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Modern TVs ship with a long list of features switched on by default that might not be the best choice for the content you're watching. One of the most infamous is motion smoothing, and a common question people have about it is how to turn it off . Many people feel motion smoothing gives video an unnatural, hyper-real look that ruins the intent of movie and TV show makers.

Also known as "motion interpolation," or the " soap opera effect ," this is a technique where an algorithm is applied to generate additional frames in between the original frames of the video. A video with 30 frames per second will now have 60 frames and the visual smoothness of a video recorded at 60 FPS.

But where do the frames come from? The intermediate frame is calculated from the information in the two frames on either side. The exact method has been refined over the years, and different TV makers have their own secret sauce for post-processing effects like motion smoothing.…