Can't Get My Head Around This "Blur Reduction" Setting on My Samsung... (1 Viewer)

[Kaskade1309]

I have a Samsung NU8000 4K panel, and under the "Auto Motion Plus" menu, which controls the display's motion interpolation, there are two sliders for Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction (in addition to one for black frame insertion, which I don't use because of the horrible flicker it causes). I understand that the Judder Reduction is supposed to affect lower frame rate content, such as 24FPS film sources (which is why I dial some in when watching discs from my 4K Blu-ray player), but for the life of me, I don't understand why Samsung chose to keep the Blur Reduction -- which is supposed to affect higher frame rate content like 60FPS -- on a maximum setting by default when using the TV's Custom Auto Motion Plus mode.

Let me back up a bit...

With the Samsungs, you can choose the Auto Motion Plus system to be off, on an "automatic" setting (which adjusts on the fly, scene by scene, but which I found to introduce MASSIVE amounts of soap opera effect) or on "custom," which allows the user to select separate Blur and Judder Reduction settings via a slider that ranges from 0 to 10. By default, the TV's Movie picture mode (the most accurate and the one I use for my Blu-ray player HDMI input) comes set in a Custom AMP arrangement with Judder Reduction set to "3" and the Blur Reduction set to "10." Used in this way, the panel does eliminate judder in 24FPS sources, but since owning the set I have bumped this up to "5" because it seems to smooth motion even further without any SOE kicking in, as unbelievable as that sounds.

Now, the confusion seems to be with regard to this Blur Reduction slider -- it seems no matter the brand of display, users and even default settings tend to set this control all the way up to maximum for some reason, but if in accurate picture modes like Samsung's "Movie," where accuracy is the goal, why would a manufacturer crank this all the way up? I have read that these Blur Reduction controls actually affect the maximum lines of perceived resolution a panel can provide, which is why they're cranked up like this -- but I don't know if that's true. Further, while I don't own any films on disc that boast higher than 24FPS transfers -- i.e. I don't own Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk or Gemini Man -- I would think watching films with these higher frame rates would be a nightmare with the Blur Reduction control maxed out. Recently, I threw in an old full screen DVD I own of the HBO-made film Gotti, and for whatever reason my Samsung interpreted this transfer as being something higher than 24FPS because the picture had that sped-up video-like look (and exhibited all sorts of nasty side effects because the Blur Reduction control was so high). Outside of this one DVD, EVERY disc I play through any player I've ever had connected to this Samsung 4K panel, whether DVD or Blu-ray, has sent a 2160/24P signal to the TV...even though DVDs come over to the display as 2160/60P. ONLY this one DVD, Gotti, exhibited soap opera effect from the Blur Reduction control being set so high.

Anyway, my primary question is this: Why is Blur Reduction set to maximum by default by manufacturers like Samsung? Is this because they expect people to use the TVs mainly for sports and broadcast viewing, so the maxed-out Blur Reduction makes sense? Should the Blur Reduction be kept all the way up when watching films, as I primarily do, even though it's not affecting 24FPS content, supposedly?

This brings me to another question I've always had about these motion smoothing systems -- are Blur and Judder Reduction TRULY independent of one another, or do their effects "overlap" at some point on the sliders, as I have read too? Interestingly, I get that annoying and classic Samsung "micro-stutter" from time to time when I run Blur on "10" and Judder on "5," which I have read is normal for Samsungs and something they never fixed in their TVs (the picture stutters and twitches for a moment as if the algorithm is trying to catch up to what's happening on the screen -- but it's really fast and subtle). I did some Googling around and found a thread over on AVS in which someone in a Samsung discussion mentioned eliminating the dropped frame problem by leaving Blur on 8 instead of 10, and leaving the Judder on whatever is preferred; for some reason, this individual stated, the motion controls start to affect one another once they get to a high level on the sliders. I don't understand how this is possible, being that one is for low frame rate content and other for high, but when I tried this out, dropping my Blur to 8 and leaving my Judder on 5, it DID seem to eradicate the micro-stutter...for a short time before it reared its head again.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

 

[JohnRice]

I’m far from a display expert. Others here are. Still, my default is to forget about all these additional processing options. TVs have a lot of gadgets for marketing which are best left deactivated.

 

[Kaskade1309]

I’m far from a display expert. Others here are. Still, my default is to forget about all these additional processing options. TVs have a lot of gadgets for marketing which are best left deactivated.

Thanks, but this didn't assist me with an answer.

I do like to use some Judder Reduction to smooth the motion, and I'm curious why Samsung chose to leave the Blur Reduction on maximum out of the box (when using the "Custom" Auto Motion Plus option).

 

[Kaskade1309]

In reviving this thread after thinking there may be something funky going on with the Blur and Judder Reduction settings on my Samsung when viewing 24FPS content from a Blu-ray player (in my case, a Panasonic UB9000), does anyone know if these controls interact with one another on a certain level?

They're supposed to act independent of each other -- Judder Reduction affecting lower frame rate content and Blur Reduction higher frame rate stuff -- but is it possible that at a certain point, or level on the adjustable sliders, these settings are affecting one another? I ask because right now, I keep the Blur Reduction on "10" (the max; Samsung sets it like this out of the box when you choose the "Custom" Auto Motion Plus mode for motion) and Judder Reduction on "5," and this seems to smooth out motion without introducing the unnatural and infamous "soap opera effect."

However, I have been finding that, ever since I introduced this Panasonic UHD Blu-ray player into my system, fast-moving motion in the foreground (not the background) of scenes in films seems to make the scene break up into a weird blurry pixelation that I never noticed on other players connected to this same display, and using the exact same motion settings. I thought it may have been a faulty disc player I received, because NO other Panasonic disc player owner who I have asked has said they experience this with any moving action, but now I'm being told that it must be the way the motion settings are interacting with the Panasonic's processor...

I'm wondering if Blur Reduction -- which is not supposed to affect 24FPS content like film -- is somehow causing an issue because it's on maximum, even though I don't view 60FPS or higher content via the Blu-ray player input of the display; does this make sense? In other words, could Blur Reduction be messing up the motion I'm seeing even though it's not supposed to affect lower frame rate content?

 

[Kaskade1309]

Anyone?

 

[Thomas Newton]

It sounds like your question is so specific and technical that you should be directing it at Samsung, and to a lesser extent, Panasonic.

However, I wouldn't pin my hopes on your average customer service representative knowing enough (or researching things deeply enough) to answer these questions.

 

[Kaskade1309]

I've been down this road with both companies; my last resort was a place like this.

 

[JohnRice]

The real question is, which advice do you want and which advice do you need? Not necessarily the same advice.