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Tom Cruise wants to fix your TV by turning off motion smoothing
Proving that his heroism is not merely limited to on-screen antics, Tom Cruise has starred in a video spreading awareness of a scourge impacting all too many televisions: motion smoothing. It's the setting in almost all new HDTVs and 4K TVs that's usually turned on by default and can turn everything into a slightly-too-smooth soap opera-looking mess. It works by using a processor to create new frames in between the 24 or 30 frames per second your video is usually being delivered in so that everything moves smoothly across the screen. That can be fine for fast moving live action like sports, but for movies and many TV shows it changes the look entirely and not in a good way. Since that's not the way directors like Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Top Gun - Maverick) and or stars intended for you to watch their movies, most people recommend turning it off. The only problem is, not everyone knows about it, or where to look. We've written up some instructions for the settings you should adjust on any new TV and they will help you deal with this, as well as other on-by-default switches. Only you can stop 240Hz TruMotion, Motion Smoothing Effect or Auto Motion Plus (all brand names this motion interpolation technology goes by) from ruining your next movie night.
Recommended Reading: The plight of fact-checkers in the fake news era
The fact-checkers who want to save the world Kate Knibbs, The Ringer In the era of fake news and rampant misinformation, fact-checkers are a key line of defense and an important tool in separating truth from lies. The Ringer takes a look a the organizations and individuals who have accepted the challenge, shifting through stories and even fact-checking those claiming to be fact-checkers.
How Mission Impossible made the leap to 4K and HDR
Mission Impossible is an unusual film franchise. It's spanned more than 22 years and five directors, each bringing his own distinctive touch to Tom Cruise's increasingly over-the-top escapades. Brian De Palma's 1996 film, which kicked off the series, hearkens back to classic '70s conspiracy thrillers while John Woo's Mission Impossible 2 is pure '90s action blockbuster excess, complete with dueling motorcycles, elaborate shootouts and his signature doves. To prime audiences for the next film, Fallout, Paramount re-released the entire Mission Impossible series on 4K Blu-ray last month. The new discs are not only a huge upgrade for cinephiles but also a fascinating glimpse at how studios can revive older films for the 4K/HDR era.
'Top Gun 2' will pit Tom Cruise against drones
Cinema always reflects our anxieties back onto us, so it's no surprise to see that the Top Gun sequel will involve unmanned aerial vehicles. Producer David Ellison told Collider that Tom Cruise will return to the series that made him famous, with a story where Maverick tries to out-maneuver a fleet of drones. It appears as if the flick will depict "the end of an era of dogfighting and fighter pilots" as the world's powers switch over to remotely-flown, computer-aided flying death machines.
He made Tom Cruise 'forget the mouse.' Now it's our turn.
In a way, John Underkoffler's like Hollywood's own Wizard of Oz. He's the man behind the curtain responsible for infusing blockbuster fantasy with real-world tech. He created the futuristic UI in Minority Report, worked on the timeline for Hulk's transformation and found a Soviet fusion reactor to blow up Stark Industries in Iron Man. He also recently received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for his work as an interface designer both in films and in the real world.
Screen Grabs: Tom Cruise dials up futuristic navigation on Streak 5 (video)
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com. Scientology. Oprah. Katie. Love. Weird. Dell. Maverick. Mission: Impossible. Streak 5. Ghost Protocol. Scientology (again). Weirdly enough, the smattering of things that seemingly don't fit in that lineup have a place together, as what appears to be a Streak 5 has appeared in the "Sandstorm Chase" scene of Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Word on the street is that Tom needed 4.32 million of these things to ensure he had enough for a nearly unlimited amount of re-takes. And now, the whole 'discontinued' thing makes total sense. Vid's after the break, with the four of you who aren't fans advised to head straight to 1:40.
Mission: Impossible III sets HD DVD / Blu-ray sales record
While Paramount's Mission: Impossible III didn't make it out on one of those forthcoming three-in-one mega discs, it did get the green light on all three major formats (and a forth, too), and set some records while it was at it. While Tom's personal life has been all but personal, the general public apparently still loves him, crazy antics and all, as studio sources have pegged first-week sales at 3.7 million units, more than either of the two previous releases in the franchise. More importantly, however, is the 20,000 units that were sold on HD DVD / Blu-ray formats, which made it the "the biggest-selling next-gen title since the formats launched. But with quite a few hits slated to hit shelves soon (and during the holiday shopping season, no less), we don't expect this record to stand for too terribly long.
