Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/04/roku-update-turns-on-hated-motion-smoothing-feature-with-no-off-switch.html
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QA is expensive; contempt is cheap.
(these are the same guys who just locked your TV until you ‘agreed’ to the new ToS; so I don’t think that there’s any reason to presume a good attitude here)
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If it’s to their usual pattern, they’ll suddenly discover the capability of adding an off switch after a couple of update cycles. This is what happened with those forced-on browse categories and sidebar items that started appearing about a year ago.
That’s not an excuse, by any means. By this point they should have figured out how to roll out the off-switch in the same update where they added the “feature”.
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One of the tvs in my home is stuck on motion smoothing and I can’t find how to turn it off. And yes, it makes everything look like a soap opera.
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Users are pretty far down the list of Roku’s customers, by order of importance.
Content providers/streamers are probably at the top (Apple, Netflix, etc) l, probably followed by data brokers buying/selling your personal data.
For whatever reason, those customers preferred forced interpolation, probably it shaves some % of operating costs to have one option enabled, and that was good enough for Roku.
I’m sure they do User Acceptance Testing, but their user is their account managaer at Netflix.
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I loath motion smoothing. Seems that consumer awareness it catching up, though. Like five years ago I was at my brother’s place and complained and he was like “that’s just 4K” and didn’t understand. But on my recent visit he had turned it off.
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The photo with this article shows a Roku streaming device, but this change only affects Roku TVs (i.e. TVs with Roku built in), not standalone streaming devices. The text similarly doesn’t seem to be aware of the distinction. We’ve had a number of Roku streaming devices over the years, including several currently in use, and have generally been satisfied with them.
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When traveling with my kid to motels that have cable (and a native 60fps source) the child has said he likes the smoothing better than our TV. It looks more real he says.
I wonder if 24fps and 2-3 pulldown isn’t going to be a generational taste, in the same way the color TV generation would groan about black and white movies.
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i wonder if it allows them to compress the stream better? i’ve got no idea if that’s true, but saving bandwidth or storage costs would be a strong incentive
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Hard pass!
-audible- time compression is another AV pet peeve of mine, in addition motion smoothing and pan-and-scan.
I swear it’s a plot to bring back the sweet sweet relief of low res black and white CRTs! /s
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Oh, and judder…
So much for progress!
I find it amazing that some people can’t perceive the difference. Or at least, aren’t viscerally repulsed by motion smoothing (like I am).
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People are different, which means nobody is special, buddy.
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Holy shit, I’m stealing this.
Just checked the bedroom TV and it’s been updated to that version. Though really we only use it for casual TV watching before bed so I can yell out Jeopardy answers/questions.
I’d be pretty ticked if I had a large TCL Roku in my living room and couldn’t turn that off. I spent like a week tweaking the Sony in there to get it exactly how I wanted it.
Should be able to google the model and recommended settings. Sometimes it’s not terribly obvious for some TVs.
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When in the history of “mandatory improvements” have there NOT been people who didn’t like it.
Now, it’s easy enough to have people op in/ opt out.
Well I was relieved to read that it only affect Roku Tv, no the boxes. However, some Roku box users have their own hell:
Several months ago, the Find My Remote “feature” started going ballistic. The sensitivity has been ramped up to the point where it will be triggered if the remote is even a tiny bit off axis with the box. Sometime it will be triggered even if it’s a foot or two away and pointing directly at the remote. They recently changed the sound from former death scream to a less grating tone. I watch in a small room and couldn’t misplace my remote if I tried - all I want is a way to turn the feature OFF. All of my efforts at tech support have been like something from a Beckett play. If anyone knows a way to turn it off, please let me know. Please!!!
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i think you’re just supposed to put your own switch in there. 
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It’s called different things on different sets. If you go to advanced picture settings, you’ll see it somewhere, maybe called smooth motion, or advanced motion, or advanced picture. Sometimes it takes a while to find in the menu, but with some looking you can find.
When I see people watching TV shows with this on, I wonder: Do they not notice? Do they not care? Do they prefer it? How? Why? Could that be possible?
It seems like a group of prominent movie-makers should get together and lobby against this being a default-on situation when you buy a TV. I mean, if a TV automatically re-edited every movie it played, I think that would get some notice. This is more subtle than that, obviously, but a director chooses a frame rate to film in for a reason, and if that’s being subverted by a product showing the film, that should be some kind of violation of sorts, I would think.
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