We Watch Movies On Television Wrong

November 25, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

About a year ago Stu Maschwitz tore apart the commonly accepted notions of watching movies on televisions. He pointed out that:

  • These days TVs aren’t designed to show movies in the best quality possible. Rather they are designed to look attractive on the showroom floor, and to stand out amidst the hundreds of other televisions on display.
  • To do this television makers will turn up the brightness and turn down yellow colours to accentuate the blues, because yellow is associated with ageing.
  • While these settings might stand out on the display room floor, they are not at all how movies are meant to be watched.
  • These days you can get 120Hz and 240Hz televisions instead of the standard 60Hz ones. This is both good and bad.
  • On the plus side 120 and 240 are multiples of 24, which is what movies natively uset. 60 Hz televisions show certain frames for a fraction of a second longer than other frames to make the 24 to 60 transition. 120 and 240 Hz televisions don’t have to do that.
  • However 120Hz and 240Hz televisions often come with a motion smoothening feature that make movies look less artificial. This is not how movies were intended to be watched; part of their appeal is that they create a dream world and motion smoothening removes that effect.

Read more about why plasma televisions are superior to LCD ones, how you can fix your television to display movies in the right way, and other points about watching movies on televisions in the correct way over here.

Source: Prolost

Via: Kottke