Contrary to what you might think, most TVs don't look great out of the box. Even if you buy a premium QLED, Mini-LED, or OLED TV, chances are you'll need to spend some time dialing in the right settings to enjoy the panel to the fullest.

Thankfully, you only need to change a handful of settings to make any TV look way more premium. Whether it's image quality, brightness, network performance, or motion clarity, you can quickly tweak a few settings to improve each metric. Manufacturers do their bit to tune the panel, but they still leave some default settings that can ruin your experience. You may know some of the settings on this list, but you still may have missed changing them on your current TV.

A Hisense TV's menu
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HDMI format

Enhanced format should be enabled by default

HDMI signal and format settings on a smart TV.

To ensure maximum compatibility between the source and your TV and avoid HDMI handshake issues, manufacturers set the HDMI format on modern TVs to the Standard setting. In case you were wondering why your PS5 or Xbox Series X/S doesn't look great on your TV, this setting could be the culprit.

The HDMI standard format ensures stability but limits signal strength, degrading image quality and gaming performance. This is why I toggle the HDMI format to Enhanced on a new TV the moment I set it up. This setting prioritizes image quality and performance by allowing the full strength of the HDMI signal to pass from the source to the TV. What you get is better colors, maximum frame rates, and the best HDR performance possible on your panel.

You can find this setting in the TV's input settings. Different manufacturers call it by different names, such as HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color, Input Signal Plus, HDMI UHD Color, or simply HDMI Enhanced Format. You'll need to toggle this for every HDMI port individually, depending on which ones are currently in use.

Ethernet

Switch to a more reliable connection

Samsung TV Ports

You may be using Wi-Fi on your smart TV for years, streaming 4K content and even games from your PC. After all, Wi-Fi is more convenient than running a cable to your TV, and most of the time, it works without issues. However, switching to Ethernet offers real advantages that everyone should consider.

For starters, you'll get rid of the occasional drop in bitrate when Netflix adjusts the video quality based on the Wi-Fi signal strength. Ethernet will ensure a consistent, high-speed connection, eliminating video quality issues and disconnections. By moving your TV off the wireless network, you'll also skip the interference on the 2.4GHz band if your TV is an older model with limited 5GHz capabilities.

Quiz
8 Questions · Test Your Knowledge

The history of televisions
Trivia challenge

From fuzzy black-and-white screens to razor-sharp OLED panels — how well do you know the story of TV?

PioneersTechnologyMilestonesFormatsInnovation
01 / 8
Pioneers

Who is widely credited with inventing the first fully electronic television system?

Correct! Philo Farnsworth demonstrated the first fully electronic television system in 1927 at the age of just 21. His image dissector camera tube was a revolutionary breakthrough that laid the groundwork for all modern television technology.
Not quite. While John Logie Baird and Vladimir Zworykin were also television pioneers, it was Philo Farnsworth who demonstrated the first fully electronic TV system in 1927. Baird's system was mechanical, and Zworykin's later work built on similar electronic principles.
02 / 8
Milestones

In what year did the BBC launch the world's first regular high-definition television service?

Correct! The BBC launched the world's first regular high-definition television service on November 2, 1936, broadcasting from Alexandra Palace in London. The service initially alternated between Baird's mechanical system and Marconi-EMI's electronic system before settling on the electronic standard.
Not quite. The correct answer is 1936. The BBC began broadcasting from Alexandra Palace that year, making it the world's first regular HD television service. The broadcasts alternated between two competing transmission systems before the electronic method won out.
03 / 8
Technology

What does the acronym 'CRT' stand for in the context of older television technology?

Correct! CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube, the display technology that dominated televisions for most of the 20th century. It works by firing electrons from a cathode gun at a phosphor-coated screen to produce an image, a method that was both clever and bulky.
Not quite. CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube. This technology was the backbone of television displays for decades, using an electron gun to illuminate phosphor dots on a glass screen. CRTs were eventually replaced by slimmer LCD and plasma panels in the early 2000s.
04 / 8
Formats

Which color television broadcasting standard was adopted in the United States in 1953?

Correct! The NTSC (National Television System Committee) color standard was approved by the FCC in December 1953 and became the broadcast standard across the United States. It remained in use for analog television until the digital switchover in 2009.
Not quite. The correct answer is NTSC, which stands for National Television System Committee. PAL was adopted in Europe, and SECAM was used in France and some other countries. NTSC governed American color broadcasting from 1953 all the way to the analog shutdown in 2009.
05 / 8
Milestones

What historic event became the first live television broadcast watched by a global audience of over 600 million people in 1969?

Correct! The Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969 was watched live by an estimated 600 million people worldwide, making it one of the most significant television moments in history. NASA transmitted the footage using a special slow-scan television camera mounted on the lunar module.
Not quite. The answer is the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon were broadcast live to an audience of around 600 million viewers globally. It remains one of the most watched television events of all time and a landmark moment for the medium.
06 / 8
Technology

Which display technology uses organic compounds that emit light when an electric current is applied, offering superior contrast to LED-LCD panels?

Correct! OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. Unlike LED-LCD panels that require a backlight, each OLED pixel produces its own light and can switch off completely, enabling true blacks and virtually infinite contrast ratios. LG was among the first to bring OLED TVs to market commercially.
Not quite. The answer is OLED, which stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode. QLED is Samsung's marketing term for quantum dot-enhanced LCD panels, which still rely on a backlight. OLED's self-emissive pixels allow for perfect blacks that LCD-based technologies simply cannot match.
07 / 8
Innovation

Which company released the first commercially available plasma television in 1997?

