GIVE YOUR TV A TUNE-UP!

From sharpness and Eco modes to viewing angles and motion smoothing, here are John Archer's ground rules for getting a better picture from your 4K flatscreen

- John Archer

EVEN THE MOST affordable modern TV will offer some form of image adjustment, and the pricier a model gets the more in-depth and powerful its image settings will become. And as learning everything your set can do takes time – plus plenty of trial and error – it's easy to give the picture menus a swerve and settle into watching a single preset.

There's nothing wrong with this approach. Life is short and there are movies to be watched. But even a little bit of fiddling, and following some 'best practice' suggestions, can go a long way. Plus, of course, if you're really set on achieving home cinema heaven, a professional calibration is a possibility...

Below are eight tips, based on my too-many years of reviewing TVs, to help you give your system's image quality a boost.

Switch to different picture presets for different types of viewing

This sounds obvious, but the fact is that most TV users – yes, even some Home Cinema Choice readers – are too lazy to switch between the viewing presets their TVs provide. And that's even when manufacturers try to make things easier by providing themed names such as Cinema or Sport.

It’s true that TV engineers highly motivated to show off all the fancy features they’ve created aren’t always best placed to know how to create a well-balanced and immersive picture. However, different presets at least give you a worthwhile starting point for different types of content, and you should be proactive about using them.