The default picture settings may not be optimal when you buy a new TV. There are several settings you can change to get the best picture quality. You can watch your favorite TV shows and movies exactly as the director intended. These are the top picture settings for each major TV brand.
How do you calibrate a TV?
You can calibrate your TV by pressing the “Menu”, or “Settings”, buttons on your remote. Navigate to “picture settings”, or something similar. You will then be able to adjust your picture mode, brightness and contrast.
A professional can calibrate your TV using a calibration disc. These options are expensive and can be difficult. Here are the settings that you need to adjust if you wish to calibrate your TV yourself.
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Picture Mode: Movie/Cinema Mode
Picture mode is the first setting that you need to change on your TV. Many picture modes are available on TVs these days. They can appear drastically different because they use different settings such as backlight, sharpness, and others.
The Movie or Cinema mode on the majority of TVs is the most accurate. This means that the image will be closer to what the creator or filmmaker intended. This setting may make the image appear a little darker and redder.
Although it is recommended to switch to Cinema or Movie mode, you might find this not the right setting. You might consider switching to another mode if you are watching TV in bright rooms.
Dynamic/Vivid Mode
This setting is best if you have a bright TV. It will give you the highest quality output. The colors will not be accurate and you may not experience the movies as the creator intended.
Normal/Standard Mode
This setting is recommended if you are a TV viewer who watches television at all hours of the day or night. This setting is a balance between Vivid/Dynamic and Movie/Cinema modes and can be used in a variety of lighting conditions.
Brightness: 50%
Your TV’s brightness setting should not be too high. This will cause the blacks to appear lighter and can lead to the image looking “washed out”. Setting it too low will result in the image becoming completely dark. The best choice is to set your TV’s brightness to the default level, or to 50%.
You can see that setting the TV’s brightness too high can cause the image to be blurred. You can increase the brightness of your TV by turning up the backlight.
Backlight: Lower Is Better
The brightness of your LED TV or LCD screen can be changed by changing the backlight. Your screen will appear brighter if you adjust your backlight higher. This will allow you to see more detail. Setting the backlight too high can cause the image’s light areas to appear too bright.
OLED TVs don’t come with a backlight. You can adjust the brightness of your OLED TV’s screen using the “OLED lighting control” setting. You should be aware that if this setting is too high, it can increase the screen’s image retention. This means that parts of an image may temporarily “stick” to the screen even after the image has been removed.
Depending on the brightness of your room, you can adjust your TV’s backlight settings. You might turn the backlight down in dark rooms and turn it up when you are in brighter areas to avoid eye fatigue. Setting your backlight lower can often be more accurate.
To change the TV’s backlight settings, you can pause a movie with a dark scene, then turn the backlight off. Slowly increase the brightness until you can see enough detail in dark areas. However, make sure that the light areas aren’t too bright.
Contrast: 100%
The “white level”, or the brightness of the whitest areas in your images, can be adjusted by changing the contrast settings. Contrast too high and bright scenes will lose detail. If you set it too low, the picture quality will look flat or drained. You should set the contrast to be as high as you can in most cases.
You can find the perfect contrast setting by pausing on a movie with bright areas like snow or clouds. Turn the contrast to 100 percent and reduce it until you can see the detail in the brightest parts. You don’t want the contrast to be too low or the image will not be bright enough.
It is worth noting that most TVs have almost identical contrast settings.
Sharpness: 0%
Your TV’s sharpness setting affects how well-defined edges appear on your screen. Your TV’s image resolution and overall clarity won’t be affected if you increase your sharpness setting too much. It can cause outlines to be two distinct, which can lead to “muddy” picture quality.
You want sharp images on your TV, but most TV shows and movies are sharp enough. You should set your sharpness value to a low level. You can set your sharpness value to 0% depending on the TV you have.
Your sharpness settings might be too high if you see a halo around objects or an image that is too grainy. Your sharpness settings will make motion look more natural.
Color: 50%
You can adjust the color saturation of your TV’s screen by using Color Settings. This setting can make colors look fake, and too low could make images appear flat.
Hue/Tint: 0%
The hue or tint settings can change the way red and green images appear on your TV screen. This setting is usually set to the default level. This setting should be kept at 0% unless your TV has a red or green tint.
Color Temperature/Tone Warm
You can change the color temperature or tone settings of your TV to make it appear warmer (red) or cooler (blue). The Warm tone will be more accurate and make skin tones look more natural. You can also choose the Normal or Medium tone if it is too dark.
Many TVs automatically adjust the color temperature (or tone) of the picture when you select a model. If you have already set your TV’s picture mode to Movie/Cinema, this setting may not need to be changed manually.
Motion Smoothing/Interpolation: Off
Motion Smoothing is a technique that reduces blurred images by “guessing what’s between two frames and inserting an image hybrid. This setting can be useful for watching reality or sports shows but it can cause excessive smooth motion in movies and TV shows.
Motion Smoothing is a feature on most TVs. Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, ‘Mission: Impossible- Fallout directors, recently shot a PSA in which they urged viewers to turn it off to allow them to watch movies “exactly how the filmmakers intended.”
If you’re playing a video game, it is advisable to disable Motion Smoothing as it can cause noticeable delays and lag.
High Local Dimming/Contrast
Local dimming allows you to dim your TV screen in different areas. It can also adjust brightness for the brighter parts. This contrast makes movies look amazing, especially when it is dark. If your TV has this setting, you should turn it up to the highest.
This setting is not available on all TVs, and few TVs do it well. To find the best setting, pause your movie in a scene with bright areas near dark areas. This could be a space scene, black and white movie, or any other scene. To see which setting has the best picture quality, turn Local Dimming off and on.
After calibrating your TV, follow our step-by_step guide on how to properly mount your TV on a wall.
