There’s a certain irony that as the headlines dropped last week that Apple is significantly curtailing its shipments for the Vision Pro in light of disappointing sales, I finally got a chance to try one out. I can confirm it’s a remarkable piece of kit and that it’s a shame the price means it’s not a realistic purchase for the vast majority of people. So far, so no not news. If you are a serious movie fan though and have dismissed it, then you should reconsider (as it’s worth considering picking one up.
Unlike my first experiences with the iPhone, it took me a little while to work out how to use the thing (no of course I didn’t read any instructions first). Having no controllers is in keeping with the same ethos as not using a stylus on a smartphone, but it took me a while to realize that that you have to look directly at something to make selections.
While I tried many things on the device, including astonishingly immersive dinosaur-based adventures to aptly titled immersive video, the reason I had been sent a Vision Pro to test out the movie-watching experience due to a technology that is currently unique to the Visio Pro, which I’ll get onto shortly.
Even aside from this, watching a movie using Cinema mode in the Apple TV app was amazing. It’s like sitting in your favorite premium theatre in the absolute best seat – with no one around you to spoil your viewing enjoyment. Of course, that’s also the Vision Pro’s biggest downfall – you are on your own. It’s like hiring the very best cinema you can for the evening – just to sit there by yourself. An amazing experience, if somewhat misanthropic.
What’s so different about the Vision Pro for movies is that it’s technically on a different level from other headsets. The images are so bright and sharp. The critical difference is that you’re getting 4K resolution to each eye and it offers a wide color gamut (WCG), high dynamic range (HDR), high frame rates (HFR) and 3D. And for stereoscopic fans, what’s amazing is that it’s delivering 3D and 4K at the same time – better by far than Blu-Ray 3D that was stuck at 1080p. Yes, it means that for 3D, the Vision Pro makes streaming a better option than physical disc – with the one person at a time caveat. Think of the Vision Pro then, as your own private Dolby Cinema.
There’s also one specific technology that places the Vision Pro at the cutting edge of private entertainment – and that’s TrueCut Motion.
What is TrueCut Motion?
For the vast majority who are wondering what that is let’s recap. TrueCut Motion is a motion grading technology from Pixelworks, which enables filmmakers to adjust the shutter speed and the judder from high frame rate movies. This is most noticeable in presentations on sharp images projected onto very large screens with high brightness – in other words, premium format screens equipped with 4K and laser projectors.
Several directors, notably James Cameron, Ang Lee and Peter Jackson have used high frame rates to compensate for the motion problems inherent in 3D, which can be too dim and blurry at 24 frames per second. Doubling that to 48 frames per second (or higher) means more information reaches the eye making it easier for the brain to distinguish the action. However, the problem with high frame rate is that it also creates an artificiality to the image, similar to the motion interpolation used by TVs to remove judder issues – a problem dubbed the “soap opera effect” as a result of it making everything look artificial and cheap.
However, with TrueCut Motion, filmmakers can dial in the exact amount of motion smoothing on a frame-by-frame basis, so you gain all the benefits of high frame rate, without any of the downsides. James Cameron used this to great effect on Avatar: The Way of Water with personal scenes mimicking the look of 24fps (in a 48fps container) and some scenes using TrueCut Motion. However, due to limited time, only certain scenes used the tech – and many people could see the joins when the TrueCut Motion scenes switched to pure 48fps – and vice versa.
However, Pixelworks was able to motion grade the entire remaster of the first Avatar movie, and I was mightily impressed by this when I saw it released in IMAX before the sequel arrived in theatres.
The TrueCut Motion logo (bottom right) appears for the first time ever on Avatar on Disney+ when … [+]
However, up till recently, no home entertainment device could play TrueCut motion content: enter the Apple Vision Pro, and thanks to a deal with the house of mouse, Disney+ offers Vision Pro exclusive movies. As of right now, the only TrueCut Motion movies available on the platform are Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water. The former is, currently, the only movie in the world that will show the TrueCut Motion logo next to it when browsing it on Disney+ on the Vision Pro – as only movies that use the tech all the way through will be able to carry the official logo.
It’s still early days for TrueCut Motion tech with the remastered Titanic, Argylle, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Kung-Fu Panda 4, the only other movies created using it – and as of writing, none of those are on the Vision Pro version of Disney+. Kung-Fu Panda 4 was only available to see in that version in cinemas supporting Cinity, a rival system to Dolby Cinema, with laser-projector-based high-brightness HDR, WCG and HFR.
While testing the Vision Pro I was encouraged to look out for judder as it appears in regular movies. And it has to be said that once you look for it, flashing and judder can be detected everywhere when you’re looking for it – darn it Pixelworks! It can be seen as the camera pans in the 3D version of No Time to Die (yes, it was converted into stereoscopic) and the animals and backgrounds at the start of the recent remake of The Lion King (2019).
It’s not just a 3D issue of course. You can see it in the fast motion of the dance extravaganza at the start of La La Land and the swirling camera as DiCaprio’s character arrives in the town in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
When at this point you return to the first Avatar on Vision Pro the benefit of TrueCut motion is apparent with its gorgeously smooth high frame rate images, where everything can be discerned with clarity and depth no matter how much is going on in the frame.
Certainly, TrueCut Motion lends itself to 3D animations, but I would be fascinated to see what less tech-focused directors could do with the tech. Pixelworks, senior director of ecosystem, Aaron Drew, emphasised that TrueCut is not there to push a tech agenda for its own sake but just to help filmmakers realise their artistic intent on the screen to better serve audiences.
What’s next for TrueCut Motion?
It’s no suprise that Pixelworks is looking to get more filmmakers interested in its tech,f and it has said publicly that it is looking to increase where we can see TrueCut images – I imagine licensing with TV brands is top of its agenda with it hoping it becomes a logo that consumers understand and look for in the same way as they do for HDR and Dolby Vision. I would be particularly excited to see it coming to projectors for home cinemas.
In the meantime, though the Apple Vision Pro is the only home TrueCut Motion game in town – and if you have the means to pick one up – perhaps through eBay sales, from well-heeled early adopters that are less discerning, I would take advantage – even if means being a billy-no-mates movie watcher.
