Get the best picture from your Sony TV: Change these settings

Making a few simple changes to your TV can unlock its best picture quality. If you want the mind-blowing viewing experience your Sony TV is really capable of, read on.

Many TV brands say that most people don’t touch even the most basic settings in their TV. It comes straight out of the box, gets set up, and that’s it. However, what people don’t realize is that it takes just a few minutes of clicking buttons to get the most out of a TV, from brightness to clarity to accuracy.

Here’s how you can transform how your Sony TV’s picture looks.

Turn off these default settings now

All TVs now ship with an Eco setting turned on by default. If you bought your TV for an enhanced viewing experience — and isn’t that why we buy new TVs? — you won’t be getting the best brightness and performance with Eco Mode turned on.

To turn off Eco Mode on a Sony TV: Press the Settings button on your remote, select All Settings, navigate down to System, then to Power and Energy, then to Energy Saver, and then go down to the Power Saving option. Here it reads, “Adjust the brightness and panel control to reduce the TV’s power consumption” — meaning, the TV will lower its brightness. You don’t want this under your TV’s control, so set this to Off.

Many TVs now come with optical sensors that can detect the brightness of a room and the warmth or coolness of the light. The TV then adjusts the picture automatically, optimizing brightness and color temperature accordingly. However, its decisions on optimal light or warmth may not align with your preferences.

On a Sony TV, this is an easy setting to adjust. Press the Settings button on your remote. Select Picture and Sound and then navigate down to Ambient Optimization Pro and turn it Off. If you have a different TV menu, look for this option under All Settings by navigating down to Display and Sound.

Now these key settings are under your control, not the TV’s.

Get better brightness

Picture Modes in TVs are pre-set collections of settings like contrast, sharpness, brightness, and color temperature. Here’s how to select a Picture Mode on a Sony TV: Starting from the Home Screen, press the Settings button, then go to Picture and Sound, down to Picture, and then select the Picture Mode you want. An even faster method: Press the Quick Settings button (the little wrench) on your remote and find Picture Mode.

We recommend modes like Cinema or Professional. The IMAX Enhanced Mode also has a warm and more natural look. If you prefer a cooler, or more blue, color temperature try the Standard Mode. Vivid Mode tends to over-brighten the picture, making it look harsh and blown out.

You can also fine tune your TV’s brightness. Some folks like a brighter setting for watching during the day, while those who watch mostly at night don’t need as much brightness. If you do a little of both, you can set different brightness levels for two different Picture Modes and switch between them.

Remember that you’ll likely be watching both SDR (standard dynamic range) and HDR (high dynamic range) content so you’ll want to set the brightness for both. Sony makes this easy by identifying which range the brightness is being adjusted.

To set the brightness for SDR content: From the Home Screen, press the Settings button on the remote, go to Picture and Sound, then Picture, then down to select Brightness. “SDR” shows in parentheses, making it clear that you’re adjusting for all SDR content. This can also be accessed through the Quick Settings menu by pressing that button on your remote and going over to Brightness.

To adjust the brightness for HDR content, start by playing some HDR content, like a show on Netflix or a YouTube video. Follow the same steps for SDR. You’ll notice that HDR is now in parentheses, signally that you’re adjusting the brightness for HDR content.

Want to make your Sony TV even brighter? While in the Brightness section of the menu, navigate down to Peak Luminance, which optimizes contrast. It’s what Sony calls its local dimming setting.

Experiment with the Low, Medium, and High settings for Peak Luminance. This setting allows the TV to make the most out of the range of the HDR picture by increasing how bright the brightest areas of the screen get — essentially raising contrast, making highlights pop, and providing a gorgeous picture in HDR. When this setting is on Low, the brightness will be lower, but there will be less blooming and halo around bright objects on dark backgrounds. The High setting amps up the brightness from your TV, which can be great for watching during the day.

If you want to see water really sparkle or bright objects radiate — to see HDR content pop and look its absolute best — we recommend setting Peak Luminance to High, paired with maxed-out brightness.

Smoother movement and connections

When it comes to motion smoothing, some people like it and some think it makes everything look weird or fake. It’s also known as the soap opera effect.

You can make adjustments to the motion smoothing on your Sony TV in the Picture settings. Go to Settings and then to Picture and Sound, select Picture, navigate down to Motion and select Motionflow. Here you can set motion smoothing to Auto, make custom adjustments, or turn it off entirely. It’s worth experimenting here — you might be surprised by your preferences.

Sony TVs also allow you to make specific adjustments for films and shows shot at 24 frames per second (fps) — such as most cinematic content — and for live content or sports with higher frame rates.

There are also a couple of settings that can make using your TV and any external devices easier.

If you have additional devices like a soundbar, Blu-ray player or gaming system, you might want to control everything with one remote. To set that up, head to the All Settings menu, select Channels & Inputs, then navigate down to External Inputs, then down to Bravia Sync Settings. Turn this On. Here you’ll also notice there are Device Auto Power Off and TV Auto Power On settings, which allow you to turn everything on and off all at once if you wish.

In the External Inputs menu, be sure to check out HDMI signal format. If you have a 4K Blu-ray player set to these inputs, enable Enhanced Format to ensure you’re getting the 4K image that your player is putting out. For a gaming console or device that supports those high 4K frame rates and VRR (variable refresh rate), you’ll want to use HDMI 3 or 4 set to Enhanced Format 4K 120.

The moral of the story: When you buy a new TV, it will look good and perform the basic factory-set functions, but its experience can often be dramatically improved. It’s always worth taking the time to do a little tinkering to see what may enhance performance and image quality.

Have a different brand of TV and want to make similar adjustments? Most modern TVs have similar features to Sony, however, they might be labelled differently, and it can get confusing. If you’re looking for LG, Samsung, Hisense, TCL, or Panasonic, we have instructions for those, too.