How To Optimize Picture Quality on Your TCL TV: Essential Settings to Change

Statistics from TV manufacturers reveal that many viewers rarely alter their TV settings to optimize image quality. This is particularly surprising given the investment people make in high-end televisions, such as the impressive 115-inch TCL QM891G.

For larger screens measuring 85 inches or more, even minor adjustments can significantly enhance the viewing experience, as imperfections become more noticeable. Here’s how to tweak your TCL TV’s settings for optimal enjoyment.

Turn Off Automatic Settings

Start with disabling the Eco mode on your TV (in the case of the TCL QM891G, this is labeled as Energy Saving). It may have suggested this during setup, but here’s how to ensure it’s switched off.

Digital Trends

From the Home Screen, press the Settings button on your remote. Navigate to All Settings, then go to System, followed by Power and Energy, and finally select Energy Saver to ensure it’s turned Off. This setting allows you greater control over the TV’s brightness. If Energy Saver is active, you will notice that the brightness can’t extend beyond 60. Even worse, Adaptive Brightness may activate, which adjusts brightness automatically to conserve energy, leading to a subpar viewing experience.

TCL Adaptive Brightness — Digital Trends

Be sure to turn off Adaptive Brightness. Access the All Settings menu, head to Display and Sound, navigate to Intelligent Settings, and select Intelligent Picture. Turn Off Adaptive Brightness, Adaptive Content, and Adaptive Color Temperature. If left on, this feature will make automatic adjustments to both brightness and color temperature, depending on your surroundings and the content you are watching.

Achieve Optimal Brightness and Warmth

With automatic features disabled, select a Picture Mode. From the home screen, press the Settings button, navigate to Picture, and choose Picture Mode. You’ll find five options—Movie mode is preferred for its warm and realistic colors. Sports Mode tends to oversaturate colors, while Smart HDR is slightly better but still leans towards oversaturation. Avoid Low Power mode, and Vivid offers an excessively stark image similar to Sports mode.

Next, set the brightness to your preference. For daytime viewing in a well-lit room, you may want a higher brightness setting. Conversely, for watching in dim conditions or at night, lowering the brightness might be more comfortable as large TVs can produce excessive light.

You’ll also want to adjust settings for SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) and HDR (High Dynamic Range). Go to the home screen and set the brightness for SDR content: press the Settings button on your remote, go to Picture, and then adjust Brightness to your liking.

To modify HDR brightness settings, test out some HDR content from a streaming service. (YouTube offers great options—check out the channel by Jennifer Gala for HDR visuals.) An HDR format indicator, like HDR10, will appear in the corner of your screen to confirm you are viewing HDR content while adjusting brightness.

TCL HDR Brightness Setting — Digital Trends

Additionally, you can fine-tune your TCL TV’s brightness further. From the Picture menu, select Advanced Settings. Then go to Brightness Settings and explore Local Contrast, which manages backlight and contrast in various screen areas to enhance picture quality. Compared to Off, Low, and High settings will yield noticeable changes: Off will provide a flat image, Low offers some brightness and punch, while High brings significant brightness and contrast across the board. For the best HDR performance, set Local Contrast to High and the brightness to 100 if comfortable with bright visuals.

TCL Local Contrast Settings — Digital Trends

More Control for Smoother Viewing

You can also customize motion smoothing settings. This feature is subjective and may vary based on how much you notice different frame rates affecting your viewing experience.

To tailor motion smoothing on a TCL TV, navigate to Picture Settings, then to Advanced Settings, and select Motion. If desired, you can completely disable Motion Clarity. If you activate it, adjust the sliders for Blur Reduction and Judder Reduction according to your preferences. Experiment to find the right balance based on the type of content you typically watch—movies may look best with different settings compared to live sports or reality TV.

Additionally, some settings can enhance the connection between your TV and external devices such as soundbars, Blu-ray players, or gaming consoles. To manage these options, go into the All Settings menu, navigate to Channels and Inputs, then External Inputs, and finally External Devices Control (CEC). Ensure that HDMI Control is enabled. This allows you to control the volume of devices like soundbars or receivers using a single remote.

There are also options to sync power settings, allowing devices to turn on or enter standby mode in unison, which you can fine-tune as well.

These adjustments to picture quality will enhance your home viewing experience. If you’re interested in making more nuanced changes, you’ll now have a clearer understanding of where to find options and the implications of modifying them.

If you have a different brand of television and wish to make similar adjustments, many modern TVs share features with TCL models, although they may be labeled differently, which can be confusing. If you need guidance for brands like LG, Samsung, Sony, Hisense, or Panasonic, we have instructions for those as well.