Getting the best TV picture: The complete guide

No matter how long you’ve had your TV, chances are it can look better than it does. If you’ve never adjusted your TV’s picture settings, you’re missing out on some of your TV’s performance.

This handy guide will lead you through every step to get your TV looking its absolute best.

Placement and connections

If you’ve just bought a TV, consider checking for where the best place for it is. It might not be the most obvious place. For example, don’t mount it above a fireplace.

Next, make sure you have the right cables. All high-speed HDMI cables perform the same, so we recommend checking places like Amazon or Monoprice (or other online stores) for cheap HDMI cable options. Generally, HDMI is the best choice, though sometimes DVI or DisplayPort are options.

If you’re connecting to your cable or satellite box, most of the time you should set the box to 1080i, but with some TVs 720p is better. Remember, 1080i is the same resolution as 1080p.

For audio, if you’re connecting to a soundbar or other sound system, generally it’s either optical or HDMI. There are pros and cons to each.

Picture settings

If you haven’t adjusted any of your TV settings before, check out How to set up an HDTV and HDTV settings explained.

Now, with a general idea of what’s going on, but before you start tinkering with your TV’s settings, it’s best to pick the right picture mode, like Sports, Vivid, Cinema, or Movie.

With that set, an easy place to start is How to set a TV up by eye. Using just TV shows (or your own images), you should be able to get your TV’s contrast and brightness controls pretty close.

Digging deeper: Advanced adjustments

Ready to go a bit further? First brush up on Beyond basic TV settings. This covers things such as backlights, color temperature, refresh rates, and more.

If you’re a gamer, you’ll definitely want to learn about Game Mode, which can potentially improve your online gaming scores with just a simple click of a setting.

If you want to go even further, it’s time to get a set-up disc for Blu-ray. These will help you find the best settings for your specific TV.

And for the last step, to get wring every bit of accuracy and performance from your TV, you may want to consider a professional calibration.

Troubleshooting

If the voices you hear are not matching the motions of the actor’s lips, that’s called a lip-sync error, and sometimes you can do something about it.

If you’re annoyed by reflections on your TV, check out How to rid your HDTV of reflections.

If you notice that objects blur when they move, or if everything you watch is super-smooth and looks like it’s on a cheap soap opera, check out What is the Soap Opera Effect. If you don’t like motion blurring, but also don’t like the Soap Opera Effect, some TVs have a feature called Black Frame Insertion which can help eliminate motion blur (but occasionally cause its own side effects).

Does the image on your TV sometimes break down into little blocks? Not your TV’s fault, actually. Because sometimes HD isn’t really HD.

So there you have it: pretty much every article I’ve published on how to optimize and understand your TV. Now it’s time to put your feet up and enjoy.

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Got a question for Geoff? First, check out all the other articles he’s written on topics like why all HDMI cables are the same, LED LCD vs. OLED, why 4K TVs aren’t worth it, and more. Still have a question? Send him an e-mail! He won’t tell you what TV to buy, but he might use your letter in a future article. You can also send him a message on Twitter @TechWriterGeoff or Google+.