV is performing now you might like standard mode because it feels more Vivid or exciting and that's fine if you prefer that look that's all good but for the sake of leveling the playing field and determining accuracy as well as seeing something the way it was made to look like we have to go for that warmer color temp it also happens to be easier on the eyes in the long term as well which is a nice bonus the other reason I choose a cinema movie or custom picture preset is that these usually again and not always disable a bunch of Superfluous processing that I don't want again it's all about leveling the playing field these presets are really just a solid starting point so I have less work to do turning things off across a vast selection of menus and subsections unfortunately these days it is increasingly less likely that motion smoothing like motion interpolation frame doubling or black frame insertion is going to also be turned off and I do need it turned off why well let's start with the basics and then I'll explain what's happening under the hood I hate soap opera effect now I don't know who coined this term nor why it took Tom Cruise whining about it in a video this is sometimes referred to as the soap opera effect we've been using this term ever since motion smoothing became a thing in TVs the short explanation is that when you take a 24 frame per second signal like you would get in a movie and you increase the frames per second up to like 30 FPS or even 60 or 120 FPS you're basically stripping away that cinematic look and making it look like TV video or like a soap opera you may have noticed that these daytime TV dramas also referred to as my stories by your grandma have an oddly smooth look to them like kind of unnatural when that look gets applied to everything you watch it's known as the soap opera effect so why is this on by default in so many TVs these days well LCD displays are not great at resolving fast movement there's a lot of blur involved and that's not desirable for all kinds of content especially Sports so the idea was to turn on motion smoothing to help get rid of that blur unfortunately that blur is part of what makes movies look like movies you may remember when Peter Jackson who filmed The Hobbit at 48 frames per second and created something of an uproar lots of folks really didn't like the look and that's partly because we've been seeing movies in the same way for a really long time and it can be jarring also motion smoothing tends to take out a lot of the dimension of an image it just looks flat and I hate it no fun so no motion smoothing for me but how does motion smoothing actually work in the TV well essentially the TV is interpolating and inserting new frames between the existing frames it digitally guesses at an image that can stand in between one image of fast moving object and the next one and then injects it so you get less blur that's one kind of motion smoothing another is called black frame insertion otherwise known as BFI now BFI works the way it sounds like it would it inserts a black frame in between actual image frames it can be helpful when you're running 60 frame per second content on 120 hertz panel the idea is to mimic the flicker that you would get from a CRT TV which is necessary for your eyes to perceive fluid motion I know sounds nuts right why would you want to insert non-images in between actual images to get smooth motion well frankly it's just down to how our eyes work the downside to BFI is that it darkens the picture which makes sense right you're cutting the amount of light down by half in most cases so BFI makes for smooth motion but a much much darker picture and that is not great in the age of HDR where brightness counts now some TV makers are using super powerful processors that keep just some of an image active in those black frames keeping bright highlights for example and that helps reduce the darkening of the image but there will always be some darkening at the end of the day I need a Level Playing Field that adheres to standards be they color standards or intended frames per second I want authenticity accuracy and predictability so by sticking to these settings I get as much of that as I possibly can and the end result for you my friends is a better TV review Thanks as always for watching everyone and congrats for making it to the end of this video if you're still here tell me if you hate soap opera effect as much as I do by naming your favorite soap opera in the comments I have a few favorites I love to hate myself also don't forget to click like And subscribe and here's two other videos I think you'll like\n"
