You've just unboxed your new 65 inch TV, mounted it on the wall or placed it on your entertainment unit, and turned it on for the first time. The picture looks... okay. But you know it should look better. You've seen these TVs in showrooms looking absolutely stunning, so why doesn't yours match that experience?
The truth is that most televisions ship with factory settings designed to catch your eye in a brightly lit retail environment, not to deliver accurate, comfortable viewing in your home. With a few adjustments to your TV's picture settings, you can dramatically improve the image quality without spending an extra dollar.
Step 1: Choose the Right Picture Mode
Every modern TV comes with several pre-configured picture modes, and selecting the right one is the most important first step. Common modes include:
- Dynamic/Vivid: Maximum brightness and saturation. Designed for showrooms, not homes. Avoid this mode.
- Standard/Natural: A middle ground that works for most content but may still be over-processed.
- Cinema/Movie: Designed for accurate colour reproduction. Our recommended starting point for most viewers.
- Filmmaker Mode: Available on newer TVs, this mode disables post-processing for the most accurate picture.
- Game Mode: Reduces input lag for gaming. Use only when playing video games.
Start with Cinema or Movie mode. This typically provides the most accurate colours and disables aggressive processing that can make the picture look artificial. Filmmaker Mode is even better if your TV supports it.
Step 2: Adjust the Backlight
The backlight setting controls how bright your TV screen appears and should be adjusted based on your room's lighting conditions. This is different from the "brightness" setting, which actually controls black levels.
For daytime viewing in a bright room, you may want the backlight higher—perhaps 60-80% of maximum. For evening viewing or in a dark room, reduce the backlight to 30-50% to prevent eye strain and improve perceived contrast. Many TVs have ambient light sensors that can adjust this automatically.
Step 3: Set Brightness Correctly
Despite its name, the brightness setting doesn't actually control how bright the TV appears—that's the backlight's job. Instead, brightness adjusts the black level, determining how dark the darkest parts of the image appear.
Setting brightness too low will crush shadow detail, making dark scenes look like muddy blobs. Setting it too high will make blacks appear grey and washed out. The goal is to set it so that black areas appear truly black while still showing subtle shadow detail.
How to Set Brightness
Find a scene with both very dark areas and subtle shadow detail—the opening of a dark movie works well. Adjust brightness so that black bars (if present) are truly black, but you can still see detail in dark shadows on screen. Most TVs are close to correct at the default setting of 50.
Step 4: Adjust Contrast
Contrast controls how bright the white areas of the image appear. Setting it too high can blow out highlights, losing detail in bright areas like clouds or white clothing. Setting it too low makes the image look flat and lifeless.
For most TVs, the default contrast setting is close to optimal. If you notice that bright areas like clouds or snow appear as featureless white blobs, reduce contrast slightly. Most TVs perform best with contrast set between 80-95%.
The relationship between brightness (black level) and contrast (white level) determines your overall picture quality. Get these two settings right, and you're 80% of the way to an optimised picture.
Step 5: Fine-Tune Colour Settings
The colour and tint settings control how saturated colours appear and the balance between red and green tones. In most cases, leaving these at their default values is best, as they're typically well-calibrated from the factory.
If skin tones look unnaturally orange or red, you may want to reduce colour saturation slightly. If people look too green or pallid, adjust tint (sometimes called hue) slightly toward the red side. However, these adjustments rarely need more than minor tweaks.
Step 6: Disable Motion Smoothing
Motion smoothing, known by various brand names like Motion Plus, TruMotion, or Motionflow, is one of the most controversial TV features. It artificially increases the frame rate of content, which can make motion appear smoother but often creates an artificial "soap opera effect" that makes movies look like cheap video.
For film and scripted television, we strongly recommend turning motion smoothing off entirely. The feature is labelled differently by each manufacturer:
- Samsung: Auto Motion Plus
- LG: TruMotion
- Sony: Motionflow
- Hisense/TCL: Motion Enhancement
The exception is sports viewing, where motion smoothing can help reduce blur during fast action. Consider creating a separate picture mode for sports with motion smoothing enabled.
Step 7: Disable Unnecessary Processing
Modern TVs include numerous image processing features that can do more harm than good. Consider disabling or reducing these settings:
- Noise reduction: Useful for low-quality sources but can soften HD and 4K content. Turn off for streaming and Blu-ray.
- Edge enhancement/Sharpness: Set to 0 or very low. High settings add artificial halos around edges.
- Dynamic contrast: Can crush blacks and blow out highlights. Disable for the most consistent picture.
- Colour enhancement: Can oversaturate colours unnaturally. Leave off for accurate colours.
Step 8: Configure HDR Settings
If your TV supports HDR (High Dynamic Range), there are additional settings to consider. HDR content requires different treatment than standard dynamic range (SDR) content, and many TVs apply different picture settings automatically when HDR is detected.
For HDR content, you generally want the TV to display the full brightness it's capable of. Keep the backlight at maximum for HDR viewing to take advantage of the expanded dynamic range. However, you may want to adjust local dimming settings if you notice blooming around bright objects.
Most TVs let you save custom picture settings for different input sources. Create separate optimised settings for movies, sports, and gaming rather than using one-size-fits-all settings.
Step 9: Room Considerations
Your room environment significantly impacts perceived picture quality. Consider these factors:
Ambient lighting: Reduce reflections on your TV screen by controlling ambient light. Position lamps behind the TV rather than in front, and consider blackout curtains for serious movie watching.
Bias lighting: Placing soft lighting behind your TV can reduce eye strain and improve perceived contrast. LED light strips in a neutral white colour work well.
Wall colour: If your TV is mounted on a wall, darker wall colours can help the picture appear more vibrant by providing better contrast with the surroundings.
Conclusion
Taking 15-20 minutes to properly calibrate your new TV can transform your viewing experience. Start with a Cinema or Movie picture mode, adjust backlight for your room conditions, and disable unnecessary processing features. These simple steps will get you 90% of the way to a professionally calibrated picture without any special equipment or expertise.
Remember that there's no single "correct" setting—the best picture is the one that looks best to you in your viewing environment. Use these guidelines as a starting point, then fine-tune to match your preferences.