See here how you can get a much better TV picture in no time – completely free. Unfortunately, some creative souls in our industry take many hundreds of dollars to make some settings that are probably not even visibly better than what you can easily do even in seconds.
A SMALL, FRIENDLY SLAP IN THE FACE TO THE INDUSTRY
At HiFi Klubben, we would like to start by handing out a small slap to the part of the industry that can not figure out how to advise customers in a proper way. Unfortunately, time and time again we experience customers who have received lousy advice because the seller only thought of making as much money as possible on the product. For example, as a customer you may be told that a marketed TV “is not good for showing skiing”, that it “chops in the picture when you watch movies” or that it “does not have enough Hertz at all to show football ”. What a wow!
Of course, there is a difference in the picture quality, but you really have to be careful if the sellers try to picture you that way when you buy your TV. The vast majority of new TVs can be set to minimize such problems for free. Below are a few tips to make all screens show a better picture.
YOUR NEW FLAT SCREEN IS INCORRECTLY SET
Whether you buy a good or bad monitor, it is almost always incorrectly set when you unpack it. The factory setting on your TV is created to impress you in the store – not to give a correct picture at home in your living room. Therefore, the manufacturers have usually turned up the contrast, the sharpness, and the blue color, which makes the image appear extra white and brilliant.
On some TVs, the setting is called “dynamic mode” or “demo mode”, and you are in no doubt when you look for it in the store. The picture looks completely unnatural, just like if you use a ‘filter’ from Instagram. If you do not get it set better, you will quickly get tired in the eyes and at the same time miss out on all the delicious details that the film and TV companies have spent millions of kroner on polishing.
Fortunately, it is not difficult to make your TV picture much better. It only requires you to make a few simple basic settings yourself via the TV’s standard menus and your remote control. And no, you do not have to be an expert, it just takes 5 minutes of your time. Afterward, you can sit back and enjoy a far more natural and relaxing TV picture.
MOVIE MODE – THE MAGIC SHORTCUT TO A GORGEOUS TV PICTURE
On your TV there are a strip of basic settings that you can work with yourself. For example, contrast, brightness, color, sharpness, and various digital filters can be turned on and off (for example, noise reduction). There are lots of handles to turn on, and for the average user, it can quickly seem quite confusing. Fortunately, the manufacturer of your TV has made sure that you can almost reach the finish line simply by clicking on one item in the menu: Movie Mode (also called Movie Mode, Cinema Mode or similar).
With Film Mode, your TV comes in one fell swoop into a set of settings that are very close to the values that the film and TV industry has defined as “correct”. In contrast to e.g. In the music industry, they work in image production with completely established standards that apply to both professionals and home users. In short, Film Mode is the TV manufacturer’s bid to meet these standards in the best possible way, without you having to measure on your TV with expensive professional equipment. And today, manufacturers have actually become really good at hitting precisely.
We also recommend turning off the various digital “image enhancement features”. For example, there is “digital noise reduction” on many models. Most of these features only give a better picture in certain situations, which works well at first glance in the store. Digital noise reduction is made to optimize the image if you watch old VHS or movie recordings, but makes no sense on pretty much anything else that is recorded digitally and in much higher quality. So rather turn it off, and get a more natural image.
Note that “movie mode” or “movie mode” may well seem completely wrong just when you turn it on. The eyes just need to get used to the colors being different, and if you have gotten used to the factory setting, then it will look weird the first five minutes. But try to give it a try one day time. The next day you can then try to switch back and see what you prefer!
On some new Samsung TVs at the high end of the price range, you will even find Filmmaker Mode. Here even more has been done to ensure that the settings are completely correct! If you choose this option, then you do not need to do more – congratulations on your new calibration, which only took 15 seconds!
CALIBRATION – IF IT IS TO BE ABSOLUTELY PERFECT
Calibrating a TV really just means measuring and adjusting a range of picture settings to get as close to the perfect picture quality as possible. No two monitors are completely identical at the factory, so you need to make these settings individually for each monitor if you want a 100 percent optimal result.
We at HiFi Klubben have discovered that some “creative souls” from our big competitors often just measure the values on a single screen and then send a sheet around between the warehouses for entry for everyone else who has to “calibrate” the model in question. However, you can NOT use the same values on other monitors of the same model, as all monitors are different. In addition, a proper calibration must be performed in the exact room where the screen is to be used, as the incidence of light in your living room can have a great impact on the calibration.
If the calibration is not done at your home and on the exact monitor you have purchased, then it is nothing more than a cunning trick to make you pay extra for your new monitor. We honestly think that is not right! That would be equivalent to a vision test being reused for different people … Would you pay for it?
In some cases, however, this “pseudo-calibration” can give a pretty good result – if you are lucky. But there is no reason to pay for it. On the web, you can google yourself for a complete set of settings, almost regardless of which TV model you have bought. If you feel like it, you can try them and if the picture gets better from it, all is well. If not, just reset the settings again. Then you can decide for yourself whether you want to try again with a different set of settings, or whether you want to settle for the producer’s Film Mode, which in many cases is at least as good.
True calibration requires specialized measuring tools, access to advanced settings and training in interpreting the measurement results to make the necessary adjustments and compromises – on your TV and in your own living room! It should not be made in the store if it is to be serious.
All this has to be done by a professional TV technician, it is far from free and it takes time. In return, you get the final crucial spice to the picture experience, and it can easily be worth the money for the discerning enthusiast. The same is true if you are the happy owner of a good projector home theater.
Related: Why would a TV have Sound but no Picture – A TV has black pictures!
ENJOY FOR FREE – OR GO ALL THE WAY
So … in summary: If you are a regular user, we recommend that you put your TV in Film Mode (or equivalent), and like to turn off all the smart “picture enhancement features”. If you manage these few adjustments, then you can rejoice that you reached 95 percent of the goal in five minutes, and without it costing anything. This is abundantly good for the vast majority of TV users.
You can try out a set of more advanced options that you can download for free from the web. If you are not satisfied with the result, just reset the settings again. You do not risk destroying anything.
If you require the perfection of your TV or projector, we recommend that you contact a professional TV technician and have a real calibration performed at home. Then you can rejoice that your image is as good as it can possibly be. And it’s actually a pretty nice knowledge to have when your favorite movie rolls across the screen!
Recommended reading:
The sound does not match the picture on the screen-Sync problem