The Best Picture Settings for a Samsung 4K TV

Samsung 4K UHD TVs provide excellent video quality out of the box, but they have additional settings that further improve picture quality for TV shows, sports, movies, and gameplay. Here are the best picture settings for a Samsung 4K TV.

Before You Start

Before using a Samsung 4K UHD TV's picture settings to get the best viewing experience, check the following:

• TV Placement: Position the TV so you can view it straight on. Avoid placing it where you need to look up, down, or at an angle to the screen. The farther you view off-angle from the center, the more colors fade, and the contrast will narrow.
• Room Lighting. Light from windows or lamps located to the side and across from the TV reflects off the screen. Even on models that may have an "anti-glare" or "anti-reflective" screen coating, the picture won't look good if the light hits the screen. Curved screen models distort reflections further. Lamps that you can dim or turn off or drapes and shades that you can close help improve a TV picture.
• Select the TV's Home Mode. You may be prompted to choose Home or Retail or Store Demo Mode during the initial setup. The Retail/Store Demo mode has picture settings set to the max, resulting in an overly bright picture with intense color and contrast that is better for dealer showrooms.

Intelligent Picture Settings

If you own a Samsung 4K QLED, Frame, or Serif series TV, you might have two options in the General Settings menu that adjust picture quality automatically.

Intelligent Mode

The TV can recognize and analyze the room, content, and TV usage patterns to provide the best viewing experience. This mode is optional. 

Adaptive Brightness

The TV automatically adjusts the LED backlight output using ambient light sensors to analyze room light levels.

Picture Mode Presets

In addition to the Intelligent modes (or if your TV doesn't include those options), you can use additional picture mode presets available on all Samsung 4K TVs to improve your picture quality for both video and movie sources.

1. Select Settings from the smart hub.

2. Select Picture.

   

3. Choose Picture Mode.

   

4. The Samsung Preset Picture modes include:

   • Dynamic: Applies elevated levels of contrast, brightness, and sharpness. Only use this setting for natural light or a bright room.
   • Standard: This setting provides acceptable viewing for video and movie source content and is usually on when you first turn on the TV. Standard is suitable for most viewing environments and is also EnergyStar compliant.
   • Natural: A more subdued look than both the Dynamic and Standard modes above, which reduces eye strain.
   • Movie: This preset provides appropriate brightness, contrast, and color temperature level for movies. It is dimmer than Dynamic or Standard and provides a warmer color temperature. It is the best picture preset to use in a darkened room, similar to a movie theater. Movie mode also disables any added processing, so movies retain film-like motion.

Choose a Viewing Mode

Samsung provides unique viewing modes on its 4K UHD TVs. In the Picture Settings Menu, select Special Viewing Mode.

Within the Special Viewing Mode category, the selections are:

• Sports Mode: This setting provides the best picture preset for sports and fast-moving content. It displays a brighter image with a cooler color temperature and a faster motion response. Sports Mode also enables the Stadium Sound Mode.
• Game Mode: This preset option for gamers sets the TV in low-latency mode. However, you may see a slight reduction in video graphics quality. The game mode requires a connected game controller or console. Once you turn on Game Mode, you might need to unplug the game console from the TV to switch to other devices.
• HDR+ Mode: Available only on 4K TV models that include HDR capability. HDR-encoded content from compatible sources (such as Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs and select streaming content) activates the TV's HDR ability automatically. If you also activate HDR+, the TV will adjust the brightness and contrast ratio of HDR-encoded content so that objects are more distinct.

Customize Your Picture Settings

Although Samsung's preset and select viewing mode picture settings provide a quick way to get better picture quality, several additional manually-adjustable picture settings are available in Expert Picture Settings that correct specific viewing problems.

Find and Use Test Images

Before adjusting the options in Expert Picture Settings, you should use standardized test images tailored for TV picture "calibration" as setting references. You can obtain these images from an app or disc such as the following:

• THX Tune-Up App (Android and iOS)
• Disney WOW: World of Wonder (Blu-ray Disc version) 
• Spears and Munsil UHD HDR (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player Required) and HD Benchmark (Blu-ray Disc Player Required) Test Discs.

