LG adds ‘black frame insertion’ to 2018 OLED televisions

LG has added an option in the image interpolation settings in OLED televisions that will be released in 2018 to apply black frame insertion. As a result, the motion blur on the TVs should be reduced.

A video from the website Hdtvtest shows that an option called ‘motion pro’ has been inserted in the user settings of the TruMotion menu, which can be used to turn bfi on or off. As is normal with this technique, where black images are briefly inserted between the different frames of the source of the image, the brightness decreases slightly. Also, some people might recognize the blinking characteristic of BFI. The advantage, however, is that it can limit motion blur. The video shows that the technique also works with a video that is played in Dolby Vision.

It is not clear whether LG will include this option in all OLED TVs from 2018, although that is obvious. The video probably shows the relatively cheap B8 model on which bfi is available. The W8, E8 and C8 have the Alpha 9 processor, while the B8 has to make do with the lower-positioned Alpha 7. Because it probably concerns the B8 in the video, that means that BFI is not exclusive to the devices with an Alpha 9.

Motion blur is especially present on LCD and OLED televisions, because these TVs use the sample-and-hold technique. Plasma TVs, on the other hand, render the images as momentary flashes, causing our eyes to experience motion as frozen and appear relatively sharp. With sample-and-hold, a frame is displayed longer, with our brains expecting a certain amount of movement that is higher than the refresh rate.

Manufacturers also give users the option to reduce motion blur through image interpolation algorithms, which calculate and insert additional frames from an analysis of the images. LG calls this TruMotion. However, this can lead to the soap opera effect or errors in predicting motion, leading to artifacts in the image.

LG has so far not used BFI in its OLED televisions. Other manufacturers, such as Panasonic and Sony, already did that in their OLED televisions. It is not yet clear whether LG uses new panels in its new OLED televisions and whether the maximum brightness has been increased compared to the previous OLED models.