If you’re seeking an authentic theater-like experience at home, it’s best to invest in a quality OLED smart TV. These high-end models feature individual pixels that light up and turn off on their own, which allows the screen to achieve a perfect contrast ratio. OLED models provide a faithful viewing experience and offer more detail in shadows and dark scenes than QLED TV alternatives, albeit at a higher price.
Buying a new TV and simply turning it off when you plug it in, however, isn’t enough. Once you acquire your OLED model, you’ll want to make sure it’s set up for success. Here are the settings you need to change before watching anything.
Turn off dynamic picture settings
Select warmer tones and accurate color
A picture preset comprises a variety of settings in order to set up the image on screen to look a certain way. Smart TVs often default to dynamic or vivid presets; these may be useful when selling TVs at a store because they are so eye-catching, but aren’t ideal once you get the TV home. These settings turn up brightness and color saturation, while turning the color temperature to the cooler side of the spectrum. All these makes an image that is big and bold yet unnatural.
Some TVs offer AI assistance in finding the perfect image for your personal viewing habits and preferences. Just be mindful to avoid anything vivid or tinted in blue. This style is attractive at first, but it doesn’t adhere to industry coloring standards and can cause eye fatigue over time.
You want to make sure your OLED picture setting is in either natural, theater, or movie mode. These settings produce warmer color and more balanced brightness and contrast, all of which make for an image that is more cinematic and closer to reality. Resist the temptation to choose any setting that has blue overtones.
Turn off motion smoothing features
Watch out for the soap opera effect
Lots of people have a lot of strong opinions about motion smoothing, a software process that every TV utilizes to make certain titles appear less chaotic and rigid on screen. Motion smoothing essentially bridges the gap between a piece of media’s frames per second and the TV’s refresh rate, and not every TV does it the same way or at the same level of quality. It can be useful for live sports or busy action movies. Because viewers have their own personal preferences, some people don’t notice something motion while other people witness the dreaded “soap opera effect.,” which makes everything appear artificial and uncanny.
It’s important to find out what looks best to you, but generally you’ll want to turn off motion smoothing completely, or at least tone it down, if that option is available. Every manufacturer has a different name for this feature, and some only give you an option to turn it on or off, while others let you toggle an intensity. Get to it before you watch anything on your new TV.
Enable Filmmaker Mode for movie fidelity
Optimize your OLED TV for cinematic events
Chances are good that your new OLED TV boasts Filmmaker Mode. This popular feature is the work of a collaborative effort between production companies, directors, and TV manufacturers in order to achieve the utmost cinematic fidelity at home so that you can watch movies the way the director wants you to see them.
Basically, Filmmaker Mode adjusts a variety of settings, from aspect ratio to color temperature to motion smoothing, to adhere to the standards created during production. Mostly, Filmmaker mode turns off extra processing and software features that artificially change the image on screen, including motion smoothing. Filmmaker Mode is an automatic setting that is similar to a picture preset but doesn’t operate quite the same way. In most cases, when enabled, Filmmaker Mode will automatically turn on or off when it detects associated content, so you don’t need to worry about switching back and forth between picture presets.
Double-check your peak brightness
Toggle based on your environment
One of the drawbacks to some OLED TVs is that they don’t have the peak brightness that QLED models do, in part because OLED TVs don’t have a backlight. That doesn’t mean OLED can’t get bright; it just means you’ll have to be more mindful of where you set up your TV.
Play around with the brightness tracker, being mindful of the types of titles you’ll be watching as well as the ambient light in the room. Ideally, you will be able to prevent any natural light from getting into the room in order to create an experience akin to being in a theater. Regardless, TVs often ship with brightness turned up, so you may want to turn it down a bit.
Be mindful of your privacy settings
Turn off ad tracking and suggested titles
This adjustment is less about the OLED-style TV itself and more a general warning, but it’s absolutely worth checking your privacy settings on any new TV. Your TV manufacturer is going to bury all these settings deep down in menus, typically under a General tab, but it’s worth taking time to explore.
You’ll want to turn off everything you’re allowed to turn off. This includes Automatic Content Recognition features, which catalog what you have on screen, as well as interest-based ad services, which will promote titles to you on your home page based on viewing history. These features and others serve no benefit to viewers; they only exist to collect data and build a profile of you so that advertisers can show you more things to watch and purchase. Turn everything off.
