I think the idea is to increase motion resolution.
On a sample-and-hold display, like an LCD or OLED, the image on the screen stays the same for the entire frame. When the image suddenly changes because the TV displays a new frame, our eyes need a bit of time to adjust. The result is that when there is a lot of motion on screen, the image starts to look blurry.
This was not an issue on older CRT displays because they used a beam that scanned the picture. Each ‘pixel’ (CRT’s didn’t have pixels but lines, but you get the idea) would only light up for a small amount of time. Since our eyes are relatively slow we didn’t notice the flickering that much, and because it wasn’t fully lit all the time the ‘pixels’ in our eyes didn’t get saturated and could quickly adjust to the new frame.
By adding interpolated frames the image changes more often and this allows our eyes to keep up with the action. Another solution to the problem is black frame insertion, where the TV shows a black image between each frame. Again we don’t perceive this as flickering as our eyes are too slow for this, but the disadvantage is that the picture brightness seems to halve.
How much blurriness you get in motion is a function of both how fast the movement on screen is and the frame rate. Fast movement and low frame rates cause more blurriness than slow movement and high frame rates.
The use-case for this feature is mainly for fast sporting events on broadcast TV, where there may be fast movements (e.g. a soccer ball) combined with the low frame rate of broadcast TV (30 or 25 fps depending on where you are).
I suspect it’s also meant to mitigate the modern fascination with buying TVs that are too big, and sitting far too close to them all the time. If your soccer ball example involves the ball being in one position on this frame, and literally six inches away in real distance on the surface of the screen on the next, and this is happening all the time, people will get fatigued and cranky watching it for extended periods.
Unless you’re Elon Musk rich, it’s pretty much impossible to buy a TV that is too big.
I own a 77” TV and the optimal viewing distance for that is 2.7 meters for a THX recommended viewing angle of 36°. The size goes up quickly the farther you sit from the screen. If your couch is 4 meters from the screen you’re already looking at a 114” screen to get the same 36° angle.
what is the actual usecase of this interpolation feature? it should require capable hardware, so it doesn’t exist for nothing.
I think the idea is to increase motion resolution.
On a sample-and-hold display, like an LCD or OLED, the image on the screen stays the same for the entire frame. When the image suddenly changes because the TV displays a new frame, our eyes need a bit of time to adjust. The result is that when there is a lot of motion on screen, the image starts to look blurry.
This was not an issue on older CRT displays because they used a beam that scanned the picture. Each ‘pixel’ (CRT’s didn’t have pixels but lines, but you get the idea) would only light up for a small amount of time. Since our eyes are relatively slow we didn’t notice the flickering that much, and because it wasn’t fully lit all the time the ‘pixels’ in our eyes didn’t get saturated and could quickly adjust to the new frame.
By adding interpolated frames the image changes more often and this allows our eyes to keep up with the action. Another solution to the problem is black frame insertion, where the TV shows a black image between each frame. Again we don’t perceive this as flickering as our eyes are too slow for this, but the disadvantage is that the picture brightness seems to halve.
How much blurriness you get in motion is a function of both how fast the movement on screen is and the frame rate. Fast movement and low frame rates cause more blurriness than slow movement and high frame rates.
The use-case for this feature is mainly for fast sporting events on broadcast TV, where there may be fast movements (e.g. a soccer ball) combined with the low frame rate of broadcast TV (30 or 25 fps depending on where you are).
I suspect it’s also meant to mitigate the modern fascination with buying TVs that are too big, and sitting far too close to them all the time. If your soccer ball example involves the ball being in one position on this frame, and literally six inches away in real distance on the surface of the screen on the next, and this is happening all the time, people will get fatigued and cranky watching it for extended periods.
Unless you’re Elon Musk rich, it’s pretty much impossible to buy a TV that is too big.
I own a 77” TV and the optimal viewing distance for that is 2.7 meters for a THX recommended viewing angle of 36°. The size goes up quickly the farther you sit from the screen. If your couch is 4 meters from the screen you’re already looking at a 114” screen to get the same 36° angle.