Netflix playback smoother in a native smart TV app than from a laptop over HDMI?

tobik

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Oct 30, 2015
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I often connect my laptop to my 1080p smart TV over HDMI to watch movies. I noticed, however, that the picture is far from smooth. I set up an experiment: I played a video in a native Netflix app directly on the TV and then I played the same video using Netflix on my laptop, streaming it to the TV through a HDMI cable. The picture coming from the native Netflix app was significantly smoother.

My guess is that it is the famous problem of playing 24fps videos on 60hz screens. My TV has 120hz refresh rate according to the spec, which is why the native Netflix app is able to deliver smooth playback, but my laptop has HDMI 1.4 which only supports 1080p at 60hz. That causes the studder which is simply more apparent on the 55" screen.

Is this a possible explanation or am I totally wrong?

Note that I carefully turned off all enhancement filters on my TV. It's manufactured by LG and there is this thing called TrueMotion which makes the picture smoother or actually too smooth (the "soap opera" effect). I prefer the sweet spot in between which is basically the experience I get in a cinema.

If I'm right, what can I do about that? My laptop also has DisplayPort 1.3 which should have enough bandwith to push the 1080p video signal at 120hz. Unfortunately, the TV does not have a display port but I there is a way around that. What do you think?
 
I'm not an expert on this level but I have some idea's.

The HDMI cable that you use, should also be 1.4 if you want to deliver the 1.4 bandwith from your laptop's connector. Or you could get an HDMI to displayport cable to reach a smoother experience.

 
Hi, thanks for answering. As far as I know, HDMI 1.4 doesn't support 1080p@60Hz. And in my last paragraph I wrote (and linked, which is not very apparent) that I could try a Display port to HDMI adapter. But it'd be interesting to have input from someone who has better understanding of this area than me (I'm still wild guessing).