December 9, 2025, 6:52 am | Read time: 2 minutes
Brilliant colors, strong contrasts–and yet some films on Samsung’s S85F suddenly look like a cheap TV soap. The culprit is a picture function that confuses more than it improves. Fortunately, the unnatural “soap opera look” can be quickly eliminated with a few targeted settings.
Samsung’s OLED TV S85F impresses in the COMPUTER BILD test with strong picture quality. However, the automatic motion smoothing sparks debate, as the so-called “soap opera effect” makes films appear unnatural. TECHBOOK shows which settings users can adjust to significantly improve the picture and eliminate the distracting effect.
Strong Picture with a Minor Weakness
In practical tests, Samsung’s OLED TV S85F delivers a convincing overall package. Colors, contrast, and brightness reach a very high level. Especially in the gaming sector, users benefit from a display with up to 120 frames per second. Nevertheless, a weakness was noted in the test: the automatic frame interpolation.
This motion smoothing is supposed to make movies appear smoother. However, if set incorrectly, it creates the so-called “soap opera effect”–an unnaturally smooth image reminiscent of TV productions with high frame rates and strong lighting. Particularly with films in the classic 24p frame rate, the fast response time of the OLED pixels results in an unintentionally harsh image impression, such as during camera pans or fast movements.
These Settings Make the “Soap Opera” Effect Disappear
To avoid the soap opera look, we recommend manually adjusting the picture parameters. In the “Expert Settings” menu, set the motion smoothing under “Picture Clarity Settings” to a medium level. This creates a smooth but naturally appearing image without excessive smoothness in faces or movements.
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Another tip concerns the “Judder Reduction.” Setting this value to levels 5 to 7 can effectively reduce motion blur without losing details. Even though the S85F’s NQ4-AI-Gen2 processor is powerful, it cannot always completely avoid artifacts or double contours during fast movements. The mentioned settings help visibly improve picture quality–not only on the S85F but also on other Samsung models.
Despite minor weaknesses in motion representation, the overall impression of the S85F remains positive: With the right adjustments, the high-quality QD-OLED picture can be further optimized, and the distracting “soap opera effect” can be avoided.