No, it's not at all like that - Must say normal TV is fine from cable, I've seen motion blur on other sets, typical football stadium pan shot - this is more like the TV trying to do too much and giving up.
Let me also document that this is a Samsung UN46C6800, which is the latest of the non 3D backlit LCD LED TV that they have in their "C-Series" - The built in Yahoo, app store with Netflix and Blockbuster is nice, but I really wish the ARM port of XBMC would make its way right into this baby
Let me also add the reason I switched on "Game mode" was i exited XBMC out to a Linux prompt on the Apple TV and the text on the screen was like a bad JPG. If I did an "LS" command the directory would scroll really strange and then stop, but never did a final scan of the screen cleaning up the image to what would be legible text. Gaming mode seems to fix this, but there might be other settings as well and the menus and features are vast. Now I can switch on\off this "feature" and see the "jitter" go away. Must also add there does seem to be a very-very high speed refresh flicker (guessing 120hz) when "Gaming Mode" is on, but it's barely noticeable better then other jitter phenomena
For now I have comfort in the fact that it’s not the AppleTV or XBMC, especially since the recent public announcement of the salute to XBOX and the birth of XBMC4XBOX, (agree its time, but sad). I've been looking for a new platform and although initially discouraged, still think AppleTV under Linux will work until a cheaper ION type platform is available.
Also, for anyone following this thread from the beginning, my most recent post of the stuttering being part of a Samsung issue – this is NOT related to the initial inability for the AppleTV under OSX with Crystal to play smoothly. My AppleTV under OSX could not cleanly play content that the XBOX could, this was the Samsung stuttering. The AppleTV also until I switch to Linux couldn’t play 720p\1080 content without clearly dropping frames and depleting play buffers with or without the crystal board installed. The repartitioning and upgrading of the AppleTV to also run Linux fixed everything and is still the only reason the AppleTV is not a Frisbee right now. (I might be throwing the new Samsung....)
Regards,
Mike Pisano