Using Expert Picture Settings

In the Picture Menu, go to Expert Settings to customize your picture settings further—view results on the test images.

Here are the settings you will have available. 

• Backlight: Sets the amount of backlight intensity. A setting of 15 (on a scale of 0 - 20) works well in most cases.
• Brightness: Makes dark areas of the image brighter or darker. A setting range of 45 to 55 works well in most cases.
• Contrast: Makes bright areas of the image brighter or darker. A setting of 80 to 85 works well for movies; 90 to 100 works well for video sources.
• Sharpness: The sharpness setting increases edge contrast to make objects more distinct, but the resolution remains the same. Too little sharpness results in a soft-looking picture, while too much sharpness makes the image look harsh. If you use this setting, apply it as minimally as possible (25% or less).  
• Color: Adjusts color intensity (saturation). Too much color will look intense, and too little color will look too subdued or even "grayish." A setting between 45 to 55 works well.
• Tint: This option adjusts the amount of yellow/green and red/magenta (you use this primarily to improve skin tones). You should set this control to "0" unless the color of the input source is too green or too red. 
• Apply Picture Settings: You can apply all of the above settings to each input individually or applied to all inputs.

Below the Apply Picture Settings option, additional settings are available.

• Digital Clean View: This setting is Samsung's designation for video noise reduction. It works best with analog cable TV, VHS, or DVD signals using analog connections. One application is with older movies that may have excessive film grain. You won't usually need it for HD or UHD content. If the results are not to your taste, set them low or off.  
• Auto Motion Plus: This setting optimizes the picture for fast-moving images and includes sub-settings for Judder Reduction and LED Clear Motion. This feature, commonly called Motion Smoothing or Frame Interpolation, improves video frame rates and screen refresh rates. Although this setting makes motion smoother, it may result in a "Soap Opera Effect" on film sources, making movies look more like live or taped videos. Auto Motion Plus is best for sports and live/taped TV broadcasts and should be off when watching DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, or other film sources.
• Smart LED: Control the brightness of LED dimming zones to maximize contrast and minimize blooming between bright and dark objects.
• Film mode: Film mode makes frame transitions from older video sources smoother. This function, commonly called deinterlacing, is only available when the input signal is TV, AV, Component (480i, 1080i), or HDMI (1080i).
• HDMI UHD Color: This allows a designated HDMI input to access 4k@60Hz signals encoded with 4:4:4, 4:2:2, or 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. However, if your source device(s) cannot send these signals, it is best to turn this feature off. 
• HDMI Black Level: Adjust the black level for the incoming HDMI source signal to brightness and contrast. 
• Dynamic Contrast: This setting adjusts displayed contrast based on the quality of the video input source content. It helps to make whites whiter and blacks blacker, but it also tends to reduce the detail present in the brighter and darker parts of the image. In most cases, this setting does not need to be activated.
• Color Tone (aka Color Temperature): Adjusts the "warmth" (reddish) or "coolness" (bluish cast) of the color range. Warmer color temperatures are best for movies. Cooler color temperatures are better for TV broadcasts, sports, and games. The options include Cool (bluish), Standard (Neutral), Warm 1 (slight pink), and Warm 2 (pink towards red).
• White Balance: This setting allows the fine-tuning of the white portion of the picture's color temperature further so that it isn't tinted towards other colors, making whites appear brighter, if necessary.
• Gamma: Use this slider to adjust the mid-contrast range of the TV so it better matches the grayscale range of the source signal. The ideal Gamma setting for TVs is 2.2. 
• RGB Only Mode: Fine-tune the saturation and tint of the red, green, and blue color channels.
• Color Space Settings: Configure color space settings to refine the spectrum of colors on your screen.
• Reset Picture: This option returns the above picture settings to factory defaults. It's excellent if you get too far off and want to stay with the defaults or start over with new settings.

More Help and Tips

What if you're not satisfied with the picture setting results or find some setting options confusing? Another course of action is to enlist a certified technician to assess and calibrate your TV's picture settings using additional equipment. Consult your Samsung TV dealer or find an ISF (Imaging Science Foundation)-certified TV calibrator near you via the ISF website.