Simple steps to improve your new or old TV’s picture quality
TVs are cheap this time of year, but people are often disappointed after buying a new set. The picture quality doesn’t live up to expectations. Fortunately, a better picture is just a few adjustments away.
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Let’s say you snag a great deal on a fancy new TV. All you have to do is plug it in and start watching your favorite TV shows and movies. But as soon as you start, you notice that the colors are off or too bright.
It isn’t necessarily the TV’s fault. Any new television can be a disappointment when you first get it home. That’s often because they aren’t always calibrated correctly for your home’s lighting.
It would be even worse if you bought the store’s floor model. Floor models have heavily tweaked saturation and hues designed to catch your eye in fluorescent lighting. Once you get it into standard lighting at home, it looks terrible.
You could pay an expert to set your new TV up, or you can save some money and get great results doing it yourself. Let’s start with a basic setting.
1. Use the display presets
Your TV likely has several built-in presets geared to different uses, like movie-watching or sports channels. You can find these in your TV’s picture settings menu. Look in your TV manual to find them. If you don’t have your manual, tap or click here to find it online.
Sometimes your new television might have defaults for presets like vivid because that gives colors the most pop — often too much. Many store models use this preset.
For general TV viewing, the standard preset — or whatever your TV calls it — is your best bet. Just making that switch alone can fix a lot of image quality problems.
Try cycling through the other options and see which one you like best. You can also test out settings for different scenarios. Some TVs even have presets for specific types of sports, so load up a game or two and see what those do for you.
2. Use your eyes
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3 simple steps to improve your TV's picture quality
A common complaint we hear from readers is how disappointed they are after buying a new TV. The main problem is the picture quality doesn’t live up to expectations.
The thing is, it isn’t necessarily the TV’s fault. Any new television can be a disappointment when you first get it home. That’s often because they aren’t always calibrated correctly for your home’s lighting.