The 6 TV settings you should change first
A new TV is set up to sell in a bright shop, not to look right in your living room. Out of the box the picture is too blue, too sharp, and full of processing that makes films look like cheap video. These six changes fix most of it in about two minutes, on almost any brand. The menu names differ, but every set has them.
1. Turn off motion smoothing
This is the big one. Motion smoothing, or motion interpolation, is what makes a film look like a daytime soap opera, oddly smooth and cheap. Turn it off and film looks like film again. Each brand hides it under its own name: Auto Motion Plus on Samsung, TruMotion on LG, Motionflow on Sony, Action Smoothing on TCL and Roku. Our guide on the soap opera effect has the exact setting for every brand.
2. Set the picture mode to Cinema or Filmmaker
The default mode is usually Standard, Vivid or Dynamic, which are the punchy, oversaturated shop-floor settings. Switch to Cinema, Movie, or Filmmaker Mode. It looks a little duller for a minute, then your eyes adjust and you see the picture the way it was actually made, with natural color and correct brightness. This one change fixes several problems at once.
3. Turn the sharpness down
Sharpness on a TV does not add detail. Past the halfway mark it adds fake edges, a thin halo around objects that hides fine detail rather than revealing it. Turn it down to zero, or near it, and look at some text or a face. The picture becomes cleaner and more natural. If zero looks soft on your set, nudge it up a little, but stay low.
4. Set color temperature to Warm
Out of the box the picture is set cool, a blue-white that looks bright and crisp in a showroom. It is also wrong. Set the color temperature to Warm (sometimes Warm2). It will look too red or yellow for the first few minutes, because your eyes are used to the blue. Give it a day. Warm is the standard films and shows are made to, so whites and skin tones come out right.
5. Turn off the eco and ambient light sensor
Energy-saving modes and the ambient light sensor quietly change the brightness while you watch, dimming the picture in a dark room and lifting it in a bright one. It feels like the TV has a mind of its own. Turn off Eco, Energy Saving, and the light sensor so the picture stays steady. If your TV looks too dark in general, our guide on why a TV looks so dark covers the rest.
6. Set the backlight for your room
Two controls look similar but do different jobs. Brightness sets the black level and should be left near default. Backlight (called OLED Light on an OLED) sets how bright the whole panel is, and that is the one to match to your room: Higher for a bright room, lower for a dark one. A backlight that is too high in a dark room is tiring to watch and washes out the black.
Questions people ask
What are the best picture settings for a TV?
Start with the picture mode set to Cinema, Movie or Filmmaker, motion smoothing off, sharpness near zero, color temperature Warm, eco and the light sensor off, and the backlight matched to your room. That covers most of the difference. For the finer settings, black level and white clipping, use the calibration steps below.
Should TV sharpness be set to 0?
Close to it. Sharpness does not add real detail; past the middle it adds a fake halo around edges that hides detail. Zero is right on many sets. If zero looks soft on yours, raise it a little, but keep it low.
Why is Warm color temperature better than Cool?
Cool looks brighter and crisper in a shop, but it is too blue. Films and shows are made to the Warm standard, so setting your TV to Warm shows whites and skin tones the way they were meant to look. It seems too orange for a few minutes until your eyes adjust.
That is the fast pass. For the full job, setting black level, white clipping, gamma and geometry by eye, follow our calibrate your TV by eye guide, and use the calibration patterns to check each one on screen.