So you just got a new TV, unpacked the box and turned it on. The image looks great, but you are not 100% satisfied with some details displayed on the monitor. The color also seems to need some adjustments.
Do not reconsider the salesperson's speech to send a technician to your home. This cost at least a few hundred reais. Below we show you how to calibrate your TV to solve some of the most common picture problems and get the best possible quality for your new device. And most of our recommendations cost nothing but your time.
Fit or not fit
Before we get to the point of the matter, the vast majority of TVs come out of the factory adjusted fine. It wasn't always like this, but the odds are 98% for anything modern you buy. Choose the "home" option in the first setting and if you like most viewers, be perfectly satisfied with the quality of the image. In that case, spend your time watching a great movie instead of messing with the TV's advanced picture settings.
If you want to order the last two percent of the picture quality of your TV, we will guide you through the process. Just don't expect your TV of just over $ 1,000 to suddenly look like it has quantum dots or OLEDs on board. The technology you bought the technology you bought, and no tip or anything more technical will change that.
The HDR Factor
High dynamic range (HDR) is the latest feature of TVs, and we are discussing this in advance as it may affect the adjustment process. An HDR TV generates much more brightness than a TV that has a standard dynamic range. Note that “HDR compatible” does not count. It simply means that the TV understands the information, but can do nothing with it.
HDR standards, such as HDR10, HDR10 +, and Dolby Vision, are basically adjustment information built into the video that tells your TV how to render material. In our experience, HDR works best with TVs with at least 700 nits of maximum brightness. You'll get some HDR effect (vivid laser photos, more detail in dark areas) with TVs generating less than that, but the overall palette can be quite dark, especially with the older HDR10.
The HDR10 adjusts the TV only once, at first, and should consider the entire movie when doing so. Occasionally we light up an HDR10 title, although this is not possible on all TVs. Some even prevent you from making basic brightness and color adjustments while the HDR is in play.
The HDR10 + and Dolby Vision continually send adjustment information throughout the material so that whatever you adjust according to a scene may interfere with the next or simply be thrown away. But if you feel the need, always try.
That said, let's go to the actual adjustments you can make on your TV.
Basic Settings
You can also call this step rudimentary calibration and should not take more than 10 minutes. All you need are some test images and your eyes. You can also use a light meter, but we'll leave it for later. Then get your remote, go to the image settings and read about the various things you may need to adjust. We will reach the finest points and true calibration in a moment.
Brilliance
In fact, this is nothing like what you do with a more common switch – a black level control; ie adjusts the level of brightness (or lack thereof) that is considered absolute black. Visually, it seems to have the same effect as a light switch, but there is a subtle difference you will see when discussing the contrast. Before adjusting brightness, turn off adaptive brightness, which changes the backlight strength according to the amount of ambient light your TV detects. If you leave it on, you will not be able to see the actual results of your adjustments.
Backlight
This is now a brightness control, but applies only to LCD TVs or other types that use a separate source for luminance. OLEDs don't have that because the light source is the diode itself – not a light that shines through it. Increasing the strength or luminance of a backlight will result in a brighter picture, but also increasing bleeding on the edges of a TV and on the LCDs themselves (which are not perfect shutters) and the surrounding area.
On some TVs, you can wash the color almost entirely by increasing the backlight intensity. Don't do it. Generally, leave the backlight as low as possible for the ambient light conditions while maintaining the appropriate bright highlights. Unlike color adjustment, you can lose edges and detail if you reduce the backlight too low, although some TVs don't let you down.
Contrast
Again, this does not really adjust the contrast (ie the difference between adjacent light and dark areas), changes the white level or the pitch considered absolute white. Therefore, the brightness equals the black level and the contrast equals the white level. The difference between the two is their actual contrast level. That's why it's a good idea to revisit the brightness after adjusting the contrast and vice versa. Decreasing contrast, along with brightness, can help mask processing problems such as brightness and grinding, and increasing it can help highlight details in darker areas. How much this helps will depend on your TV.
Color
Refers to color intensity or saturation. Not the tint or the RGB balance; they are in the fine configurations that we will cover later. Increase this setting too high and the colors overload the details. Set it too low, and you're done: You have a black-and-white TV and a great way to discolor old movies that have been "modernized."
Saturation settings are easily made by the eyeball. When you notice declining details, you have more than enough colors. We recommend using an episode of The Simpsons to test. In practical terms, when Bart Simpson's skin color begins to obscure his outline, you've gone too far. In practice, your adjustments should be very small.
You will also find color space settings, which can usually be left in automatic mode. But if you own them and want to manually set their color depth, you're fine with Rec.709 for most materials; But with 4K HDR, you want the Rec.2020, if available.
Tint
In some older sets, this may be called a Hue. Originally designed to correct phase errors in communications between TV tuners and broadcasts, it modifies the ratio of red or green in each non-black color. The chances of you having to adjust this today are negligible, but if your favorite star's face looks a little green around the gills, use the tint setting to adjust these features. If the result is unsatisfactory, you may need to check the advanced RGB balance settings. Or in the latter case buy a new TV.
