Settings On Your OLED TV That Are Ruining Your Viewing Experience

OLED TVs are gaining in popularity, with all of the major manufacturers selling at least one model in the U.S. market. The panel technology is well-suited to consuming content as the self-emissive nature of OLED means high contrast levels, per-pixel local dimming, and impressive color accuracy. The drawback is that OLED panels can't get to the same brightness levels as competing panel tech, as they don't employ a separate backlight.

That's not the only potential drawback, but it is one of the only drawbacks that can't be solved by changing some settings on your OLED TV. The manufacturers' default settings might not be the best for your living space. That's because they're set to sell TVs in the showroom, with brightness and color vibrancy cranked to the max. Most of the general recommendations for any TV still hold true for OLED panels, with a few settings specific to OLED. These settings are recommendations, and your personal preferences might be different.

Did you know that your OLED TV is ruining your movie-watching experience? That's because, by default, it has multiple layers of post-processing that deviate from what the filmmaker intended. Many TVs made in 2020 or later have a new Filmmaker Mode to rectify this, which removes all post-processing so that the content is shown according to the director's vision.

To turn on Filmmaker Mode for Hisense TVs, follow these steps:

• Press the gear button on your remote, then Settings.

• Select Display & Sound.

• Select Picture, then Advanced Settings.

• Toggle Filmmaker Mode Auto Detection to On.

LG automatically changes the picture settings to Filmmaker Mode when watching some content, like that on Prime Video. You can also set it manually in the menus via these steps:

• Open Settings and select Picture Menu.

• Select Picture Mode Settings, then Picture Mode.

• Select Filmmaker Mode.

• If it looks too dark, adjust the backlight from Advanced Controls.

Samsung TVs should all have Filmmaker Mode. To enable it, follow these steps:

• Press the Home button on your remote.

• Go to All Settings, Picture, Picture Mode.

• Select Filmmaker mode.

For Visio TVs, you can manually set Filmmaker Mode from the settings:

• Open Settings and select Picture Options.

• Select Picture Mode, then select Filmmaker Mode.

When you first bring your OLED TV home, it'll likely be in Vivid Mode, with the brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color boosted to make it look better in the showroom. That isn't the best mode for home viewing, but ironically, neither is the Home Mode. That's because the Home Mode is tweaked to conform to the Energy Star guidelines for TV power use, so the brightness and other settings will be turned down.

To start tweaking the picture, choose one of the factory picture modes, preferably one that allows for more setting customizations like Theater, Expert, or Professional. You want to avoid Vivid, Dynamic, or any word that sounds exciting — these will be overexaggerated. You can go straight to Filmmaker Mode, although you might also want to increase the brightness level. Modern TVs, like OLED panels, often change their modes based on their detectable content. That's a good thing, making it easier to switch between SDR and HDR content without having to dive into menus. Game Mode will reduce input latency, so your video games will respond to your input faster.

This setting makes low-resolution content better looking through upscaling, removing noise, and other post-processing tools. Turn it off. Most content these days is high enough resolution that you're only going to make the picture seem softer with it turned on. While it might have some benefits if you are watching standard definition or 720p content, the resulting image will introduce blur and possibly even pixelation. If you are watching a lot of lower-resolution content, you can experiment with the varying levels of super-resolution but otherwise, keep it off.

On LG TVs, go to Settings, All Settings, Picture, Clarity, and turn Super Resolution off. Sony calls it Reality Creation; other manufacturers call it Smooth Gradation. Whatever name it uses, you don't want it. Content is mostly high-resolution and high quality now, and the algorithms designed to remove noise, digital compression artifacts, or analog conversion glitches are not really necessary. If the TV has multiple options, turn it to off. You can try differing strengths if watching old DVD content or anything else from the pre-4K era.

OLED panels are known for their high contrast levels; every pixel can be turned off for deep black levels. That means you don't need Dynamic Contrast to be set. This setting controls the contrast levels of the screen based on what it is displaying at the time. That could end up crushing the black levels or even clipping the highlights. Either of those is terrible for HDR content, and the technology used in OLED means it's not necessary.

For some types of content, like cartoons, it might make a difference as it will make the colors pop. That same effect on human skin will make it look unnatural. Color banding artifacts could also be introduced, making the overall image look worse. While you're turning off this setting, it's worth finding Black Tone, Black Detail, or any related contrast-enhancing settings and turning those off. Let your OLED panel do all the work for you, with its near-infinite contrast levels and fine-control over black levels.

Manufacturers have mandated environmental standards they have to design into their OLED TVs, including energy-efficient modes that limit brightness. With OLED being dimmer overall than any other flat-panel TV type, that spells disaster for your picture quality. Depending on which manufacturer your TV is from, this could be called Eco Mode or Auto Power Saving, or something similar. The energy-efficient settings could also interfere with other picture modes, making all of the adjustments you're making a waste of time.

You'll want to find the Energy Saving menu in your OLED TV and turn any Energy Saving Step, power saving, or similar features off. You'll want to turn off three things for LG OLEDs: Energy Saving, AI Picture, and Eye Comfort Mode. These are found in the OLED Care menu. On Samsung OLED, you want to turn off Brightness Optimization, Motion Lighting, Brightness Reduction, and Adaptive Picture. Vizio OLED TVs come with Eco Mode on by default. To change that, you want Quick Start Mode, found at Settings, System, Power Mode, Quick Start.

The normal recommendation for TV audio is to buy a soundbar that supports Dolby modes. That's still the case for OLED, even if the internal speakers are capable. You don't have to spend a lot of money here. Almost any soundbar will be better than the internal speakers. OLED TVs are thin, which means less space to fit speakers. Soundbar speakers are larger, which can move more air, leading to better audio performance.

The most important thing to look for is HDMI ARC or eARC support to connect your OLED TV to the soundbar with one HDMI cable. Other features to look for include Dolby Atmos or DTS:X support, the two most common high-end audio codecs for immersive surround sound. Bluetooth is a personal preference if you want to use your soundbar for casting audio from your mobile device. It's also worth checking if your TV manufacturer has its own soundbar range, as they're often designed to work in concert with the inbuilt speakers to deliver better sound, especially for the frequencies that carry speech.