Motion interpolation#Soap Opera Effect

The soap opera effect is achieved by interframe calculation in the movie playback and represents a clear withdrawal of moving actors and objects from the background.

The term soap opera effect is derived from the English name for soap opera (English soap opera ). Such series are recorded as opposed to movies not on film but with the cheaper video format. This format is not recorded as movies with 24p ( 24 frames per second), but in North America with 60 (NTSC), 50 in Europe (PAL) fields per second. If now the 24 frames per second of a cinema film extrapolated using interframe calculation, the end result can be extraordinary enough, like a Soap Opera look.

The higher frame rate results in smoother motion sequences than in the cinema. Especially in fast moving people and objects as in football or hockey an intermediate rendering results in better motion sharpness.

Due to the soap opera effect but may inter alia the transitions between the moving objects and the stationary background appear smoothed. Therefore, the actors appear along with the depth of field of the recording as " stuck " in the light. Also, depending on the number of input and output images and the quality of the device, which performs the inter-frame calculation, the image will verschlimmbessert.

The advantages of interframe calculation in playback devices are controversial, they can be switched off but mostly.