Last Updated on October 2, 2021 by Sean Donlevy
Buying a new TV can be exciting, but are you really getting the most out of your TV?
Here are some quick and effective tricks for getting the most out of your TV investment.
While your TV’s technical features such as image panel, size, and image processor are theoretically crucial to how good your viewing experience is, there are other important things to consider.
Everything really starts with the furnishing of your TV. Firstly, the size and distance to your TV is very important for your experience. However, it is not only the distance in your furniture that is important.
Controlling the TV
For those who want to have a pleasant experience on the TV couch, it may be worth investing in a multi-remote to minimize the number of controls where you can get multiple appliances and programs to start with a single push of a button.
However, it can be even smoother to control your TV with your voice or with a gesture-based remote control. Start your TV and kick-start the correct TV series with a single voice command or by tapping the menus on your TV. Or why not search for actors in the movie by talking to the TV. It may sound un-smooth and does not fit in all situations but test yourself.
If your TV has an integrated Google Home assistant, you will be able to control quantities of smart home products such as lamps and switches directly from your TV.
Watching with friends
You usually get the best TV experience with great company. Take a look at the book clubs and create your own TV club/evening. Book a time a week with like-minded people and enjoy the TV experience together, for example, football matches. Don’t forget about snacks – whether healthy or unhealthy.
For those of you who want to have the most awesome experience with your new 4K HDR TV, we have below a quick list of some games, movies and TV series to benchmark your TV.
Light sources and placement of the TV
The rule of thumb is that you get the best possible movie and TV experience in a dark room. This is no coincidence as cinemas extinguish the light in the salon. Even if a TV is better than a projector for standing out in a bright room, you should as far as possible avoid placing your TV opposite windows or other bright light sources. No matter how bright your TV is or how good the reflection treatment it has, sunny summer days will be frustrating if you have a window opposite your TV.
If you have the opportunity to darken the room, this is a great advantage, while some light sources can actually be good. Placing a milder light source behind or next to your TV in an otherwise extinguished room reduces the stress on your eyes and reduces the risk of tension headaches or fatigue during long sitting.
Some manufacturers have techniques that simulate the colors displayed on your TV in the light behind the screen which can give a cool effect.
At the same time, it is the shifts in brightness in a dark room that stress your eyes. An even cold light behind the TV is the optimum for anyone who wants to have as comfortable and accurate viewing experience as possible.
This is especially good to think about in HDR times where our TV sets can shoot up to very high brightness levels for short periods. Consider how high you place your TV. The guideline is that the height of your eyes should correspond to the center of your TV. At the same time, keep in mind that a couple of feet on a high coffee table can interfere with your view as you look. Wall mounting is good if you want to have a clean TV bench or completely remove it. Just keep in mind that your TV will then also come further from the viewing position.
TV settings
The majority of ordinary consumers will have a well-balanced TV experience if they choose just the right picture profile for what they use their TV for. Your TV has a bunch of different settings, so use it. At the same time, different manufacturers attach different weight to this and as a rule, you get better pre-calibration the more costly TV you buy. Be sure to switch between different image modes and test which ones you feel work best for your use. For example, you may prefer one profile for evening viewing and another for daytime viewing in a brighter environment.
If you want to get the most out of your TV experience, you should consider doing an extra calibration of your TV. This should preferably be done in your home environment by someone who has both the right equipment and knowledge. The improvement in image quality will be different depending on the TV, and also from person to person. But that is the only way to know that you are getting the maximum out of your TV.
In general, however, most people do well as long as they switch from the default mode and choose one of the other predefined settings correctly.
If you want to test calibrating your TV yourself, you can test calibration apps on your phone or tablet. Another quick option is to google “calibration settings” and your TV model and duplicate the settings that others have set, it should go far for most.
Getting the best TV experience for sports
Green lawns and fast-moving balls. Football can be incredibly exciting and entertaining but is also one of the biggest challenges for your TV. Sports and Football, in particular, feel good about increased resolution and a progressive image.
When it comes to your TV, it is important to choose the right settings. Most TV makers have become adept at creating separate image modes for specific sports, and it is often a big difference to their standard settings or to the part movie mode that is often used for regular TV viewing.
Switch to the sport settings and experiment yourself with features to change the brightness, contrast and your TV’s refresh rate to find the right settings for you. Preferably before the whole quarter bench on the couch for the World Cup premiere.
TV settings for movie and gaming
As mentioned earlier, the first benchmark for getting a good experience is to choose the right image settings for film. On TVs, this is often known as cinema/movie/film mode. While most TVs are well optimized for film and TV viewing, there is often a big difference in how TV handles games.
Video and computer games not only require good handling of fast movements but are also extra sensitive to input. This is the time it takes from pressing your hand control or mouse and actually having the tv respond. The guideline is the shorter the wait, the better and more faithful your gaming experience will be.
Also check if your TV supports HDR in its “game mode”, managing HDR signals with low input law is difficult but also important when HDR technology is now spreading in games. If you connect your PC to your TV to play, you should also make sure that your TV receives the signal at 60 Hz and that the picture covers the entire TV. If it does not, you can try changing the aspect ratio of this particular connection to solve the “overscan” problem. The setting is different on different TVs, but “just scan” or “full picture” are some of the options used by manufacturers.
Shorten the signal path from your game console or computer to get minimal input teams and the best gaming experience. The best option is to connect your game console / PC directly to the HDMI inputs on your TV. If you connect them through your soundbar or receiver, additional input teams are added when the picture signals have to take a detour to your TV panel.