TechTvs5 quick settings tweaks to make your Samsung TV’s picture even betterChanging Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus and other settings can help you to get the best possible picture quality no matter what you’re watchingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechTvs5 quick settings tweaks to make your Samsung TV’s picture even betterChanging Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus and other settings can help you to get the best possible picture quality no matter what you’re watchingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Changing Samsung’s Auto Motion Plus and other settings can help you to get the best possible picture quality no matter what you’re watching
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Samsung)
(Image credit: Samsung)
Thebest Samsung TVsare brilliant things: I’m on my second – my first died in an unfortunate virtual reality punching accident – and while my QLED model is fairly low-spec compared to the verybest TVsit’s still a superb display for myApple TV 4K, myXbox Series Xand myPS5. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t need a bit of tweaking to get the best from it. My current TV defaulted to a dynamic mode so bright and artificial it was almost cartoonish, and I found a few issues with the “soap opera effect” too. So here’s some hard-won wisdom on how to get the best picture from yourSamsungTV.
1. Change the motion smoothing
I don’t watch fast-moving sports, but my TV seemed to think I did – and that meant the motion smoothing and motion processing it was set to was far too aggressive for the kinds of shows and movies I wanted to play. That produced something called the “soap opera effect”, which makes the picture look hyper-real. And on my TV it also made people’s faces look like their skin wasn’t connected to the muscles underneath.
What’s happing here is that the content I’m watching was filmed at 24fps (frames per second) but Samsung is upsampling it to 30fps, the same speed that many sporting events are filmed at. And that processing gets weird. So to turn it off you want to go toSettings>Picture>Expert Settings>Auto Motion Plus Settings(Picture Clarity Settings)and change it from Auto to Custom (or turn it off altogether). You can now experiment with the blur, judder and LED motion processing to get the right balance for your personal preference.
2. Don’t use the Dynamic preset
The Dynamic preset in your Picture Mode settings is too dynamic: it’s designed to stand out in super-bright rooms and that means it whacks up the brightness and saturation to rather silly levels. It’s horrible to look at and it burns energy too. Personally I reckon the Standard preset is the best, but for rooms with low lighting Natural and Movie are pretty great too.
3. Use filmmaker mode
Recent Samsung TVs such as its QLEDs from 2020 onwards have the industry standard Filmmaker Mode, which is designed to show movies as the director intended – so no soap opera effect, no artificially imposed aspect ratio, no overcooked colours. It’s quite dark, however, so it’s best suited to night-time movie watching.
4. Try gaming without Game Mode
Your Samsung TV can automatically switch into Game Mode when it detects your Xbox Series X or PS5 starting up, but that mode can give you poorer picture quality. That’s because it prioritises response time and low lag above picture quality, and I’ve found the colours less vibrant and the screen brightness to be a little lower when I’m in Game Mode. In something like Horizon: Forbidden West, which is designed to be absolutely gorgeous, you’re not quite getting the full picture.
I’m very aware that this is a personal preference thing, and if you’re a gamer who plays a lot of fast-paced multiplayer then low lag is going to be important to you. But for me I’d rather have the visuals in all their glory; the games I play don’t have that need for speed.
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5. Experiment with the Eco stuff
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