History Main / HologramProjectionImperfection

They never seem to work right, do they? Fizzing, popping, static, wobbly image....you'll be lucky if you get proper colour! Would have thought they'd check these things at the factory, wouldn't you? But no, it seems like every last one of them has some sort of glitch. It's a wonder people put up with the things.

* Played with in ''{{Superman II}}'', in which Lex Luthor escapes prison by sticking a hologram of himself in his cell. The hologram itself is flawless, and the guard is tipped off only when [[spoiler:he steps in front of the projector]].

* Most of the time in ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'', except for a couple of occasions.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': For a little while Starfleet experimented with holographic communicators, where it looked like the other character was actually in the same room with Sisko et al. (because the actors were); but Starfleet stopped using it.

* ''QuantumLeap'': Al.

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' (1990).
** While Lori is practicing with a hologram designed to teach proper tennis serves, the hologram blurs a couple of times. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILqe_mmtBrE#t=1m38s here]].
** When Quaid uses the hologram wrist device on Mars to trick Cohaagen's troops, his image flickers after the trick is revealed. Likewise, when Melina uses the device her hologram breaks up when Cohaagen's troops fire into it. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipcHVIAa3dU#t=0m55s here]]. It also happens when Quaid tested the hologram wrist device while on Earth.

** ''{{Return of the Jedi}}''. When Luke's message to Jabba (stored in R2-D2) plays, it starts off with a burst of static and ends with one too.

* In ''Film/IRobot'', the hologram is shown to be 2D, can only respond to a limited range of questions, and has some visual static.
* ''MinorityReport'' has a good example of not-great hologram tech, though it may be justified, being set TwentyMinutesInTheFuture instead of a far-future SpaceOpera.
* There's a hologram of Sinestro communicating in the ''Film/GreenLantern'' movie, which is in perfect color, but it has a couple of jumps, and breaks. The implication was, though, that because [[spoiler: Abin Sur's ship had been badly damaged, and the alien himself was badly wounded, the escape pod's functions were all working on getting him to safety and keeping him alive, so the hologram had limited transmit/receive power comparatively speaking]].
* In the ''GhostInTheShell'' movie the brain holograms are monochromatic.

* ''SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. As the protagonists are walking up to Dr Totenkopf's office a Tesla-type generator creates a HugeHolographicHead image of Totenkopf that explains his motives and warns them to get out or die. Both the image and voice are distorted when powering up, highlighting the more primitive 1930's {{zeerust}} technology of the film.
* ''{{Screamers}}''. The protagonists have to report a cease fire proposed by the enemy forces. A pair of doors slide open and their superior walks through and starts talking to them -- all appears normal until he suddenly starts to fizz and sputter and the protagonists complain about the unreliability of holographic projection from Earth. [[spoiler:Like the SkyCaptain example above, the scene hints at TheReveal that the ProjectedMan is actually dead.]]
* ''TheLastStarfighter''. During Zur's transmission into the Starfighter base, his holographic head glitches several times.
* In ''{{WALL-E}}'', the earth is covered with holographic billboards which fizzle and static frequently. Justified, since they haven't been maintained for centuries.

* The Chee holograms in ''{{Series/Animorphs}}'' are normally an aversion, but when the Yeerks screw with the ship that powers them, the holgrams begin to fizzle, fade and fail.

* SELMA from ''TimeTrax''; despite being a 22nd century, self aware, supercomputer her holographic "visual mode" suffered this trope. In one episode she managed to make herself appear perfectly for a brief time but implied it was too much of a strain on her power systems to maintain this for long.

* VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar: Holograms are frequently imperfect, with horizontal strobing blue lines, higher end holograms are better quality.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Arthur}}'' has one in ''Meet Binky'', due to Arthur mistaking a CPU case for a trash can.
* ''DannyPhantom'': Vlad Masters has some AI programmed holograms of Maddie Fenton, all designed to be madly in love with him. But they display the usual translucency and dither problems of fictional holograms, as well as being a bit....temperamental.

* ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': The holodeck. Even when it malfunctioned, as it so often did, it usually ''looked'' real, without scan lines or flickers.
* ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': For a little while Starfleet experimented with holographic communicators, where it looked like the other character was actually in the same room with Sisko et al. (because the actors were); but Starfleet stopped using it.
* ''StarTrekVoyager'': The Doctor almost always worked perfectly, even while using his mobile emitter.

* ''TotalRecall''.

* In ''MassEffect2'', the holograms of Shepard and The Illusive Man are wavery and have horizontal lines going through them like they are on a screen instead of a 3-D projection.

