One of the main reasons for bad motion while watching home movies is when the frame rate isn’t matched by the refresh rate of the TV. Netflix have been looking into a feature that could well and truly fix this issue.

Content comes in various different frames rates on Netflix, the most common being 23.97fps (frames per second). This can easily be rounded to 24fps. TVs generally run at a refresh rate of 50Hz, meaning the 24fps must be converted to 50fps before displayed.

The problem then comes in as 50 cannot be divided neatly by 24, meaning two extra frames need to be inserted to match the refresh rate. These two extra frames are what are causing the judder.

Introduced as a solution a while ago was ‘Frame rate matching’ but it requires a modern kit to work properly, and can result in a brief blank screen while the frame rate is switched between content.

Quick Media Switching (QMS) was recently introduced to try and rid the blank screens, but it currently only supported by a few devices including, LG C3 and G3 and Apple TV 4K.

This has encouraged Netflix to try and solve these issues with what it is calling ‘Frame Rate Conversion within Netflix Application.’

It is a very complex method of processing, but generally speaking, it involves handling the conversion in three-second chunks rather than per second, allowing for more frames to be spread evenly.

Netflix have stated it won’t complete rid the problem but it will become much less noticeable.

This will be handled by the Netflix app and won’t rely on each device supporting HDMI 2.1 features. It will however, rely on the TV and/or streamer with having an updated version of Netflix.

The TVs that don’t receive the latest updates will unfortunately be left out, however this method means many devices should get smoother motion, even if they don’t support fancy frame rate matching.

Netflix have said this technology is now available, but it isn’t clear if it has been rolled out to devices yet.