Summary
- Make sure auto-brightness is on to prevent images from becoming too painful or too dim. If that’s unavailable, you can calibrate brightness manually using a dark scene under normal viewing conditions.
- Enable text magnification/zoom if you’re having trouble reading menus. and alternate fonts or colors if you’re struggling with subtitles and captions.
- Motion smoothing is the enemy. It’s largely unnecessary on modern TVs, and on top of producing the “soap opera effect,” the added frames force your eyes to work overtime.
I’m hardly ancient, but I’m still lucky to be pretty healthy for my age. My worst concern, usually, is just that I don’t have as much energy as I’d like. That’s not bad when I see people younger than me already struggling with problems like high blood pressure or bad backs. I chalk it up to a combination of fortunate genetics and an active lifestyle — my two main hobbies are weightlifting and riding EUCs. You’re (probably) not going to throw out your back shoveling snow if it’s braced for something much heavier.
My eyesight is another area where I’m lucky, yet people of every age can run into trouble with it. Some people are born with issues. Others develop complications over time. And even people with perfect vision are going to have moments when their eyes are tired or dry.
Whatever your reason for needing relief, the settings below are relatively common options on smart TVs. I can’t offer specific instructions — there are at least five major platforms I’d have to cover, like Roku OS and Google TV — but as a rule, it should only take a few moments to find any option in your TV’s Settings app. Looking for relevant categories, such as Brightness or Picture.
Auto-brightness
With some tips on manual brightness
Brightness levels are probably the number one concern for the average person, since nothing else matters if a screen is searingly bright, or too dim to make out characters and text. You’ve probably encountered both scenarios at some point, especially if you’ve seen the Long Night episode of Game of Thrones.
Auto-brightness allows your TV to adjust on the fly, saving you the trouble of dialing things down at night, and cranking them back up midday.
Many recent TVs are equipped with ambient light sensors. These allow your TV to adjust brightness on the fly, saving you the trouble of dialing things down at night, and cranking them back up during the midday sun. Auto-brightness may even be on by default, although it’s worth checking the Settings app to make sure. More advanced TVs will also use their sensors for Dolby Vision IQ or Dolby Light Sense, optimizing compatible HDR (high dynamic range) content.
If you don’t like the way your TV handles auto-brightness, or the option is missing, it’s not too hard to calibrate things manually in a way that minimizes later adjustments. Put on a favorite movie or TV show with at least one dark scene — when you get to that scene, tweak brightness levels until the shadows are black, but you can still make out essential details. Do this under normal viewing conditions and you’ll rarely have to change anything.
Text magnification
When glasses or contacts aren’t enough
Realistically, if you’re having trouble reading menus and subtitles on a TV, that could mean you need new glasses or contacts, or simply a closer seat. Most TVs are over 40 inches now, and the average size is even bigger, between 50 and 70 inches. From six feet away, a 50-inch TV can feel enormous.
On some TVs, such as ones by Samsung, the feature is known as “zoom” instead of magnification.
Some people may still want or need magnification, of course. Usually you’ll find the option under your Settings app’s Accessibility menu. On some TVs, such as ones by Samsung, the feature is known as “zoom” instead of magnification. Either way, it should enhance selected text without automatically enlarging everything else onscreen. Sometimes this enhancement will appear in a separate window.
Keep an eye out for other options that might make text more legible, such as alternate fonts and colors for subtitles. These are liable to vary even more between software platforms.
Disabling motion smoothing
Who’s asking for this anymore?
Motion smoothing is nominally meant to make a TV look better, eliminating any blurring or ghosting effects. In practice, though, it tends to make things look worse if you’re not watching sports or the news. That’s because it’s really designed for video running at 30 frames per second or faster, whereas many movies and TV shows are shot at 24fps. When those things clash, the result is the “soap opera effect,” which can make even $100 million blockbusters look as cheap as a ’90s episode of General Hospital.
I don’t know why TV makers bother with motion smoothing anymore — any recent set should look just fine without it.
An effect that isn’t mentioned as often is eye strain. Your eyes have to keep up with the inserted frames, after all, and moreover, flawed implementations can introduce artifacts like halos or shimmering. Honestly, I don’t know why TV makers bother with motion smoothing anymore — any recent set should look just fine whether you’re watching The Northman or the Super Bowl. Just be sure your set supports a native 60Hz refresh rate or better. Ideally, it should support variable refresh rates.
An important note here is that different brands use different labels. If you don’t see “motion smoothing,” look for an option like “Action Smoothing” or “TruMotion.” Perhaps the worst offender is Samsung, which alternately uses the terms “Picture Clarity” and “Auto Motion Plus.”
Adjusting contrast
Try toggling HDR if you haven’t already
Once you’ve tried everything earlier on this list, it’s time to experiment with contrast. Widening the gap between bright and dark pixels can make it easier to identify characters and objects, in turn reducing the need to squint, particularly during dimly-lit scenes. I say experiment because you’ll have to strike a fine balance between better definition and artificial-looking images. You may also need to fiddle with brightness again to get things just the way you like them.
In most circumstances, enabling HDR is preferable, allowing you to see more shadow detail without ramping up overall brightness.
I can’t talk about contrast without mentioning HDR, since the main point of that technology is increasing visible contrast range. In most circumstances, enabling HDR is preferable, allowing you to see more shadow detail without ramping up overall brightness — in movies and shows that support your TV’s HDR formats (like HDR10+ and Dolby Vision). If you’re being blinded by highlights, however, it may be time to turn HDR off, assuming there’s no way of scaling back its intensity. To be clear, you should always try dialing back that intensity if you can. While SDR (standard dynamic range) often looks fine, you’ll be missing out on the richness directors and cinematographers are aiming for — not to mention the full power of the TV you bought. Disabling HDR on an OLED or mini-LED TV is like buying a Porsche to pick up groceries.
