YOU might be ruining your own TV experience by using the wrong settings.
A simple mistake like not picking the best picture mode can cause televisual chaos.
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The difficulty is that different TV models have varying names for their picture modes.
But there is some good general advice that you shouldn’t ignore.
For instance, there are three TV modes that should always avoid, according to Consumer Reports, a non-profit consumer watchdog in the US.
“Don’t choose “sports” mode for watching sports—or for anything else,” the experts warned.
“It could artificially boost brightness, contrast, and colors, and turn on motion smoothing”
The report also warned against using “vidid” and “dynamic” modes.
These make overly significant adjustments to contrast, sharpness and brightness.
It means that you may end up with a poor picture that doesn’t properly reflect the original material on your streaming apps.
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Instead Consumer Reports recommends that the best picture mode tends to be something to do with film – like “movie” or “cinema”.
You might also find that some TVs offer a similar mode called “expert” that is also recommended.
It’s also worth noting that some TV models offer a Filmmaker mode, according to UK consumer mag Which?.
This gives you the closest settings to match what the movie director originally wanted.
However it can sometimes be a little dark.
Once you’ve got a preset mode selected, you can still adjust it to your own needs.
It’s possible to make your own personal changes to settings like brightness or contrast, so you get the best experience for your own TV and room.
If you don’t have Filmmaker Mode, Which? has some advice.
“You can make some tweaks to simulate what Filmmaker mode is doing,” the report notes.
“The simplest one is to turn off any motion-smoothing effects.
“Different manufacturers have different words for these settings, but it should be easy to tell which they are (they usually include ‘motion’ in their name).
“It’s impossible to know if any tweaks you make here are the right ones, but motion smoothing tends to be the main bugbear, so turning that off is a good start.”
