Samsung Seeks ‘MotionVue’ Trademark for Software That Boosts TV’s Image Quality

A lot could fit under that definition, emailed Display Supply Chain Consultants President Bob O'Brien. "Yes, maybe 8K motion blur." He also recalled that Samsung's CES demonstration put "some emphasis on managing picture quality under various streaming platforms," he said. Samsung representatives didn’t respond to questions Monday about MotionVue’s commercial deployment or how it works.

A hub of recent activity surrounds optimizing a TV’s motion performance to render static movie content with better creative intent while also capturing fast-action live sports without motion blur and other annoying artifacts. That activity is ramping up with the industry’s migration to larger screens and higher resolutions, emailed Insight Media President Chris Chinnock. “There is movement on this besides Samsung,” said Chinnock, executive director of the 8K Association, the 2-year-old brainchild of Samsung. The group is composed of Samsung’s broader display industry ecosystem partners but virtually no one outside that sphere.

Chinnock “can’t officially say what is in the 8KA TV spec as this remains for members only,” he said. We asked if the “8KA-Certified” compliance document the group released at CES (see 2001020046) addresses TV motion performance. A few 8KA members we canvassed said the specs are silent on motion, leaving a TV’s performance attributes to the discretion of individual set makers.

Pixelworks is on the brink of commercializing a “motion grading” tool for Hollywood called TrueCut, said an Insight Media white paper Chinnock wrote in May. The tool works with any source frame rate, allowing filmmakers to create “finely tuned” content in post-production, optimized for judder, motion blur and frame-rate performance, he said.

With the “explosion” in advanced TV displays, it’s becoming “increasingly difficult to deliver creative intent” to the home, said the paper. “Not only are screens getting larger, but significant improvements in resolution, dynamic range, color capabilities, and frame rates have become evident. Display advancements are outpacing mainstream content formats, creating a quality gap.” TrueCut is designed to bridge the gap, he said.

The UHD Alliance initiated Filmmaker Mode, a TV setting that renders movie-watching at home closer to what content creators intended, last summer (see 1908270001). Activated automatically through metadata detection, or through a uniformly branded button on the remote, Filmmaker Mode turns off the TV’s motion-smoothing and other processing that’s optimized for live sports, without forcing consumers to delve into complicated menus and screen settings.

LG, Panasonic and Vizio were immediate Filmmaker Mode backers at last summer’s launch. Samsung, TP Vision and Kaleidescape added their support at CES (see 2001070034).

Fans submitting comments in recent weeks to Samsung Community, the company’s global consumer outreach website, singled out the Q800T 8K TV series for harsh criticism of the product’s motion performance, without specifying problems with specific models within the series. Q800T is one of three Samsung QLED 8K TV lines that are new for 2020 and began shipping in March.

“This is my 2nd Q800T and the stuttering/judder and motion blur on the TV is horrible,” complained one consumer. Another agreed the set’s motion performance “is not smooth/fluid,” making it “impossible to watch a football match.” A Samsung “moderator” on the website urged the irate reviewers to contact the company via private email and there was no further public follow-up.

The 82-inch TV in the Q800T series was selling for $5,999 Monday at Best Buy with a feature called Motion Rate 240. The 65-inch version, $3,199, was selling with a spec named Motion 120, though both the TVs have 120 Hz refresh rates.