The next-gen OnePlus flagship will sport a 120Hz display, but now the company’s CEO, Pete Lau, has confirmed that the device will also incorporate a new feature that will actually make the higher refresh rate more useful for consumers. According to Lau, OnePlus has developed “a custom MEMC chip that can push ordinary 30fps video up to 120” to enable all standard videos to take full advantage of the 120Hz display in the OnePlus 8 Pro, which is expected to be launched later this year.
If you’ve seen high-quality TVs, you’re no stranger to MEMC. We’ve created a custom MEMC chip that can push ordinary 30fps video up to 120, so any video gets the full advantage of our 120Hz Fluid Display. pic.twitter.com/YPD3fw5uOn
— Pete Lau (@PeteLau) January 16, 2020
MEMC chips are typically used in TVs to artificially ramp up frame rates to make standard videos look extra smooth, but going by Lau’s tweet, the company has apparently tweaked one of those chips to fit its upcoming flagship smartphone. The company last week showed off the 120Hz display expected to be a part of the package, so it will be interesting to see how it will implement the new technology to make sure that it makes an actual difference for users.
MEMC (Motion Estimation/ Motion Compensation) is often used in premium smart TVs to make animations more fluid by compensating for motion blur. It does so by generating intermediate animation frames using data points from the existing frames on either side. It’s one of the newest techniques to implement Motion Interpolation, which has become relatively common over the years and is also offered by several video player apps, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD and more. Various software codecs, plugins and video editing tools, such as FFmpeg and Adobe After Effects, also offer the feature.