A Glitch Has Caused Motion Smoothing to Be Permanently Enabled on (Some) Roku TVs
It looks like some Roku TVs are now causing harm to their owners. By this I mean that they enable motion smoothing with no option to turn it off.
Judging by this complaint on the Roku subreddit , this thread on the Roku customer forums, and posts from staff at The Verge , this issue appears to be more than a one-off, even if it’s not necessarily widespread. The problem is occurring on TCL TVs running Roku OS 13: These TVs reportedly started using motion smoothing out of nowhere, without prior notice and without the ability to turn off the feature. Users looking at both the standard and picture settings cannot find a “motion smoothing” option to disable the feature.
This bug won’t go unnoticed: In a complaint on the mod community forum, Roku confirmed that the company is looking into the issue and included standard instructions for disabling motion smoothing.
What is motion smoothing and why is it bad?
Motion smoothing (or “Action Smoothing” as Roku calls it) is a feature of HD and 4K TVs that essentially adds new frames to whatever content you’re watching. Video is made up of individual images or frames, and most shows and movies play at 24 or 30 frames per second. With motion smoothing, your TV analyzes the content and creates additional frames on the fly to smooth out motion in the image. Some content, such as live sports and video games, benefit from additional frames because they help track fast-moving action. However, artificially adding frames almost always makes the image worse, not better.
This is especially bad when watching shows and movies: doubling the frame rate and increasing the smoothness of motion is what gives this content the soap opera effect. Soap operas are filmed at higher frame rates than most other shows and films, so if you double the frame rate of content at 24 or 30 frames per second, it will look like daytime television. It’s not a compliment.
How to Turn Off Action Smoothing on Roku TVs
While some users experiencing this motion smoothing bug do not currently see an option to turn off motion smoothing, other Roku TV users may be able to control this setting.
First, press the Star button on your Roku TV remote while watching something, then scroll down and select Advanced Picture Settings . Here you will be able to manage your action smoothing settings. Roku says that if you don’t see this setting, your TV doesn’t support this feature. This probably won’t be any consolation to users who view the new season of House of the Dragon as the first Game of Thrones soap opera.