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RE: Blu-ray makes everything look like a cartoon?

Posted by Rich H on May 30, 2009 at 14:53:47:
mbnx01,

No, Blu Ray has nothing whatsoever to do with the "cartoon" impression you are getting when you see it in the stores.

A lot of people have seen Blu Ray demos in stores and found the image to have a sort of odd, too-sharp, strangely too-real look, where movies don't really look like movies anymore.

Here is what is happening. Most of the time these days Blu Rays are demonstrated on new LCD flat panels. Many of the new LCD flat panels have a feature that reduces motion blur (LCDs have had a history of having more blur with fast motion than plasma, so LCD makers have tried to come up with solutions).

It goes by various names depending on the manufacturer of the set, but it's mostly known to AV-types as "Frame Interpolation" which is a fairly accurate description of what it does. Basically, it's a feature that looks at two frames of movement (which will have blur) and it creates a "new" frame in between, sort of a guess/mix of both frames, so the part of the motion that was "missing" (not captured by the camera) is placed in there. The effect is to reduce the effect of the blurred motion - edges even when in movement look very crisp.

This does indeed clear up and sharpen the look of the picture. We are very used to seeing a lot more blur with movement, especially in movies captured at 24 frames per second in movie film. So the big complaint with this process - and I agree heartily - is that it tends to make the image look oddly sharp, clear that for movies at least doesn't make it look like film. It makes it look like super-sharp HD video, and as such, at the same time as the image looks more impressive in sharpness/motion, it tends to give a sort of "cheap, video" look to film. Almost like you are watching those behind-the-scenes extras on a DVD shot in video, rather than the film itself.

Exacerbating this effect is how most LCDs are set up with terrible picture settings, pumping up the contrast and color unnaturally.

So none of this is an inherent characteristic of Blu Ray - it's the displays on which it is being shown.

Since Blu Ray actually captures film information more smoothly, less coarse than SD DVD, when you watch it properly displayed it actually looks LESS cartoony and more like real film than anything we've had up to this point. (At least if the transfer is good).

I swear, these new displays using frame interpolation to show Blu Rays have caused so many "I think Blu Ray looks weird" comments from unsuspecting consumers that I've lost count. But...that's the AV retail environment for you. Not always it's own best friend.

Cheers,

Rich H