* Subverted in the ''IRobot'' movie, where Spooner is talking to a researcher, but finds out he's actually an AI-controlled hologram from his limited assortment of dialog.

* In ''ArtemisFowl'' ''The Time Paradox'', Holly uses an old holographic communication device to talk to Julius. It works out to her advantage as it hides the fact that she's de-aged [[spoiler: and her tears.]]

* ''RedDwarf'': Rimmer is one of the only fully-functional holograms in fiction. Shame about the man himself!

* Conspicuously averted in {{Literature/TheNakedSun}}. Elijah was surprised to find out he was talking to a hologram because the Earth holograms did have HologramProjectionImperfection. (It was settled by humans. This wasn't an alien technology thing.)

* ''TheMiddleman'' communicates with an alien representative via hologram in "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol," and the image is blue and staticky. What makes this more amusing is that at one point, when the alien representative quotes [[DieHard a certain movie's catchphrase containing a swear word]], the CensorBox covering his mouth is also blue and staticky.

** DeusExHumanRevolution can be mistaken for normal people, except at close range. Possibly as a side effect of the game having better graphics.

* In ''DeusExHumanRevolution'', holograms are almost perfect when they're working properly, which becomes a plot point when [[spoiler:it turns out Eliza Cassan is a holographic projection made by an AI]].

[[folder:Computer Games]]
* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' mostly averts this trope as the holos look rather good. The audio, however, is a little tinny in the case of Dodanna and Vandar. Amusingly, if you turn down the graphics settings, the holograms will look physical.
* In the ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series the Dr. Light holograms flicker and have a blue hue. Quite odd seeing as the hologram projector used in ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'''s final boss works perfectly.
* In ''FalloutNewVegas'' Dead Money add-on, the holograms scattered around the Sierra Madre are a uniform color, rather fuzzy and have prominent lines all over their figures. Oh yeah, and they shoot lasers. Granted this is two hundred year old equipment, though the Cloud was supposed to protect most of the Old World artefacts in the area. And lasers are cool. The fact that they can change colors suggests someone just wasn't willing to put in the work (humorously, ''Old World Blues'' has log entries which pretty much give this exact excuse; the designers were programmers, not artists).
* ''MassEffect'' also has an example with Vigil. The hologram doesn't even really show up you just get this weird jumble. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since the VI in question has been sitting around for tens of thousands of years, you're lucky it was still functional to begin with [[spoiler:and in fact it shuts down soon after your group talks to it]].
* In ''MassEffect2'', the holograms of Shepard and The Illusive Man are wavery and have horizontal lines going through them like they are on a screen instead of a 3-D projection.
* In ''{{Disgaea}}'', when a hologram appears, not only is the picture glitchy, but the first thing the hologram "says" is always "ffffffffffff... ffffffff..."
* VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar: Holograms are frequently imperfect, with horizontal strobing blue lines, higher end holograms are better quality.
** DeusExHumanRevolution can be mistaken for normal people, except at close range. Possibly as a side effect of the game having better graphics.
[[/folder]]

* VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar: Holograms are frequently imperfect, with horizontal strobing blue lines.

* In the ''MegaManX'' series the Dr. Light holograms flicker and have a blue hue. Quite odd seeing as the hologram projector used in ''Game/MegaMan 2'''s final boss works perfectly.

[[/folder]]

* DeusEx2: Holograms are frequently imperfect, with horizontal strobing blue lines.

* In ''FalloutNewVegas'' Dead Money add-on, the holograms scattered around the Sierra Madre are rather fuzzy and have prominent lines all over their figures. Oh yeah, and they shoot lasers. Granted this is two hundred year old equipment, though the Cloud was supposed to protect most of the Old World artefacts in the area. And lasers are cool.

** A greater puzzle, why does Artoo (an astromech droid, basically a self-mobile starship repairman and navigator) have a hologram projector, while Threepio (a protocol droid, and thus a professional translator and messenger) does not?

Related to RuleOfPerception: A hologram has to look unreal, so the audience can see that it's a hologram; it's a visual equivalent of the RadioVoice. Also related to HolodeckMalfunction. Subtrope of ProjectedMan. However, it must be distinct enough that it's not simply mistaken for poorly implemented special effects. A poorly matched lighting or color for the surrounding environment on a ProjectedMan would not be inform the audience that he was a hologram, the assumption would be that it's an incompetent ChromaKey shot.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'', "The Almost People". Though there is a lot of interference anyway (the hologram only really gets through because the plot wants it to).