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Whether you’re considering buying a new TV or your old flat panel is doing just fine, there are still ways to optimize your viewing experience, and it all starts with your television’s settings. Let’s explore some of the key factors that determine how your TV will perform and what you can do to make it even better.
1. Reduce sharpness
The clearer the picture, the better. Correct? not necessarily.
Contrary to popular belief, the “sharpness” setting on your TV does not affect the actual sharpness of the displayed image. Actual sharpness is determined by factors such as screen resolution, source material resolution, and contrast. Instead, the sharpness setting turns on artificial edge enhancement – a processor-driven adjustment that can introduce unwanted noise and, ironically, distort detail in the image.
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Edge enhancement is designed to make on-screen objects more distinct by emphasizing the boundaries between them, theoretically creating a more lifelike image. However, this feature works like a universal Instagram filter, potentially causing an unnatural appearance in some media.
Although it may not be necessary to reduce the sharpness to zero, it is generally recommended to reduce it significantly. For most TVs, a sweet spot of between five and 10 percent can help achieve a balanced image, although you should experiment to find the level you like best.
2. Turn off motion smoothing
An important setting to consider adjusting is Motion Smoothing, a frame interpolation feature designed to reduce noticeable blur effects during fast-moving sequences. The purpose of this feature is to resolve discrepancies between the movie frame rate (usually 24 frames per second) and the TV’s frame rate.
When scenes filmed at 24fps are played on a TV with a higher frame rate, viewers may see an effect called “judder”. To deal with this problem, TV manufacturers developed motion smoothing. However, this can degrade the visual quality of images by generating extra frames, resulting in somewhat cluttered viewing. Some TVs also add frames or change refresh rates to reduce motion issues. But these efforts can inadvertently create a “soap opera effect”, making high quality content appear inferior.
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Motion smoothing is usually enabled by default, and it may require some searching to find the setting to disable it. It’s often hidden within the Settings menu, and each manufacturer has a unique name for its speed-smoothing processes. For example, LG calls it trumotionSamsung refers to it auto motion plusAnd Sony has both motion flow And cinemotion,
3. Turn off Vivid Mode and reduce brightness
TV manufacturers and retailers aim to have their new models appear extremely bright and vivid when displayed on store shelves under fluorescent lighting, often turning on settings such as a “Vivid” picture mode that cranks up the backlight and intensifies the image.
What does Vivid Mode do? This massively increases brightness, makes colors more saturated, and enhances the display’s appearance in less-than-optimal lighting conditions. But the lighting at Best Buy or Costco is very different than the lighting in your living room. Turning off Vivid mode will not only provide a more accurate depiction of scenes, but will also be more comfortable for sensitive eyes.
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There is a brightness setting along the lines of Vivid mode, also known as black point. Improperly calibrated brightness may result in the image appearing washed out if set too high or darker scenes being difficult to discern if set too low. Adjusting this setting will allow you to appreciate the finer details of your favorite content. To customize the brightness, follow these steps:
- Find a video with a dimly lit scene, such as an extended night scene, and then press Stop.
- Set your TV’s brightness to the lowest level.
- Gradually increase the brightness until you can see a lot of detail within the shadows of the image without making it overly bright.
4. Check your contrast
Adjusting the contrast on your TV can produce detailed detail, better depth and dimension, and reduce eye strain. This helps prevent bright areas from looking overexposed or “blown out” and dark areas from looking too muddy, ideally resulting in a more balanced image with rich detail.
When you unbox a new TV, the contrast settings are often turned up pretty high. While high contrast can enhance picture quality, excessively high levels can actually strip away fine details, stripping the image of depth and realism.
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To improve contrast, adjust the settings when viewing an image with both bright highlights and shadowy areas. For example, a panoramic view of a cloudy sky is an ideal reference point. Adjust contrast so that brighter areas retain detail without being exposed, while darker areas maintain depth and richness. It’s important to strike the right balance between preserving highlight and shadow detail for a rich, three-dimensional photo.
5. Select the correct picture mode
Your TV probably has a ton of picture presets (some of which definitely don’t look good). To be fair, they partly depend on what you’re looking at, with the lighting conditions in the room also playing an important role. Finding the best mode for your purposes can greatly improve your experience, and if you’re lucky, you can find the right setting with a single click.
Picture modes are preset configurations that adjust multiple display settings simultaneously to optimize for specific purposes. Out of the box, TVs are often set to a default picture mode like Standard or Dynamic. Dynamic mode boosts brightness, clarity, and color saturation (similar to the Vivid mode mentioned above), while Standard mode aims to produce a balanced, neutral picture suitable for a variety of content.
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Finding the best picture mode for your preferences and surroundings may depend on whether you’re watching a movie, playing a video game, or watching a sport. Many TVs have picture modes specifically for those media – commonly called gaming and sports.
For the former, your video game console will handle the visual rendering while Gaming Mode turns off the TV’s video processing to deliver the lowest lag times. The Sports Picture option is a mode where you might benefit from enabling motion smoothing, which is designed to reduce motion blur and duplication artifacts.
Most models include a Movie or Cinema mode, designed for viewing in dark, theater-like environments. As a completely new option, some manufacturers are offering filmmaker genreAn industry-standard setting that focuses on preserving the director’s original artistic vision.
It works on the (usually accurate) assumption that the film was produced with color adjustments and other fine-tuning, so the film is presented without any changes. Filmmaker Mode, like Game Mode, removes additional video processing, allowing viewers to experience the film as it was originally meant to be watched in a theater.
