A 4K TV should always look incredible, but if yours doesn’t, the problem may not be the panel or the content. More often than not, it’s the default settings that make your TV look soft or blurry.
Modern smart TVs are packed with more picture settings than you’ll ever care to explore. Unfortunately, not all of them are designed to deliver the best possible image. Some are designed to make TVs stand out on the showroom floor, while others aim to reduce energy consumption. All of this affects image quality in different ways, but the good news is that it only takes a few minutes to fix.
Disable motion smoothing
It helps more
If there’s one default setting that ruins the movie-watching experience more than anything else, it’s motion smoothness. This goes by different names depending on the TV brand, such as Motion Plus, Termotion, Motion Flow, or Auto Motion.
Whatever it’s called, it’s usually already enabled on the TV. The reason behind this is simple. Most movies you see in theaters are shot at 24 fps. Meanwhile, modern TVs have higher refresh rates of 60 or even 120 fps.
What motion smoothing does is create additional frames and insert them between the real ones to make the movement smoother. Ideally, this should make movies look even better, but usually it doesn’t. This is because the TV has to predict how objects will move from frame to frame, and it can’t do this with 100% accuracy.
These small mistakes add up and end up causing the infamous “soap opera effect”. It’s one of those things that you either feel now or not at all. But once you realize it’s there, it’s impossible to ignore.
As you can guess, the fix is simple. Go into the TV’s picture settings and turn off motion completely. look for movement or Explanation of movement On TCL TV, Termination On LG models, Automotive Plus On the Samsung set, and Action smooth On Roku models.
Adaptability
It doesn’t work the way you think
This may sound a bit strange, but hear me out. If you encounter faces on your 4K TV, and you notice strange halos around the edges of objects, it’s almost certainly due to the default sharpness setting.
When it comes to your TV, more sophistication doesn’t mean more detail. Instead, increased sharpness generally increases artificial edge. In other words, your TV creates a fake image that replaces parts of the original image.
Also, modern 4K content already has more detail than your eyes can process comfortably from a distance. When the sharpness is set too high, your TV just starts adding halos around the edges and exaggerating the noise. The ending makes the film grainy and, ironically, a bit blurry.
The tricky part, though, is that there’s no single sharpness setting that works for every TV. Since each model processes the image differently, you’ll need to experiment a bit. On some TVs, the correct sharpness level may be around 10, while on others, it may be zero.
A quick way to find the right sharpness level is to switch between different image presets like Movie, Sports, Cinema and more. Check the sharpness level of the preset that looks best and adjust it from there.
Change these 4 settings to boost your smart TV’s performance
If your smart TV feels sluggish, you don’t need to upgrade right away.
Turn off Eco mode
Why dim your TV?
The most powerful part of a TV is, of course, the display itself. So, if you want to enjoy your TV without increasing power consumption beyond a certain point, you need Eco mode. It is proactive because low energy consumption is better for the environment.
The problem lies in how Eco Mode actually works. It continuously adjusts your TV’s brightness and contrast based on picture content and sometimes the lighting in the room. And if you’re looking for the best image quality, it’s not ideal. The effects of Eco mode are particularly noticeable with HDR content. Eco mode keeps the brightness down, and those highlights never really pop.
For this reason, when you’ve spent a fortune on a 4K TV, Eco Mode doesn’t make sense. Also, the difference in power savings is usually negligible if you only use the TV for an hour or two per day.
You won’t find an Eco Mode option in your TV’s picture settings menu. Instead, go to Generalfor , for , for , . Advancedor system Look for the menu and labeled option Eco mode or Energy Dashboard.
Adjusting these three simple settings should make a difference in your TV’s picture quality. Of course, that’s not all. To make your TV look even better, you should also explore different picture modes, adjust HDR settings, and make sure you’re using the right HDMI cable.