Correct! Fujitsu released the first commercially available plasma television in 1997, the 42-inch PlasmaVision display. It was priced at around $15,000, putting it firmly out of reach for most consumers, but it marked a turning point in the push toward flat-panel television technology.
Not quite. Fujitsu was the company that brought the first commercial plasma TV to market in 1997 with its PlasmaVision model. Though Panasonic later became one of the biggest names in plasma technology, Fujitsu got there first with a product that cost around $15,000 at launch.
08 / 8
Milestones

In what decade did television sets first surpass radio sets in numbers found inside American homes?

Correct! By the mid-1950s, television sets had overtaken radios as the dominant household medium in America. The number of US homes with a TV skyrocketed from around 1 million in 1948 to over 32 million by 1955, a growth rate that reshaped entertainment, news, and advertising forever.
Not quite. The 1950s was the decade when televisions surpassed radios in American homes. After World War II, TV adoption exploded rapidly, with ownership jumping from about 1 million households in 1948 to over 32 million by 1955. It was one of the fastest technology adoption curves in history.
Challenge Complete

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Lastly, streaming uncompressed media files from your local Plex or Jellyfin library can result in a stuttering mess on Wi-Fi. Ethernet can play your high-quality files in lossless quality instead. You might need an Ethernet adapter to bypass the 100Mbps cap on your TV's built-in port, but that's a small price to pay for a significantly improved experience.

A transparent render of the TP-Link USB to Ethernet Adapter
TP-Link USB to Ethernet Adapter
$15 at Amazon
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7
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Color depth

Go deep into your TV's color settings

The Fire TV Stick 4K's color settings

Color depth refers to the number of shades of color your panel can display. For instance, 8-bit panels can display 16.7 million colors, while 10-bit models can display 1.07 billion colors. If your TV supports a higher bit depth, switching to it can minimize "banding," significantly improving the gradient and image quality.

This setting is especially important for TVs that support true HDR and should be changed during initial setup. You can find it in the Display or Advanced Picture settings of your TV, under Color Depth or Bit Depth. Choose the highest setting available, and you'll notice better image quality, depending on your panel and its HDR capabilities.

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Sharpness

No longer needed

A TV's sharpness setting

You may have seen sharpness settings on older TVs. These models belonged to a time when the content needed assistance to appear palatable on the screen. The sharpness slider was used to enhance object edges, making 480p and 720p content appear sharper on a higher-resolution screen. This setting is no longer relevant today when 4K content is widely available, but the sharpness slider remains embedded in the settings of modern TVs.

Given that most content is already pretty sharp on modern 4K TVs, leaving sharpness enabled can actually degrade image quality by making faces and text appear unnatural. You should either set the sharpness slider to 0 or look for a neutral setting that doesn't apply any artificial sharpness to the content. You'll be able to view the image as intended, not through an artificial sharpness filter.

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Motion smoothing

The bane of modern smart TVs

Manufacturers intended motion smoothing to be a fix for low framerates, improving motion smoothness with a simple toggle. While this can be great for sports content, it arguably ruins the experience when watching anything else. Motion smoothing gives the content an artificially fluid look that immediately breaks the immersion. Adding fake frames to 24 FPS or 30 FPS content doesn't "improve" anything; it just takes away from the intended viewing experience. The problem is that most TVs have this setting enabled by default. It is usually called TruMotion, Motionflow, Auto Motion Plus, or Smooth Motion Effect, depending on the manufacturer.

If you want to view content at its original frame rate and hate the "soap opera" look of motion smoothing, I recommend toggling it off for everything except sports content. You can also adjust the degree of the effect based on your preference rather than turning it off completely.

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Picture calibration

A rite of passage

Close-up of a smart TV showing gamma settings in calibration settings

A big reason your TV's image quality looks "off" out of the box is that it requires calibration. If the content appears too dim, too bright, or washed out, you should be ready to spend some time in the video settings to tune the TV exactly to your liking. Most people can start with the Filmmaker Mode present on almost every TV these days. This mode disables all image enhancements and presents the image as close as possible to what the content creator intended. If it appears too warm or too different from what you want, you can manually adjust the panel's brightness, contrast, gamma, saturation, and other color settings.

For washed-out colors specifically, you should check your TV's RGB Range settings to ensure its black level matches the source device's. Different devices implement different RGB ranges. Full RGB (0-255) is often seen on gaming consoles, with 0 representing black. Limited RGB (16-235) is used by streaming apps, broadcast TV, and Blu-ray, with black set to 16.

Usually, the Auto setting ensures the TV and the source device use the same RGB range, but you may need to set it manually if you see washed-out colors. Your TV will have this setting in the Picture or Video section, under RGB Range, HDMI Black Level, or Contrast Enhancer. On a console such as PS5, you'll find it in the Screen and Video settings under RGB Range. You can set both to Full or High to ensure the same RGB coverage. For movies, you may see better results with the Low setting. In that case, ensure the source device reflects the same.

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Almost any TV can look great if you know which settings to change

Even if your TV is a few years old and the panel doesn't have the best local dimming, brightness, or refresh rate, there's always room to extract more out of it. Maybe you never calibrated it properly and suffered from inferior image quality as a result. Maybe you still have motion smoothing or sharpness settings set too high, ruining your immersion. You could also switch from Wi-Fi to Ethernet and enjoy more reliable streaming. It's all about knowing where to look.