Tweak These Smart TV Settings to Improve Your Viewing Experience

Tips to help you modify the picture, enhance sound and address privacy

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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Published March 18, 2025

The settings on TVs can differ wildly depending on the model, which can lead to confusion when it comes to figuring out how to configure them.

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I recently bought a smart TV that has a very nice picture, but I’m wondering if I can do other things to improve my viewing experience. What are all these settings?

As you might imagine, settings on state-of-the-art televisions vary by manufacturer, model, screen type and operating system. Every smart TV has settings that let you modify the picture and sound, but TVs typically have a variety of settings from privacy to accessibility.

I wish I could say the settings have some uniformity like smartphone screens do. But they don’t, even across different models of the same brand.

Consider the TVs in my house:

LG 4K OLED. When I press the dedicated Settings button on the remote control for a 65-inch TV that anchors my home theater, icons appear on the right edge of the TV screen, representing as follows: Picture Mode, Aspect Ratio, Surround, Sound Out, Sleep Timer and Safety. Clicking the All Settings icon at the bottom takes me, yep, to all the settings on the TV, grouped by Picture, Sound, Channels, Network, General, Safety and Accessibility. Underneath these headings are options.

Smaller LG OLED. Meanwhile, a smaller TV in my bedroom serves up a different set of settings with some overlap when I click the remote.

Insignia Fire TV. Pressing Settings on the remote for the inexpensive, small TV in my kitchen lists Profile, Channel Guide, Inputs, Display Mirroring, Apps, Sleep Timer, Picture, Sound, Display and Info.

TCL Roku TV. Yet another cheap TV summons its settings in this order: Network, Remotes & Devices, Theme, Accessibility, TV Picture Settings, TV Inputs, Audio, Parental Controls, Backdrops, Guest Mode, Home Screen, Payment Method, Apple AirPlay and HomeKit, Legal Notices, Privacy, Help and System.

So each set of Settings is different, which means you’ll have to figure out for yourself what lives under those headings. Think of it as a pick-your-own adventure.

But as with your smartphone settings, if you don’t like where you’ve landed, you’re not trapped. You can back out or exit, sometimes with labeled buttons and other times with the left arrow on your remote. If you don’t see those options, hit the remote’s Home button to get back to the main menu.

Ways to improve picture quality

You haven’t specified what kind of TV you have. For the purposes of this column, I’ll use the 65-inch OLED, short for organic light-emitting diode, as a rough guide. Again, keep in mind that what you see on your own TV will likely be different.

Picture. Numerous items are listed under the Picture heading, starting with modes meant to help you select the ideal picture based on your viewing environment and whatever you’re streaming or watching live. You can use onscreen sliders to adjust the OLED light, contrast, brightness, sharpness and other settings. Or you can select preset picture modes: Vivid, Standard, Cinema, Sports, Game and HDR Effect, short for high dynamic range.

HDR can improve the contrast between dark darks and very light colors on the screen.

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Other settings found under Picture cover the aspect ratio, or the width-to-height proportions displayed on the screen. By default, mine is set to the widescreen standard of 16:9.

An Eye Comfort Mode setting adjusts the color “temperature” to reduce eye strain. An Energy Saving setting lessens TV power consumption but also dims the screen, which you might not like.

Also here is a Picture Test. Click it, and a test image appears on the TV. If the image displays clearly, click yes and move on. If not, click no, and LG says to contact customer support.

But how should I apply these settings?

I know what you’re probably thinking: I have all these options, but how do I determine what to use?

As you settle on preset modes or fine-tune settings manually, you will see the picture change in real time. If such changes please you, great. If not, keep trying. Be aware that the content you’re watching and the room’s lighting may change your perspective.

Cinema, Movie and Expert modes “generally provide the best results,” according to Consumer Reports, which tested thousands of TV models. The nonprofit steers viewers away from Sports mode, even for watching sports, as well as Vivid and Dynamic, which “tend to overemphasize contrast and sharpness and lower brightness too much.”

You can stick with the factory default picture settings, though these don’t always yield ideal results. If you try different modes and mess up, you can always restore the defaults.

Remember, the true answer to what looks good is in the eye of the beholder.

Sound. My own TV is connected to external speakers through a receiver. Others connect via soundbars. As with other settings, audio choices will vary.

One LG TV option lets you hear sound simultaneously through the internal TV speaker and external audio devices connected through certain ports. Another lets you listen wirelessly via Bluetooth headphones, which can be handy if others are in the room but not watching TV.

For those who may have trouble understanding people talking in shows, hitting the volume button isn’t the answer. Look for any sound presets that indicate they enhance dialog or lower the ratio of bass to midrange and higher frequencies. As with the picture, if you don’t like the result, return to the factory setting.

Network. Smart TVs are deemed smart because of their internet connection. Here’s where you choose your network, wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

General. Yes, this is a catchall group of settings. On some of them you get to:

Choose menu and audio languages — often English, French or Spanish — as well as a language for voice recognition, which can include many more.
Set the date, time and time zone, as well as sleep timers.
Enable a power-saving mode.
Choose a mobile option that will let you turn on your TV via your phone.

Settings that address privacy and accessibility

Some important privacy settings are also listed under General. If you select Live Plus, you’re consenting to let LG collect information about the stuff you watch through what’s known as ACR, or automatic content recognition technology.

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LG says the data might be shared with third parties anonymously. If you’re not cool with this, turn off Live Plus.

Under an Advertisement setting also under General, you can activate an option that will keep mum the data that may influence sponsored ads on a Home page when you turn the TV on. Toggling this setting does not stop you from seeing ads, LG says, but it may affect the type of ads you see.

Meanwhile, if you click About This TV under General, you can look over customer agreements and check for any periodic TV software updates. Yes, your smart TV needs software updates just like your smartphone and computer.

Safety. If you live with small kids or even an older loved one, you can restrict access to certain TV programs and movies based on their ratings. Specific channels or apps also can be locked.

Accessibility. If you are hard of hearing or live with loved ones who may be, you can enable closed captions during certain programs.

If you’re visually impaired, you can turn on audio guidance to help navigate menus on the TV. You can also select a high-contrast setting where the background and text color on some menus will be adjusted to enhance contrasts between bright and dark areas.

Bonus tip: Get outside help calibrating your TV

Some home-theater enthusiasts spend a few hundred dollars to have a professional technician calibrate their smart TV based on the room where it lives. While that’s an option for those with cash to spare, I don’t expect many people to do that.

You can also purchase a $30 Blu-ray disc to help you perform the calibration job yourself.

A better bet may be the online TV Screen Optimizer tool, available at no extra charge for Consumer Reports members. Enter the specific model number of your television — its database of popular TVs dates back more than a decade — and Consumer Reports will suggest optimal picture settings for that TV based on tests it has conducted through the years in its lab.

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Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune, and is author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn; Threads; and X, formerly known as Twitter.