5 quick tips to give your Sony OLED TV a picture quality upgrade

Date:
Wed, 06 Jul 2022 18:41:32 +0000

Description:
Sony OLED TVs look good straight out of the box, but can be made to perform even better with a few simple adjustments.

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Sony is one of the few companies to sell OLED TVs along with LG, Panasonic, Vizio, and now Samsung. But just how good are Sonys OLEDs? Good enough to regularly show up on our lists of the best OLED TVs and the best 4K TVs , alongside the top offerings from those other brands.

Weve previously offered suggestions on ways to improve the picture quality of Sony TVs . That list covered the basic adjustments that youd find on any Sony set, with advice on choosing the right picture preset (Cinema, in most
cases), avoiding the light sensor and Eco modes, bypassing noise reduction, and choosing the correct motion processing option. Most important, it warned of the perils of selecting the Vivid picture preset a general rule that should apply to any TV.

Having just reviewed Sonys new A80K OLED TV and spent additional quality viewing time with it, I wanted to circle back and offer specific suggestions for adjusting Sonys OLED TVs to optimize their picture quality. This list
will take a deeper-dive into some of the unique picture adjustment options found on the companys OLEDs. Following it, youll get a sense of which menu options some of which are named in a confusing manner are important, and which ones you can leave on auto-pilot.

If you do own a Sony OLED TV, its a fair bet you dropped a good chunk of change on it. Heres how to dig into your sets picture menu and adjust it for best performance. 1. Select the right video signal settings

Okay, first off, what are video signal adjustments, and why do they get their own sub-menu on Sonys OLED TVs? These settings apply to incoming signals, and they make general changes based on whether the signal is in 4K format with high dynamic range or in regular old high-definition.

If youre using a 4K/HDR source like an external streamer or Ultra HD Blu-ray player, or just streaming in 4K/HDR using the sets built-in apps, you can simply leave most of these settings (HDR mode, HDMI video range, and Color Space) in the Auto mode. That way, the TV will automatically adapt for incoming 4K/HDR and regular HD sources and display them correctly. The Advanced Color Adjustments in this menu are meant mainly for use by professional TV calibrators, and are something most viewers wont need to play with (and probably shouldnt). 2. Make the right brightness adjustments

Sony bunches numerous important settings in its picture Brightness sub-menu. There is, of course, a Brightness setting that will adjust the sets overall screen brightness, but thats just the start.

One key setting in this menu is HDR Tone Mapping. If youre watching 4K/HDR programs, youll definitely want this turned on since it will optimize the contrast range of movies and TV shows with varying overall brightness levels. The Sony A80K model we tested has lower light output than some other OLED
TVs, so this setting proved to be particularly important for conveying punchy highlights in 4K/HDR programs. Two related settings, Gradation Preferred and Brightness Preferred, are available for HDR Tone Mapping, but we didnt note much of a difference between them. With some care, Sony's OLED TVs can make shows and movies streamed from HBO Max and other services look fantastic, (Image credit: Future) 3. Use the black level setting to adjust black

While this might seem like a completely obvious point, most viewers use their TVs Brightness setting to adjust the level where absolute black sits in images. But Sony OLED TVs have a separate setting called Black Level (also in the Brightness sub-menu) that should instead be used to make that adjustment. Once we made this discovery and applied it, shadows on Sonys OLED looked considerably deeper, and that gave the overall picture a higher level of contrast. 4. Dont overlook peak luminance

The Peak Luminance setting, here again nestled in the Brightness sub-menu, proved very important for making 4K/HDR pictures look their best on Sonys
OLED TV, especially with dark movies. The results youll get will vary depending on the specific show or movie you are watching but, similar to the Black Level adjustment, it can affect the overall contrast of pictures. Wed suggest starting at the Medium setting and adjusting to taste. And if youre the type who prefers to not regularly tweak your TVs picture settings, you
can simply leave it set at Medium. 5. Use reality creation sparingly

Sony TVs have seemingly forever included a picture adjustment called Reality Creation (in the Clarity sub-menu). And while 4K images look plenty real already without any additional processing needed, you can use these adjustments to give pictures a slightly more detailed appearance. (As long as you dont go overboard, in which case theyll end up looking too-crisp and unnatural.)

Another important adjustment in the Clarity sub-menu is Smooth Gradation.
This can help to eliminate the banding artifacts that are sometimes be seen
in regular HD images, and which usually show up as rough-looking patches of color in background elements of pictures such as a clear blue sky.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/5-quick-tips-to-give-your-sony-oled-tv-a-pictur e-quality-upgrade/


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