4 ms·

I remember watching an episode of one of my favorite shows on my parents’ brand new TV, and thought to myself something about this episode is off, like the prod

by brap 1y ago

I remember watching an episode of one of my favorite shows on my parents’ brand new TV, and thought to myself something about this episode is off, like the production is cheap, the acting feels worse, even the dialog is bad. Over time I noticed everything looks cheaper on their TV. It was the auto-smoothing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera_effect

chneu 1y ago
It also has to do with how basically everything is filmed for Netflix/streaming nowadays.
- topranks 1y ago
  Not really sure I get why that would be a factor
ulrikrasmussen 1y ago
It is especially bad for animated shows that have made an explicit artistic choice to let (parts of) the animation progress at a lower frame rate. My kids watched "spider-man: across the spider-verse" at a friends place where smoothing was not turned off, and it completely ruined the artistic feel and made the movie feel like a stuttering video game.
- jay_kyburz 1y ago
  I found those spiderverse movies really hard to watch because of the low frame rate. I don't think it was artistic, it was cheap.
  - ulrikrasmussen 1y ago
    I think that's a matter of taste, but it definitely doesn't make it easier to watch them when the frame rate randomly switches between low and high all the time :).
  - pja 1y ago
    > I found those spiderverse movies really hard to watch because of the low frame rate. I don't think it was artistic, it was cheap. It was absolutely an artistic choice - Sony spent more per frame on those movies than any previous animated film & the directors knew exactly what they were doing when they chose to animate some parts on every second (or even third) frame.
  - nathan_compton 1y ago
    This is an artistic choice with a variety of film precedents. Its not exactly the same thing, but if you watch this GDC talk about the way that Arc System Works uses 3d to simulate 2d animation, it gets some of the ideas across: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGjCzxJV3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGjCzxJV3E Artists might want to produce a lower framerate just to make something look filmic (eg, 25 frames per second) or hand animated, but it can also be a deliberate stylistic choice for other reasons. Eg, the recentish Mad Max films used subtle undercranking to make action scenes feel more intense, and part of that effect is a more noticeable frames and I think there is a bit of that in the Spiderverse films too.
  - HelloMcFly 1y ago
    I mean, it was an artistic choice, and it wasn't cheap at $90m budget. That doesn't mean you're obligated to enjoy the end product by any means, but they were really doing some interesting things! https://medium.com/everythingcg/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-a-balance-between-art-and-technology-e7b88aab2a56 https://medium.com/everythingcg/spider-man-into-the-spider-v...
- BeFlatXIII 1y ago
  Studio Ghibli movies are among the hardest-hit by smoothing. It's jarring how it'll transition between motion-smoothed pans and motion scenes and natural Ghibli animation.
- mongol 1y ago
  That is a fantastic movie, btw
spacechild1 1y ago
I had the exact same experience watching Goodfellas on my parents' TV. It felt like a cheap soap opera and I was thoroughly confused about what's happening. Afterwards I did some research and learned about motion interpolation in modern TVs.
- b112 1y ago
  Back when there was a lot of 4x3 on TV, 20 years ago, my parents had their TV set to auto stretch. Why? Because they felt they were being ripped off, with all that unused space. They paid for widescreen! Didn't matter that people looked all fat in the face, or that the effect was logarithmic near the edges. A car driving by got wider as it neared the edge of screen! Nope, only mattered it was widescreen now. And until I mentioned it, they did not even notice. When I thought of it, I realised this sort of matches everything. Whether food, or especially politics, nuance is entirely lost on the average person. I feel, as a place for tech startups, we should realise this. If you plan to market to the public, just drop the nuance. You'll save, be more competitive, and win.
  - pratnala 1y ago
    I feel this so much. Despite telling her umpteen times till date, my mom will stretch photos only along one dimension to "fill the space" when writing docs or making slides. It drives me absolutely insane. She doesn't even realize till I tell her that the faces (and people) are stretched or squished too much.
    - incone123 1y ago
      Not to defend her preference, but faces (and everything else) can also look different depending on the focal length of the lens used and the distance from lens to subject, _and most people won't realise_.
  - layer8 1y ago
    > I feel, as a place for tech startups, we should realise this. If you plan to market to the public, just drop the nuance. You'll save, be more competitive, and win. Do you really want this to be the world we live in? It's just hurting the people who do care about nuance.
Angostura 1y ago
I hope you waited until they were out of the room and turned it off in settings?
agumonkey 1y ago
Thing is, to some population this is seen as better. While to me it feels as journalists camera, too real to pass as a story.
rasz 1y ago
>everything looks cheaper Specifically to You because you grew up with soap operas. Young people today grew up with 60 fps games and video, to them 24-30 fps looks broken.

