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Buying a new TV should be fun.
But what if you get the TV home, set it up and it doesnt look how you expected?
Your TV may have Eco settings that could affect picture quality, such as an Eco picture mode or a light sensor that dulls the picture in darker environments, as shown here on a Philips OLED806.
Well, fear not, because youre not alone in that experience.
Many obscure options that affect a TVs performance are hidden in its menus.
This is not just true of budget sets; even thebest TVshave some of these annoying tweaks.
Your TV may have Eco settings that could affect picture quality, such as an Eco picture mode or a light sensor that dulls the picture in darker environments, as shown here on a Philips OLED806.
But, worry not as Im going to tell you how to change these prefs.
Its most likely in Eco mode.
To turn this off youll need to go controls and navigate to Picture controls.
(Image credit: Future)
Some TVs have other power-saving modes hidden away as well.
Often, its the most inaccurate mode and its one we are not fans of here at TechRadar.
If you want your movies and TV shows to look natural, avoid this at all costs.
(Image credit: Future)
Why is a software update important?
To do this, youll need to navigate to your TVs System tweaks once again.
Thankfully, brands make it obvious by labeling this setting Check for Update or Software Update.
It’s important to check for the latest software updates for security and to add new features
Sometimes this can be found in the About TV section, but that varies from set to set.
And as someone who regularly uses that movie to test TVs, I agree!
To alter or turn off motion smoothing, go to Picture prefs and look for the Motion submenu.
Motion smoothing or interpolation (referred to as Intelligent Frame Creation on the Panasonic MZ1500 shown above) can drastically affect picture quality
The level of the parameters can also depend if youre watching a movie or sports.
Although Game Mode prevents this from happening, there is an important HDMI setting that often goes unnoticed.
Go to parameters and look for HDMI Control.
Changing the HDMI format is essential for getting the most out of your gaming device. This photo is of the Hisense UXN
press that and you should see Standard, Enhanced and possibly other tweaks.
Set it to Enhanced and that should activate the TVs HDMI 2.1 features, including 4K 120Hz support.
Some may find they like these but in many cases, they can negatively impact your TVs picture.
Some picture adjustments such as the Resolution Remaster setting at the bottom of the menu shown on the Panasonic MZ1500 shown above can drastically alter image quality and should be tweaked or turned off
One example is the Super Resolution feature onHisenseTVs such as the Hisense U6N.
I have found that having this setting turned on gives textures and details an overly sharp, fake look.
