[DogOnTheWeb]

The ultimate solution here, I think, is to allow creators to encode the desired setting, frame rate, or content category in the metadata so that a user can benefit from the technology when watching sports without it detracting from a film later on. Then the default setting could be "auto" and diehards could override one way or the other.

I'm glad to see a brief tip to that solution in the article and hope it becomes part of an industry specification.

[vegetablepotpie]

An industry standard media meta data interface for motion smoothing would be the best solution. It may not necessarily make it to the TV industry though. Although industry standards have been made and adopted widely before (such as USB) there are plenty of other standards that have failed to be adopted (FireWire) despite technological superiority (data rates). The standard didn’t really give a company much advantage by adopting it, USB worked well enough for most use cases and Apple wanted too much in royalties.

Ultimately any decision a company makes is about money. From the article “It’s meant to create a little bit of eye candy in the store”. TV companies think Motion smoothing increases sales. It doesn’t matter what film directors say about it.

The reality is that TV manufacturers are making a commodity, they don’t want to be. No one wants to sell a commodity, there’s no money in it. It’s a constant race to the bottom on price. That’s why we see 3D TVs, curved TVs and a myriad of gimmicks. Everyone wants to differentiate themselves. If there’s a new industry standard that makes consumers and content creators happy, who cares? If I hire an engineer to implement it will it be worth it?