Are You Getting The Best TV Picture Quality?

These days TVs come with default settings that often result in poor picture quality. We do not get the result we expect and at times the result differs form what we see when we go to the store to buy our television set. So what is the reason for this and are we getting what we have been promised? In this article I will share a selection of tips that can be used to ensure the best possible television picture quality.

No doubt we have seen innovations in manufacturing, including TVs, ranging from flat screens to plasmas TVs to LED TVs and direct LED TVs; however, the manner the default picture positions are set by the manufacturers make those TVs unattractive. Poor color settings, extra brightness, poor backlighting and bad picture sharpness levels have become very common, even with the popular brands. If you want to know about cable TV services, you should read Charter information from TVProviders.com

Image Source: Flickr (Phillip Stewart)

The good news, however, is that you don’t need to be a TV technician to calibrate your TVs performance. All you need to have is the readiness to change your TV settings and about 10 minutes to get things fixed. To save your time, here are some tips:

1. Setting the connections

Remember, not all connections deliver the same quality of picture. You get many connection options with you TV and now it is up to you to set it for excellent quality. TVs these days offer the following connections:

• HDMI
• Composite video input
• RGB Scart
• Component video
• Non RGB Scart

While setting your connections, make sure that you are using HDMI because high definition pictures can be delivered only via HDMI.

2. Put your sources right

Sometimes a problem with your source settings like Blu-ray players and Sky receivers can result in poor picture quality. With Sky or Freesat HD receivers, you should use the automatic HD resolution. Default settings are mostly set at 1080i HD position and you’ll have to change that. If you are using Blu-ray or DVD players, you should set the frame rate output at 24p, so you can get high quality pictures.

3. Over-scanning

TV manufacturers developed the over-scanning process because TV channels would sometimes place junk images at the extremities of the edge. However, this does not happen with HD TVs. You should make sure that your TV is delivering HD sources for each pixel instead of zooming them to drive the images’ boundaries out of the frame. Doing so would immensely improve your TV’s picture quality.

4. Contrast

Contrast in visuals is the foundation for picture quality. Majority of TV manufacturers have contrast of their TVs set to maximum by default. High contrast would make colors appear abnormal and make white color look extra-dominant. They would also overstress any noise that comes with the TV’s technological makeup or from the broadcaster’s side. In case of plasma screens, high contrast can even cause screen-burn and leave permanent shadows of high contrast images on your display. The key is to make sure that your TV contrast is set no higher than seventy percent of the highest contrast level available for LCDs and even lower for plasma TV.

5. Problems with local dimming

Local dimming is another major problem that results in poor picture quality. This problem occurs with LED TVs and direct LED TVs. Local dimming is normally used to separately tweak brightness on different parts of the screen to adjust overall picture quality to the image. You should make sure that local dimming features are set on, but at their low levels. If you leave it at a higher level, it would show disturbing side effects like dark areas and blocks of light.

These are some tips to calibrate your TV, so you can get the best picture quality. You can also use the user manual that comes with your TV to get stronger grip over your TV settings. Now that you have come to know the basics, it is time to grab the remote and start improving your picture quality.