Tom Cruise appeared alongside Mission: Impossible – Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie in a Twitter video Tuesday with an extremely wise home theater suggestion: When watching movies at home, you should turn off your TV’s motion smoothing setting.
Motion smoothing, which goes by different names depending on your TV manufacturer, does exactly what the name suggests — smooths out video. But while it’s great for sports, it tends to make movies and TV shows look like garbage. Lots of other movie buffs have railed against motion smoothing before, including Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, who, upon seeing Cruise’s clip, rejoiced:
Your TV’s motion smoothing setting is probably buried somewhere in its video menu. If you do a Google search for your particular make and model and “motion smoothing,” you’ll probably quickly find out exactly how to turn it on and off. And Cruise is right — turning off the setting really does make movies look a ton better, and the way the creative forces behind the movies intended.
