Smoothed picture on flatscreen tvs

[tutuava]

I have looked at flatscreen tvs for years now, but still don't have any and am wondering about the persistent smoothed quality of the images. It looks like luminance noise reduction that is applied consistently so that especially skin details get that artificial appearance. When I play movies on my computer this is not the case, but I always see it on tvs. I don't think I've ever seen a flatscreen tv without it.

Personally I really dislike that look, but it seems most people are happy with it since it is ubiquitous.. is it in fact noise reduction, and is there a way to turn it off?

 

[Soundmanred]

Yes.

 

[bobdole369]

Are you referring to the 0-255 vs 16-240 luminance range reduction in the current HD specification? If so it isn't a result of the televisions, its built into the spec for compatibility. You can make your own set calibrated to eliminate it.

Most people don't calibrate the sets - or even worse - put the Contrast on "Dynamic" Shudder.

Properly set up your set will not look like that.

 

[tutuava]

I have no idea of the specs or abilities of HD tvs (I tend to watch films on a computer or in the cinema).. but I'm not talking about luminance compression, rather detail smoothening. I am a photographer and to me the video on all flat screen tvs (both HD and the previous generation) has that very smoothed, artificial look where fine luminance details are lost in favor of noise reduction. The exact same effect occurs when applying any kind of luminance (not colour) noise reduction to images, so I assume it must be the same. It just doesn't make sense to me because with a good signal there should be so little noise in the first place that it wouldn't warrant that kind of heavy handed noise reduction.

I am really quite baffled why this is done. When I play blue ray movies on my computer setup they look beautiful, with a natural and detailed image. On a HD tv, even from a suitable distance, people look like they have 5 layers of make up on.

Soundmanred - so tvs are set to standard with noise reduction 'on' and switching it off fixes this?

 

[Soundmanred]

Yes.