Sharpness
the level of perceived detail and the outline of the edges you will see in the image. Currently, it basically adjusts the algorithm used by the TV's image processor. Turn it on maximum and you will see jagged edges; at the very least, and the details get blurred. This all depends on taste, but TVs are usually set to a level that almost everyone considers acceptable.
Some TVs also reduce sharpness to mask issues such as grinding, brightness, and flickering, which are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid as high-brightness technologies like HDR come into play. Handle the extra bright highlights perfectly when in motion is the equivalent of cold spindle video processing – and this has not yet been done.
Movement
a setting that, as in sharpness, involves an exchange. In this case, between reducing artifacts like shake (sudden jumps), and retaining details. If you want to see how many details are missing, pause in the middle of a quick action sequence and study the edges of objects.
The difference with this setting can be dramatic – if your TV looks good. Most TVs with a 60 Hz hardware refresh rate experience at least some occasional shake or shake, while 120 Hz models rarely suffer from this problem. The extra cycles allow the frame rate conversion process (59.97 fps to 60 fps) to insert black frames to be inserted, along with other tricks to smooth the action.
TVs with higher hardware refresh rates also tend to employ better CPUs. You can ignore the rest of the phrases and numbers that vendors throw at you – just the way they say they employ tricks, such as flickering backlight to improve motion problems. It is at your discretion.
We like to leave this option in soft mode, except when it produces a video shooting effect, which can happen on cheaper TVs. Hollywood looks different and you can find a "movie mode" in newer models that should come close to the original "vision" of those who produced the material.
Image size
Also known as Proportion of the image. The most modern content has a ratio of 16: 9. Almost all current flat screen TVs have exactly this ratio. Many older movies and some TV broadcasts, on the other hand, use narrower proportions and should be displayed with columns; ie with left and right vertical black bars. The actual 4K, or 4,096 x 2,160 (17.1: 9), expands with small black edges at the top and bottom of the screen, as does the high resolution content displayed on a 4: 3 aspect ratio screen.
If everyone looks thin or thick, or the images look truncated, you are possibly using your TV in the wrong setting. The desired settings are called 16: 9 or Wide, for HD (720p), FHD (1080p) or UHD (2160p) and 4: 3 content. A modern TV should correctly detect the signal and automatically adjust the way it displays unless you replace it.
More accurate adjustments
Now let's get to the magician of the question, or what videophiles consider calibration. If you look around the advanced settings of your TV, you will probably find some things that look complicated: temperature, gain and color shift to red, green and blue; white balance; and gamma. You can try to look at these configurations, but since the differences can be so small, you're probably better off with hardware assistance, which we'll discuss next.
You can disrupt the calibration with these fine settings, but they are also the way to the last point of image accuracy. We can't walk you through the advanced settings of all TVs, but we can tell you about the most common settings and what they do. Note that you may see some of the same adjustments in the advanced settings as in the basic settings. Usually they serve as the baseline for common controls.
Temperature
Color temperature settings affect the color intensity across the spectrum in what is basically a curve. They usually offer only a few options that comply with industry standards. Indeed, they go from cold (accentuating the blue end of the spectrum) to warm (the red end). Try the various temperatures before handling the fine settings described below. We recommend that you keep the default unless you are trying to match output from another device or media. About 5800K closely mimics the sunlight.
Many TVs offer modes such as sports, computer, games, movies, and other formats that involve changes in color temperature. It may be a better option if you like to keep things simple.
White balance
It follows the RGB settings below because the amount of red, green and blue used to create pure white. With technology capable of producing pure red, green and blue, that would be easy. Quantum dots and OLEDs approach, but no other technology really exists. So this is usually an approximation, and you need to decide if you want a warm white or a cold white.
RGB gain and offset
If your colors are skewed to red, green, or blue, you can reduce or increase their level by using these controls. Usually, you use a blank image and adjust the component colors so that the image is really white or as close as possible to the TV. Once again, you are at the mercy of technology. Many cheaper TVs simply cannot produce an accurate green or red due to the blue tilt of the white LED lighting they employ.
gamma
In various paragraphs, we can say what exactly gamma (this has to do with interpreting a color space in terms of luminance). Instead, think of it as the equivalent of a medium range audio control for your image. Gamma does not affect white or black, but the brightness of the colors in between. A very tall and very dark setting; It is very low and they are very light. The goal, unless you are trying to match the output of another type of device, is to retain details in dark areas without harming them in lighter areas.
Final Advice
Far from telling you what you want to do with your TV, but calibration can be an educational experience and very interesting if you have the tuning (or compelling) gene. Try the adjustments and remember: there is an image reset function. Poorly calibrating your TV will not break anything. So enjoy these optional tips.
