Easy fixes for common TV problems

If you haven’t dived into your TV’s menu system, you may have to deal with quirks you didn’t even know you could fix. The default settings on many TVs don’t always provide the best picture, especially when considering that each video source (cable box, media streamer, Blu-ray player, game system, etc.) ) may have its ideal settings. Here are easy fixes for four common image problems.

The image is squashed, stretched, or cropped.

Have you ever watched TV and thought the picture looked a little different? Maybe people look squashed, or parts of the picture look like they’re disappearing from the edge of the screen. That is a common problem with many TVs, and it’s one you can easily fix.

Picture size is a setting that goes by different names on different TVs, but they all do the same thing: Affect how the video signal received by the TV is geometrically displayed on the screen. Ideally, the picture is pixel-to-pixel mapped on a TV, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes the aspect ratio is off, forcing the image to be stretched or cropped. Other times, the TV cuts the edges of the picture to match broadcast formats. When this happens, you need to correct the image size.
The Image Size setting can also be referred to as Zoom Ratio, Width, Scale, or even simply Image. Check your TV’s settings menu for any items that sound like one of those terms. If you’re unsure if that’s the right choice, check what options are available and look for Zoom, Stretch, Wide, or 16:9. These options indicate you’re looking at the settings suitable. It also means you’re looking at the wrong options to get the best picture on your TV.

For any modern game system, media center, cable box, or computer with 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) or 4K (3,840 x 2,160), you want your TV to display pixel-for-pixel for a signal if that’s optional. In the Image Size menu, select Direct or Medium. That will tell your TV to display whatever video it receives from your connected device as it receives it, without stretching or cropping anything. This simple option can fix any weird distortions you see when you’re watching TV.
If the pixel-for-pixel mode doesn’t help (especially if you’re using an older HD video source connected via composite or component input), try the 16:9 and 4:3 settings. Older game systems and DVD players output in 4:3 aspect ratio, and they look better boxed on modern TVs with black bars on the sides to keep that ratio.

If you connect a computer or other device to the TV, you may have another problem: overscan. Before digital TV was broadcast, the TV signal carried more images than was intended to be displayed on the TV. This extra frame is called an overscan, and TVs are designed to be clipped. Some TVs are still over-cut, and when they connect a video source, they don’t know how to handle it; that’s what they do. We’ve seen this often on Samsung TVs when connecting a PC to them. If resizing the image leaves you with a cropped image at the edges, you’re dealing with an overscan. Look through your TV’s menu system for a separate option called overscan. It will probably be near the Image Size option in the menu, but it could appear anywhere (including Advanced settings). Set Overscan to Off or Off, and you should eventually see the full image.

Opera Effect

The “soap opera effect” is a visual anomaly that occurs when on-screen motion looks unnatural. That is usually caused by the TV emulating 60 or more frames per second (fps) when the source video doesn’t provide it. Most movies and shows are displayed at 24 or 30 frames per second. 24 fps is the standard frame rate for movies, while 30 fps is the standard frame rate for produced television.

Many TVs have a 120Hz refresh rate or can display up to 120 frames per second. They also often offer image processing features to make motion appear smoother to match that frame rate or even simulate a higher frame rate.

These features are effective in making 24 or 30 fps videos look very smooth. The problem is that they make the video look too smooth. It appeared unnatural and jarring, resulting in a soap opera effect. They can be pretty when you’re watching sports or playing video games, but they make things weird for most movies and TV shows, like you’re standing behind the camera and seeing what it sees.

The solution is simple: Turn off motion smoothing. That’s it. Just because a TV has a 120Hz refresh rate doesn’t mean you need to use it. Disabling the motion smoothing features stops the soap opera effect. Movies will be like movies, and TV shows will be like TV shows again.

Putting your TV in Theater or Cinema mode may automatically disable those features, but if not, you’ll need to turn them off manually. Please read our guide to turning off motion smoothing to find out where the setting is buried in the menu systems of LG, Samsung, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and current Roku TVs.

Inconsistent Brightness (Or Blurry Image)

Have you ever noticed that the picture on your TV looks brighter or dimmer depending on the time of day? That could be due to an energy-saving feature that is the bane of cinephiles everywhere: the light sensor. Many TVs have an ambient light sensor that can adjust the picture’s brightness on the go, based on whether the room is bright or dark. It sounds useful on paper, but that means you can’t control the brightness of the TV yourself.

You can directly control the brightness of the TV by turning off the ambient light sensor. This setting may be hidden in several different areas of the TV’s menu system, depending on the view. For Android TVs, it’s a setting found in the Backlight menu of the Picture settings. On LG TVs with webOS, it’s in the Energy Saver menu. Disabling any setting that says Ambient Light or Smart Sensor will disable the feature. You may also have to switch picture modes to ensure it isn’t turned off and stay away from any Auto Power Saver (APS) picture modes. It will also automatically adjust the TV’s brightness and is often defective on the fuzzy side.

For more precise control, you can also turn off any energy-saving features on your TV. They don’t necessarily use light sensors, but they adjust the TV’s backlight to save power. Find any Energy Saver, Energy Saver, or Eco setting and set it to Low or Off. You can then manually adjust the TV’s backlight to suit your preferences. Of course, this will result in your TV using more power unless you like looking at a blurry picture; Depending on the panel type and picture mode, a 65-inch TV can draw anywhere from 80 to 300 watts under normal viewing conditions.

The color is not correct.

If you’ve watched TV and think the picture looks oddly bluish or skin tones appear unusually yellow, the TV’s color settings may be off. A full calibration can get the best possible color out of your TV, but it’s a complicated, expensive process that most users won’t want to go through. Luckily, there are some simple settings you can cycle through to get fairly accurate colors.
The video signal is based on the D65 white point, a standard value that sets white to a color temperature of 6.504 Kelvin. Without going into the extensive math behind it, white looks like under average midday light. The TV’s default picture modes tend to set whites to look a bit bluish than they should be. This setting is known as white balance and is available on almost every TV. Most picture modes, like Normal, Standard, and Vivid, set white balance intentionally to cool. That makes the image pop out more, but it’s unnatural.

In our testing, simply setting the TV’s white balance to the warmest preset produces the most accurate colors you can get without full calibration. You need to know how to find that setting. In your TV’s menu system, look for a white balance or color temperature value under picture options. This setting will give you a few different options like Cool, Normal, and Warm. Choosing Warm will probably give your TV the most accurate color you can expect.

If you see more than one Warm setting, or if there’s no Warm setting, you’ll have to select the option that makes the image look the least blue and most rose red. Do not worry; these presets won’t skew colors horribly, and even if the pinkness of the image looks weird at first, it’s the most accurate of the options.

Near these settings, you’ll likely find advanced submenus that invite you to color correct or adjust white balance. Stay away from these menus or any option that invites you to change the number. These are the settings for the active calibrator, and it’s easy to completely warp your TV’s color accuracy if you don’t know what you’re doing. If this happens, you’ll need to restore your TV’s default settings and start over.

Remember, even if you have a brand new TV, it may not be properly configured for the best picture possible, so it’s worth scrolling through the settings menu to check things out. If you’re looking to buy a new TV, check out our product guide for the latest reviews. Check out our 4K, 8K, and HDR explainers to determine which features are important to you.