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Your TV Is Set Up Wrong

Every TV leaves the factory tuned for a bright showroom, not your living room. Nine settings fix that in ten minutes, and the last one watches you back.

Photo: Geoff Sloan, CC BY 2.0

Start With Filmmaker Mode

One picture mode undoes most of it. Filmmaker Mode switches off sharpening, noise reduction and motion smoothing, and keeps the source frame rate and aspect ratio.

Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0

Kill the Soap Opera Effect

Most movies are shot at 24 frames a second. Samsung's Auto Motion Plus invents extra ones. Find it under Settings > Picture > Expert Settings and switch it off.

Sharpness Is Not Detail

Cranking sharpness adds bright halos along edges rather than real detail. Filmmaker Mode sets sharpening and noise reduction to off; in Movie mode, do it by hand.

Photo: Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0

Stop the Mid-Scene Dimming

If the picture fades during dark scenes, a light sensor is doing it. On Samsung: General & Privacy > Power and Energy Saving > Brightness Optimization, then off.

Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0

Unlock 4K HDR on That Port

Samsung ships HDMI inputs in a narrow signal range. Without Input Signal Plus, a console or player may never offer 4K at all. It is set per port, not per TV.

Photo: Pradeep717, CC BY-SA 4.0

Not Every HDMI Is Equal

Ports differ on the same set. Samsung routes 4K at 120Hz through the input marked with a game icon, so the fastest port is often the one nobody plugs into.

Photo: Asim18, CC BY 3.0

Let Game Mode Switch Itself

Auto Low Latency Mode lets a console tell the screen to drop into low-latency Game Mode by itself. Consoles trigger it; a PC usually needs Game Mode set by hand.

Make the Fix Automatic

LG hides an auto-start switch under Picture > Advanced Settings > Filmmaker Mode. Turn it on and the set changes mode by itself when a film starts playing.

Photo: TravelingOtter, CC BY-SA 2.0

Your TV Logs What You Watch

Automatic Content Recognition samples what is on screen to build a viewing profile. It runs only if you accepted Viewing Information Services, and you can revoke it.

Photo: Dancingpolishcow, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ten Minutes, Every Film Better

Set these once and every movie, stream and game looks the way it was mastered. Start with Filmmaker Mode tonight.

Photo: Geoff Sloan, CC BY 2.0
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