Calibrating a TV is the process of adjusting its picture settings to deliver an accurate image. While a true calibration requires specialized equipment to measure the exact colors and light that your TV produces, there are plenty of things you can adjust at home without any special equipment. If you're interested in learning how to make basic adjustments to a TV's picture, this guide will help you calibrate the essential settings. For each one, we include a test pattern that will help you find the best setting.
All patterns are from the AVS HD 709 calibration package, which can be downloaded in full here. To use them, just display the images on your TV via HDMI or USB, and then follow the instructions we outline below. Keep in mind that adjusting one setting can affect the results of another, so it's a good idea to re-check the earlier patterns throughout the process to make sure everything is still working well. Most of this guide is valid for both SDR and HDR, but there are a few differences between them.
Basic Picture Settings
Below you'll find the best TV picture settings to adjust. Most of these settings are easy to tune without any special equipment, so you can tweak the TV to look exactly the way you want it. The recommended settings in each section give you the most accurate image in SDR for most brands, but not everyone enjoys an accurate image, so you should adjust these to whatever looks best to you.
Keep in mind that settings need to be adjusted for each input on most TVs, but most TVs allow you to copy your current settings over to other inputs. The native apps are often treated separately. TVs also have separate settings for HDR and SDR.
Picture Mode
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The first thing you want to adjust is the TV's picture mode, as this setting usually has the biggest impact on picture quality. The picture mode adjusts many aspects of the TV's image, such as color temperature and white balance, and may even alter how the TV processes motion. Each picture mode changes things under the hood, so while it acts as a sort of preset, it's not usually possible to change one mode to make it look like another. You'll get the best results if you start by choosing the picture mode that's closest to your desired image and fine-tune it from there.
Most TVs on the market in 2026 have a special mode called Filmmaker Mode (FMM). First introduced by the UHD Alliance in 2019, Filmmaker Mode was introduced as a special mode that disables a TV's extra picture and motion processing, ensuring the image is as close as possible to what the content creator intended. It's usually the best place to start if you want an accurate image, but it's not always perfect, and it sometimes locks you out of certain settings that you may want to enable.
If you've tried your TV's FMM and don't like the image or want to be able to customize it a bit more, these are the most accurate alternative modes.
| Amazon | Hisense | LG | Samsung | Sony | TCL | Vizio | |
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| Recommended Setting | Movie dark | Theater Night | Expert (Dark Space, night) | Movie | Professional | Movie | Calibrated |
Color Temperature
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Warmer color temperatures will make the picture look yellower, and cooler temperatures look bluer. We recommend using a warm temperature, which is what professional calibrators use (it's the closest to the 6500k standard color temperature), but you should choose whatever you like best.
Recommended setting: Warm
Backlight
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For TVs with LED backlights, the backlight setting determines the intensity of the LEDs that are used to light the screen. The higher the setting, the brighter the picture will be. There is no right answer for this setting. Each user needs to adjust this setting to their specific viewing conditions. If you're in a bright room, for example, the TV has to be set to a brighter setting than if it were placed in a completely dark room. It also depends on personal preferences, as some people prefer a brighter or darker image.
OLED TVs don't have a backlight, so instead, look for a setting called 'OLED Pixel Brightness' on LG TVs, or 'Brightness' on Sony and Samsung OLED TVs. Like the backlight setting above, you should adjust this to your viewing conditions.
Adjusting the backlight setting doesn't have a significant impact on overall picture quality. It tends to brighten everything pretty much equally, so although blacks tend to let a bit more light through, whites are brighter as well, so the contrast ratio actually remains about the same.
Recommended setting: Whatever looks best to you, based on your viewing conditions and personal preference.
Local Dimming
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Local dimming adjusts the backlight intensity of individual zones to improve contrast. As you can see in the examples above from the Sony BRAVIA 9, enabling this feature usually results in a much better dark scene experience. Without it, you can see bright patches across the screen where the light is bleeding through the screen, which can be quite distracting. Actual local dimming performance varies between individual models, but most TVs on the market have pretty good local dimming, and it's usually worth leaving it enabled.
Most TVs offer a few different levels for the local dimming feature. Higher settings are often more aggressive, leading to deeper blacks and brighter whites, but you might see more haloing around bright parts of the scene or subtitles. Reduce the intensity of the local dimming feature if you notice this on your TV, and it bothers you.
Recommended setting: Medium/High.
Gamma
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Gamma is the function that TVs use to convert an incoming SDR signal into the lightness on the screen. Unlike brightness, which controls the intensity of the LEDs, gamma is the ratio between light and dark areas of the screen. A gamma setting of 2.2 is the most accurate in an average-lit room, providing a nice balance between light and dark areas. A setting of 2.4 is better for a completely dark room. Most TVs also offer an alternative BT.1886 setting; this relatively newer standard is a bit of a mix of 2.2 and 2.4, offering better shadow details than 2.4.
