TV Brightness (also known as Backlight)
Here, we’re talking about adjusting your TV’s lighting system to achieve an overall “brightness,” which is usually among the first picture settings available. The name can be confusing, as it varies by TV brand and display type. It’s often called “Backlight,” but may be labeled “Brightness,” a title originally reserved for a different picture setting that affects black levels and dynamic range (defined below). Your TV should give you a basic guide to finding the right setting, and you can always hit “reset” if you get lost. Unlike most other picture settings, increasing or decreasing brightness doesn’t affect picture quality or accuracy.
In SDR, the screen brightness will typically be set to a value lower than maximum, depending on the picture mode you choose. If you like your current SDR picture mode, but feel that the overall image is too bright or dim, simply adjust the backlight/brightness to your liking. Since SDR content is more static than HDR, turning up the brightness level too high can be uncomfortable.
When watching HDR content, the screen brightness will automatically be maximized by default (unless the ambient light sensor is turned on). That’s because HDR metadata tells your TV where it should be really bright or really dark, and the TV responds accordingly without ruining your eyes. One HDR setting tweak worth considering is Dynamic Tone Mapping, designed to analyze and optimize the brightest and darkest sections of the screen. It’s often turned off by default in movie modes (but not always), and quality varies by make and model. With most TVs, I recommend leaving Tone Mapping off to start and adjusting it later if you need a little more brightness.
Ambient light sensors: the ghost in the machine
Even after you change your TV’s picture mode from the default Low Power or Eco modes, you may notice that it automatically dims or acts strangely in different lighting. This likely means that your TV has an optical sensor activated somewhere. That’s fine if you don’t mind your TV automatically adjusting to the ambient light in your room, but I’ve found that most of these sensors don’t work as well as advertised and can sometimes result in a mediocre picture.
Not all TVs have light sensors, but if you notice strange dimming, this could be the culprit. If your TV’s backlight changes on its own, you may need to look in the Picture or General settings and disable said optical sensor. It’s usually labeled as Eco or Ambient Light.
Brightness and black levels
Not to be confused with the Backlight setting above, this setting specifically adjusts the TV’s black levels by changing the overall dynamic range. Increasing this setting can help you see difficult shadow details that may be obscured in some content by default, but you’ll need to be careful because setting it too high can cause the picture to look washed out. For most TVs, you’ll want to leave the Brightness or Black Level setting at or near the default, and only adjust it if you’re having trouble viewing dark content in your usual viewing environment.
Contrast
At its most basic, contrast adjusts your TV’s white point levels without increasing black levels. It corresponds to the black level/brightness settings, and one affects the other. In HDR TV modes that use dynamic tone mapping, contrast is often considered ineffective or unpredictable.
For SDR videos, increasing or decreasing contrast can help control blurring in brighter images, known as clipping. If you’re missing some detail in clouds or cityscapes, you can try lowering the contrast a few stops to see if it looks better. If you’re making any noticeable contrast adjustments, you should use a suitable test pattern, such as those offered on the reference discs. You’ll then need to go back to the Black Level/Brightness settings to make sure it still looks clear and accurate.
Aspect ratio
You probably don’t need to change this setting unless you’re watching old-school shows in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Your TV’s aspect ratio is usually set to something like “Auto” or “Normal,” but if the picture looks weird or stretched, you may need to play around with the aspect ratio or zoom features in the picture settings until it looks better.
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Color and temperature
I don’t recommend tinkering with the main Color or Tint settings on newer TVs, especially when using accurate picture modes like Filmmaker or Cinema, but there are a few color settings you can tweak to your liking. Raising or lowering Color Saturation will make things look more or less vivid respectively. Adjusting Color Temperature will greatly affect the overall look, with Warm modes giving a more reddish overall tone and Standard or Cool modes looking more blueish. Again, warmer modes are generally the most accurate (though they may look a little dim or yellowish at first), but cooler modes may look better for some content, like sports.
Sharpness/Clarity
The Clarity or Sharpness of your TV is another setting that is generally best left untouched, with a few exceptions. If you see unnatural amounts of moiré, where the image flickers or swirls in particularly fine patterns, lowering the Sharpness may help a little. You may also want to lower the Sharpness if you notice strange artifacts around hard lines or edges, which corresponds to the distance you are sitting.
Motion smoothing – just one touch is all it takes
Motion smoothing settings, which include options like judder or blur reduction, have long been criticized by picture purists. By using digital enhancements like frame interpolation (which adds artificial frames), motion smoothing can create the infamous “soap opera” effect, which makes movies and TV shows look eerily cheap.
The setting is usually turned off by default in film-advance picture modes, but not always. For years, I’ve recommended turning off motion smoothing for anything other than high frame rate content, such as sports. However, as TVs have gotten better at digital upscaling, I’ve found myself using very mild motion smoothing to adjust for jerky motion, such as harshly panned camera shots or fast-moving objects that tend to jerk due to a display’s input response.