Celeb bans gaming from home
Guess who? GameSHOUT.com reports that Tom Cruise has banned the playing of video games in his home. In addition, publications that contain game-related material are not to be read. The ban primarily affects Tom's two adopted children, Isabella, 13, and Connor, 11.Television was also banned from the Cruise home. Where on the contrary -- and not surprisingly -- movies received Tom's seal of approval. Hey, like we always say: gots ta get pay'd!
Helio LA launch party celebriful
We totally missed Helio's big coming out party in LA this weekend at the Park Hyatt, but as we understand it was attended by none other than Tom Cruise (who carries a Hero) and ladyfriend Katie Holmes; apparently Helio's also making sure Steven Spielberg and, um, female Korean golfers like Pearl Siin have handsets with which to be seen around town. The Korean LPGA stuff is no coincidence though, Helio's using its half-Korean connections with SK Telecom to offer Korean Americans limited free calls to Korea, ringback tones, and games until June 30th. Perhaps more interesting still is according to Hankook Daily, T-Mobile -- who apparently currently carry about 35 percent of Korean Americans -- is supposedly pressuring shops to not vend Helio devices and service by pain of losing their T-Mo dealer license. We don't know if they'd so brashly engage in anything so anti-competitive, but SK, Helio, ET, the LGPA, and agent Hunt have their eyes on you, T-Mobile.[Via Telecoms Korea]Update: Helio called us on our Batphone Kickflip to let us know that the party was actually an SK Telecom event for the launch of Helio powered by SK Telecom, their Helio sub-brand targeting Korean Americans (ahh, it all makes sense). While Tom Cruise doesn't look Korean to us, we'll let it slide; we wouldn't kick him out of our party, either. Ok, well, maybe we would if he started doing that Risky Business shtick or something.
Mission: Impossible: III game is M:I:A.
MTV News' Stephen Totilo asks a pretty tough question: where the hell is the Mission: Impossible: III console game? Sure, we all know Tom Cruise doesn't like his image being used in video games (see Minority Report's germanic stand-in), but where's the usually inescapable adaptation featuring another blond-haired, blue-eyed doppleganger? Even The DaVinci Code is getting a game, sans Tom Hanks' likeness. There was no War of the Worlds game; there was no Last Samurai game (or was there?); there was a Top Gun game, but he wasn't in it...the list goes on. It's too easy to say that Tom Cruise doesn't want his likeness in a game because he thinks it will dilute his brand (or that he's afraid it will sap his life essence), but in a market where video game adaptations are the norm, the absence is notable......then again, there's little chance any game they did produce would have been anything other than garbage, so maybe we shouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth.[Update 1: specified console game; Gameloft is working on the sure to be blockbuster cellphone version.]
Joyswag: Next-gen Zelda FTW!
We received far more entries for our intentionally brief Odama screenshot contest than we imagined. We've now seen more Scientology jokes (it's the one religion you're allowed to make fun of), Star Wars scenes (man you guys are nerds!), and even an MSPaint-applied wiener (you know who you are) that we think is allowable by law. In comparison, our selection was a pretty safe bet. The formula for a winning entry is as follows: Dress Tom Cruise as Link Make him crazy (note the red eyes...and Tom Cruise) Add revmote (natch) Add dialog to taste Voilá! Winning entry! Nice job RS! Odama is on its way to our great neighbor up North. A big thanks to everyone that entered our humble little contest. Keep reading to check out some more awesome (and deranged) creations from our runners-up.
Welcome to the party Europe, first major HDTV broadcast
Take your shoes off though, I just put in new carpet. And the first thing broadcast in HD? Why Tom Cruise of course, while I don't agree with their choice of Minority Report (I'm a Top Gun/Days of Thunder guy), it does make a great show in high definition what with the CG and blowing stuff up.Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 will be the first to broadcast nationally on Sunday, although a regional cable channel apparently started showing science programs on Tuesday (don't they know? Tom Cruise has done the scientific research). Rival German broadcaster Premier will launch its own HDTV transmissions on December 3. BskyB, CanalSat and Ski Italia have all promised to have their high definition ready for next years World Cup, which will be a showcase for the technology in Europe.