by brap 1y ago

chneu 1y ago

It also has to do with how basically everything is filmed for Netflix/streaming nowadays.

topranks 1y ago
Not really sure I get why that would be a factor

ulrikrasmussen 1y ago

It is especially bad for animated shows that have made an explicit artistic choice to let (parts of) the animation progress at a lower frame rate. My kids watched "spider-man: across the spider-verse" at a friends place where smoothing was not turned off, and it completely ruined the artistic feel and made the movie feel like a stuttering video game.

jay_kyburz 1y ago
I found those spiderverse movies really hard to watch because of the low frame rate. I don't think it was artistic, it was cheap.
- ulrikrasmussen 1y ago
  I think that's a matter of taste, but it definitely doesn't make it easier to watch them when the frame rate randomly switches between low and high all the time :).
- pja 1y ago
  > I found those spiderverse movies really hard to watch because of the low frame rate. I don't think it was artistic, it was cheap. It was absolutely an artistic choice - Sony spent more per frame on those movies than any previous animated film & the directors knew exactly what they were doing when they chose to animate some parts on every second (or even third) frame.
- nathan_compton 1y ago
  This is an artistic choice with a variety of film precedents. Its not exactly the same thing, but if you watch this GDC talk about the way that Arc System Works uses 3d to simulate 2d animation, it gets some of the ideas across: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGjCzxJV3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGjCzxJV3E Artists might want to produce a lower framerate just to make something look filmic (eg, 25 frames per second) or hand animated, but it can also be a deliberate stylistic choice for other reasons. Eg, the recentish Mad Max films used subtle undercranking to make action scenes feel more intense, and part of that effect is a more noticeable frames and I think there is a bit of that in the Spiderverse films too.
- HelloMcFly 1y ago
  I mean, it was an artistic choice, and it wasn't cheap at $90m budget. That doesn't mean you're obligated to enjoy the end product by any means, but they were really doing some interesting things! https://medium.com/everythingcg/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-a-balance-between-art-and-technology-e7b88aab2a56 https://medium.com/everythingcg/spider-man-into-the-spider-v...
BeFlatXIII 1y ago
Studio Ghibli movies are among the hardest-hit by smoothing. It's jarring how it'll transition between motion-smoothed pans and motion scenes and natural Ghibli animation.
mongol 1y ago
That is a fantastic movie, btw

spacechild1 1y ago

I had the exact same experience watching Goodfellas on my parents' TV. It felt like a cheap soap opera and I was thoroughly confused about what's happening. Afterwards I did some research and learned about motion interpolation in modern TVs.

b112 1y ago
Back when there was a lot of 4x3 on TV, 20 years ago, my parents had their TV set to auto stretch. Why? Because they felt they were being ripped off, with all that unused space. They paid for widescreen! Didn't matter that people looked all fat in the face, or that the effect was logarithmic near the edges. A car driving by got wider as it neared the edge of screen! Nope, only mattered it was widescreen now. And until I mentioned it, they did not even notice. When I thought of it, I realised this sort of matches everything. Whether food, or especially politics, nuance is entirely lost on the average person. I feel, as a place for tech startups, we should realise this. If you plan to market to the public, just drop the nuance. You'll save, be more competitive, and win.
- pratnala 1y ago
  I feel this so much. Despite telling her umpteen times till date, my mom will stretch photos only along one dimension to "fill the space" when writing docs or making slides. It drives me absolutely insane. She doesn't even realize till I tell her that the faces (and people) are stretched or squished too much.
  - incone123 1y ago
    Not to defend her preference, but faces (and everything else) can also look different depending on the focal length of the lens used and the distance from lens to subject, _and most people won't realise_.
- layer8 1y ago
  > I feel, as a place for tech startups, we should realise this. If you plan to market to the public, just drop the nuance. You'll save, be more competitive, and win. Do you really want this to be the world we live in? It's just hurting the people who do care about nuance.

Angostura 1y ago

I hope you waited until they were out of the room and turned it off in settings?

agumonkey 1y ago

Thing is, to some population this is seen as better. While to me it feels as journalists camera, too real to pass as a story.

rasz 1y ago

>everything looks cheaper Specifically to You because you grew up with soap operas. Young people today grew up with 60 fps games and video, to them 24-30 fps looks broken.