What does TruMotion mean?

TruMotion is the designation used on LG televisions. At first, it was measured in hertz, but since TruMotion has nothing to do with frequency, after a few years, it became just a number; what TruMotion has to do with hertz is pretty mediocre. In short, TruMotion. It’s a motion index that tells you that your TV shows an image with quality commensurate with showing the video at the frequency specified by TruMotion. For example, if your TV supports TruMotion 240, it is assumed that if you turn this setting on, the image on the screen will visually appear to you that you are watching the video at 240 Hz.

Samsung has a similar technology called Clear Motion Rate.
For Europe and other countries where the network frequency is 50 Hz, you can designate TruMotion as 50 Hz, 100 Hz, or 200 Hz, and for countries with a network frequency of 60 Hz – 60, 120 Hz, or 240 Hz. In this article, I will explain if this is the case.

TruMotion – here’s what you need to know

Many companies resort to marketing tricks to come up with lovely names. To understand what TruMotion is, note that today’s TVs have screen matrices that support 60 or 120 frames per second. HDMI video encoding and transmission standards support a maximum of 120 frames per second with the latest HDMI 2.1, meaning there is no video with more than 120 frames per second right now, and physically even the most modern TV cannot show more than 120 frames per second. Some TVs can support 144 Hz, but that’s only when using the TV as a game monitor.

How the TruMotion index is assigned to LG TVs

TruMotion 100, TruMotion 120.

These indexes are assigned to entry-level TVs; such TVs have a matrix with a 60 Hz image support frequency. These are TVs in the budget and mid-price segment. Cheap displays do not allow such TVs to show full-fledged video at 120 Hz. The TV will show video at this frequency, but half of the frames will be thrown away, and you’ll be watching the video at 60 Hz.

TruMotion 200, TruMotion 240

LG TruMotion

The TruMotion 200 and TruMotion 240 index is assigned to TVs with modern screens that support 120 frames per second. Such TVs can show videos of the highest quality.

This means that the higher the output frequency, the more visually pleasing the video looks; hence the higher the output frequency, the better. Now a bit about codecs.

In most modern codecs, the same HEVC (which supports 4K) has 120 frames per second. You won’t find content with a higher frame rate. So then, where did TruMotion 240 come from?

LG TruMotion.

LG TruMotion is a made-up metric; you won’t find a specific description of how it is calculated; you can only read that TruMotion optimizes picture quality and smoothness. But you should know that because of the extra image processing, turning on this setting increases the Input lag and causes a delay when the image is displayed on the TV screen. Next, I’ll tell you how TruMotion works.

How TruMotion works

Now for the essential thing: TruMotion only works with the video that has a frame rate lower than the TV can actually show. For example, you’re watching the video at 30 frames per second, so you can turn this setting on. TruMotion duplicates the frames; if you have a TV with a 60 Hz display, the display will show the same two frames; in TVs with a 120 Hz display, you can already show 3 frames. But there are also disadvantages; because of the doubling of frame, you can observe the soap opera effect, and the image becomes very smooth and unnatural. Or rather, you will always see it if the original image has a frequency less than the TV can show.

So, what happens if I turn on TruMotion if you have a TV with a 60 Hz display and you have a 60 Hz video? Nothing will happen; the video will be displayed without any processing.

Incorrect information about TruMotion technology

In the early days when this technology first appeared, the internet was filled with false information about TruMotion, for example:

TVs’ extra ability to create intermediate frames from two adjacent frames and playback lag time depended on signal processing (the more dynamic components, the longer it took the processor to process). Slides have even been invented to explain how this works.

If it’s dynamic video, how many computing resources are required to calculate the trajectories of movements on the screen, it’s just not possible.

TruMotion

TruMotion pro

Later modifications of the technology appeared after the advent of LED displays.
TruMotion pro – the ability to insert a black frame was added. Yes, you should know, and you may have seen in descriptions, that TVs can use black frame insertion to improve picture quality. But no frame is actually inserted; just the screen backlighting is turned off for that time.

Whether to rely on TruMotion

For regular video viewing, it’s better to turn off TruMotion. By the way, not all people can tell the difference between 60 Hz video and 120 Hz. It’s an individual thing. But if you see TruMotion 240 in the TV description, that’s a good thing because the TV has a screen with actual 120 fps.

Previous articleGE refrigerator model number decode explained 2016-2022
Next articleProtecting the screen of your LG OLED TV

6 COMMENTS

  1. Experiment with LG 65SK8500. 14 hours….
    All setrings all inputs.
    Conclusions
    truemotion on will darken image allways.
    Truemotion gives much beter Black values allways.
    Truemotion works great with max. 50FPS content.
    Truemotion starts annoyingly flickering the image above 50FPS content.
    Truemotion seems to insert black frames.
    Therefore content 60FPS native reaches a demanding 120Hz and caused flickering on the SK8500.

      • This is an ephemeral indicator, it all depends on the screen matrix. whether it supports 50 (60) or 100 (120) frames per second. If your TV is trumotion 120, the real maximum is 60 frames.

          • In modern TVs, the output delay is about 15-30 seconds when picture enhancement programs are turned off.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here