When a techie goes to a Superbowl party! What is motion smoothing?

Motion smoothing is a video-processing feature found in most TVs. It works by injecting new frames between the frames in a video signal to make the image motion look less jerky.  (often in conjunction with patterns of backlight flickering to further enhance the effect). It works, but the result is a video that looks unnatural. It's often called the "soap opera effect," and it makes the movies and shows you're watching look like they're all recorded for daytime TV.

Film content is usually recorded at 24 frames per second, and TV content is usually kept at 30fps. Motion smoothing bumps those numbers up to 60, 120, or even (depending on the TV manufacturer) 960 with different tricks. Most content was created, edited, and mastered at 24 or 30 frames per second, so making it look smoother is extremely jarring.

Why Motion Smoothing Is Good for Sports 

The motion smoothing is a useful feature when you're watching live sports, especially sports involving a ball that gets passed, kicked, thrown, or shot. Due to how TVs create images, the camera movement wreaks havoc on the picture. You've probably noticed this if you've ever seen the video stutter as the picture pans across the field. This is precisely what motion smoothing fixes without adding more problems to the experience.

In addition, a sports feed may have images that move at 60 frames per second, depending on your cable provider. That means that the soap opera effect is less of an issue, as viewers want a more realistic image. 

 Motion smoothing can be found in Settings. Just remember to turn motion smoothing off when you watch anything else.