Intelligent Frame Creation on Panasonics

I personally love the technology and it's the sole reason i am going with a panasonic this year over the samsung if i buy ($1600 store credit that's burnign a hole in my pocket). I like it so much that i was originally going to by an LED LCD over a plasma just for the tech but thankfully samsung put it on the c8000 and got me back wanting plasma. I'm very upset that samsung dropped it this year for some unknown reason but thankfully panasonic introduced it.

However, you will find that many people on this forum do no like the effect. Most call it the Soap Opera Effect (SOE) and turn it off. A few will like it for tv shows and sports but definitely not for movies. I personally love it and will use it for all the programming i watch except video games since the feature introduces lag time due to the additional processing. My parents have a samsung 40" A650 120hz lcd that i've temporarily acquired until i buy my new set and i/they use AutoMotion Plus in the same way i will on the new set. Additionally, my brother recently bought the 50" st30 and uses it all the time as well. I like that the st30 adds frames in 3D mode so the 3D is much easier to watch and rids all eye strain plus making it look much more realistic.

This is where things get a little complex and you really should check it out for yourself before deciding. Basically LCD's with frame interpolation, as the technology is known as with various names from each manufacturer (automotion plus, motionflow, trumotion, fine motion advanced, etc), have a more aggressive smoothing effect. They add more frames and the motion may look smoother, but there are a ton of artifacts and problems with the image when the computer incorrectly calculates how the motion is going.

Plasmas with frame interpolation (Motion Judder Canceller from Samsung 2010 models and Motion Smoother in panasonic 2011 3D models) are not as aggressive/add less frames, but are much more accurate and rarely have artifacts. In fact, i've never seen glitching or artifacts in panasonics Motion Smoother. Plasmas smoother would be just under the smoothness of samsungs automotion plus lcds on medium setting but not as ineffective as low.

It's hard to explain, so like i said it's best you check it out in person. An easy way to demo the smoothing is in the scrolling white credits of a movie. Other than that, take a bluray movie that you're familiar with and have the retailer show you it on an lcd and plasma.

Good scenes that I can think of to demo would be the beggining of "The Dark Knight" when the camera is paning into the building or there's a point later on in the movie when bruce gets dropped off ontop of a building and the camera flys in and circles around the building. Another scene would be about 56 minutes into "Avatar", "The Hallelujah Mountains" chapter, when it shows a long shot of the plane flying through the floating mountains. These are good scenes to test smoothness and gltiches/artifacts in the smoothing. Watch the ede of objects(liek the corner of buildings) or peoples faces for breakups or things that just look unnatural.

I own the 55GT30 and when i watch cable I cant stand it gives a headache but I sometimes use it for gaming it looks cool and verry smooth, now when im watching 3d is a must cause to me its easier on the eye and it looks buttery smooth and awesome.

i think it's because one of two things: 1 because plasmas pixels are faster so i'm sure they had troubles in the development stage getting it to look right and 2 because plasmas are 60hz, the best they can artificially increase the frame rate with frame interpolation is to 60 different frames per second (over the native 24 or 30fps) whereas 120/240hz lcds can theoretically artificially increase to 120 to 240 different frames per second. Although, i'm certain lcd's don't go that high, they do noticeably add more frames than plasmas which explains the added glitches and artifacts in the higher/more aggressive settings.

Panasonic allows you to turn "Motion Smoother" to Off, Weak, or Strong. With HD sources i leave it on strong and have never noticed glitches or artifacts.

I don't believe this is correct. Most modern plasmas only display independent screen draws at 60 Hz but, however, will actually display each of those screens 10 times in each cycle.