When shopping for a new smart TV to act as your central home entertainment hub, there’s a lot of value in leaving the house and physically inspecting potential models. You can get a better feel for the operating system, navigation setup, and how it’s designed.
However, it’s important not to be swayed by any number of tactics that retailers will use to make a smart TV seem a lot better than it is. In particular, there is one key picture setting that is used by every seller to really make every TV pop; but you don’t want to ever use that setting when you bring the TV home. Here’s what you need to know.
Smart TVs are set up to sell
Displayed are configured to attract attention
Just about every TV that is on display waiting to be sold uses picture settings that make colors pop. This is typically a vivid or dynamic setting. These presets saturate colors and lower the temperature. Brightness is turned up, sharpness is also fined tuned. The result is eye-catching, colorful images on the screen that really stand out. The goal is to be captivating, and when set up right, these smart TVs typically are.
It also helps the retailer that the TVs are set to images suited to such settings. They’re typically playing ambient scenes of nature and art, or they’ve opted for movies and shows that have been carefully selected. These titles will have been shot at a high quality and will typically involve a lot of color; retailers aren’t likely to select any titles that are dark or unattractive. There is a high emphasis on brightness and color because that’s what gets people’s attention, while contrast is far less of a priority.
The way a smart TV is set up in store may look great, but they are suited to that environment. You don’t want to use these settings at home.
Vivid settings increase color temperature
Blue tones are visually unnatural
Vivid settings are designed to get your attention for a few moments, but they’re not designed for prolonged viewing. The main reason has to be due to the color temperature. Vivid settings lower the color temperature, putting more blue tones into what you’re watching. Blue light, as anyone who uses their phone in bed at night knows, can be very disrupting to rest and cause eye strain. Blue light filters are popular for those who stare at screens for a long time. That’s why Kindle stays away from blue light.
You don’t want to be staring at a TV screen that is going to cause you discomfort over time; after a couple of episodes, you will definitely start to feel the strain.
The other reason you want to stay away from lower color temperatures is because too much blue saturation on screen can lead to unnatural-looking images, especially when it comes to skin tones. There is an artifice that exists with lower color temperatures, so it’s not going to be suitable for anyone seeking out cinematic fidelity.
Dynamic presets have few uses
Be mindful of brightness and textures
There are other issues with this preset that are worth mentioning. Overall, viewers are losing detail, as sharpness and contrast falter. There is a lack of depth and texture, and it’ll be especially noticeable when watching anything with average special effects. Instead of elevating the source material, your TV will make it worse.
You’ll also want to be mindful of energy consumption. Increasing the brightness significantly is going to consume more power than other modes. While you shouldn’t consider turning on any energy savings mode, just be mindful that using vivid regularly over the course of many months and years can slowly diminish the life of your TV and add a little bit to your electricity bill.
Filmmaker Mode is a collaborative innovation that operates as an automatic setting on most new smart TVs. It removes software processes and enacts parameters that align with the director’s vision when it detects compatible titles so that you can watch movies and shows the way the filmmakers intended.
Lastly, vivid should generally be necessary. This preset only has a few uses, and one of them is when they’re trying to be sold. In some cases, live sports may be helped by vivid settings, or at least not hurt. Typically, the only time you’d really want to use a vivid setting is when you’re watching TV in a very bright room. However, it’s recommended to be avoided as much as possible. If you can turn down the lights and block out natural light, you’ll find the viewing experience significantly improved.
Natural or cinema settings are ideal
Warm tones offer fidelity
Instead of vivid or dynamic settings that overwhelm you, switch over to presets that turn up the color temperature and do away with extra processes. Settings with names like natural or cinema or movie will offer what you’re looking for with warm temperature, softer edges, and more natural-looking people.
Warm color temperatures are highly recommended across every genre of entertainment. Skin tones are more accurate, and there is reduced eye fatigue when there is less blue on the screen and more yellows and oranges. Warmer temperatures better support contrast as well, with darker areas of the screening showing up with more defined boundaries and detail. Keep in mind that if you often use cooler settings, or you’re switching over from a blue-ish temperature, the warmer image will initially seem pretty jarring. It can take a while, maybe 15 minutes or more, for your eyes to adjust and the image seem natural. It’s going to seem odd at first.
Most notable is that warmer temperatures better align with industry standards. Whereas cool temps are used to market and sell TVs, warmer temperatures are the ones actually used by filmmakers. The white point for film making falls within the warmer side of the spectrum, so when you’re opting for settings like vivid or dynamic, you’re ignoring the original vision for that title.
How to shop for a potential smart TV
Test out alternate settings before you buy
When you’re shopping for a TV in person, knowing that the TV will be displayed in a very specific way to get you interested is key in finding the best TV for your home. It’s not that this makes a TV you’re looking at necessarily bad, but it just means it’s harder to tell if the TV is the right one you want.
If possible, change the settings on any display model so you can see how it looks as it would in your home. Opt for the presets you’ll more commonly employ, and try to find some content, if possible, that more closely aligns with what you want to watch. See how darker content looks and take note of any blurring or shadowing on screen.
It’s best to have a plan before going into the store, narrowing down your potential list by screen style and specs like refresh rate. While you’re in the store, play around with navigation features and test out the remote. While there is a lot you can learn about a smart TV when shopping online, getting a feel for the operating system and seeing the screen with your own eye is invaluable.