Recommended setting: 2.0 for a bright room, 2.2 for an average room, 2.4 or BT.1886 for a dark room.
Black Level
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The 'Black Level' setting on a TV is used to adjust the depth of black on the screen. Set it too low, and you will crush the blacks, which will cause a loss of fine details in dim scenes. If you set it too high, blacks won't look dark enough. The exact setting name for this varies depending on the specific model and brand you're looking at. It used to be called 'Brightness' on many models, but most brands have changed it to 'Black Level' in recent years.
| Amazon | Hisense | LG | Samsung | Sony | TCL | Vizio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setting Name | N/A | Black Level | Black Level | N/A | Black Level | Black Level | Brightness |
| Recommended Value | N/A | 0 | 50 | N/A | 50 | 50 | 50 |
Almost all TVs have this set correctly by default, so we recommend leaving it alone. If you want to try adjusting it using the pattern below, set the black level setting to the minimum value and then increase it until you see the black portion on the left begin to lighten.
Recommended setting: Usually the default setting in 'Movie' or 'Custom' mode.
Contrast
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The contrast setting adjusts the amount of detail present in bright images. If contrast is set too high, whites could be clipped, resulting in a loss of fine details in brighter parts of the scene. If it's set too low, bright portions of the image won't look bright enough.
This setting should be pretty close to correct by default, but sometimes needs a bit of tweaking. Just lower the contrast setting on your TV to the minimum, and then increase it until only lines 230-234 appear. It's very rare for a new TV to clip the whites, so it's fine to set the value to the max if there is no loss in detail at that high setting. As you can see from the above images, there's little difference between the correct setting and the maximum.
Recommended setting: Default, or max.
Sharpness
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Adjusting a TV's sharpness setting changes how it defines distinct objects on the screen. The proper sharpness setting will make things look about the same as they do in real life. Too much will exaggerate contours and lines. It's very rare for a TV to have the option to remove sharpness from an image, which is why only two images are compared here.
Because high levels of sharpness make an image pop, it's not uncommon for a TV's picture to be over-sharpened by default. To adjust this setting with the pattern, increase Sharpness to as high as it goes, and then decrease until the lines look normal and any geometric patterns in the lines (usually diamond-shaped) go away.
Recommended setting: You should adjust this to your personal preference. It can vary between specific models, and the out-of-the-box defaults are usually slightly off.
Advanced Picture Settings
These settings are meant to be adjusted by advanced users only. The default settings on most TVs are just fine for most users, but if you have access to some advanced equipment like a colorimeter, you can improve the quality of your TV with a few quick adjustments.
Color
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The 'Color' setting adjusts the level of saturation of colors in the TV's images. Setting it too low will cause colors to appear dull and faded, too high and colors will appear washed out. Modern TVs almost always have this set correctly by default in their most accurate mode, so you usually don't need to change anything.
Unfortunately, this is a difficult setting to adjust without specialized equipment. The old gold standard for this test was to look through a blue filter and adjust the setting so that the blue box on the far left looks the same as the smaller gray boxes within. Unfortunately, modern TVs produce light differently from older technology, especially OLED models, so this method is no longer accurate. If you still want to try it, you can download the pattern below.
Recommended setting: The default setting in the accurate picture mode.
Tint/Hue
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This setting adjusts the amount of red and green tint to the image on the TV. Like the color setting, this is almost always correct by default, so there's no need to adjust it yourself.
To adjust this setting using the pattern, look through your blue filter and adjust the tint/hue setting so that the magenta and teal boxes (located in the blue and red columns) look identical. Again, this is no longer an accurate way to adjust the setting without a colorimeter, and most people should leave this setting alone. If you still want to try it, you can download the pattern below.
Recommended setting: The default setting in the accurate picture mode.
White Balance And Color Space Settings
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Adjusting the white balance means changing the amount of red, blue, and green in several different shades of gray. By correcting each of these shades, the overall color of the image is corrected to be as accurate as the TV can manage. The same is true of a TV color calibration, which varies drastically between individual units.
This can't be adjusted without specialized equipment, so we don't recommend trying to adjust this by eye. It also varies between units, even of the same model and size, so we don't recommend copying someone else's settings, including the values we provide on each review settings page.
Recommended setting: Don't adjust this without specialized equipment. The exact TV calibration needed varies between individual units.
Conclusion
Most TVs are able to achieve decent accuracy with only a few minor settings changes, most of which can be easily done by beginners at home, with no specialized equipment. For most people, having a TV professionally calibrated isn't necessary. In the end, though, not everyone enjoys an accurate image, so you should adjust your TV to whatever looks best to you, adapted to your viewing conditions.