How to Get the Best Picture Quality on Your Sony BRAVIA TV

How do you make the most of the picture quality on Sony TVs? To do this, you need to make a number of adjustments that will improve your viewing experience. However, most users make five common setup mistakes. In other words, this article is about what you should pay attention to when setting up your Sony TVs.

Sony’s current TV philosophy is brilliantly simple. It is to offer everything and for everyone. As a result, the TV lineup includes every TV technology currently available – LCD, OLED and even the brand new QD-OLED system.

In doing so, Sony demonstrates the different benefits of each technology to different people, rather than praising one technology over another. The only problem with this unbiased approach is that it’s very hard to always be sure you’re using the best settings for different Sony TVs.

Sony’s latest Cognitive XR processor automatically optimizes settings for different screens. But this only helps if the user has a 2021 or 2022 TV that has this processor. There are several common mistakes Sony TV owners make. These mistakes can prevent you from getting the best out of your TV.

Vivid (Vivid Picture) Mode.

Regardless of which type of TV technology a consumer chooses from Sony’s range, he or she may well have been tempted by the Sony Vivid preset. As the name implies, this mode increases contrast and color saturation, pushing the TV to its limits. While the results of this mode are quite attractive and dramatic, they also lack nuance and balance.

Overall, they “kill” the TV’s all-around capabilities. The best option is for the TVs to provide realism. Vivid is more “hyper-realistic.” It’s also worth noting that the aggressiveness of Vivid mode can “age” the organic elements of Sony OLED TVs faster than other modes. Therefore, in the long run, this mode is not the best option.

Factory settings

The vast majority of TV buyers never touch the factory picture settings after installing a new TV. It’s tantamount to paying the fare and then spitefully walking to the conductor. That said, it’s worth noting that Sony is quite generous with picture presets.

Obviously, image settings that work for sports broadcasts at 60 Hz, for example, will not work as well for a video game at 120 Hz or when watching a movie at 24 frames per second.

TV owners who refuse the thought of delving into Sony’s extensive picture setup menus every time they switch to a different type of content can be understood. However, there’s no excuse for not switching to at least the most appropriate thematic picture preset.

Sony offers many well-defined and well-designed presets, including “Sports,” “Animation” and “Graphics” modes. There’s also a great “Standard” setting for normal everyday TV viewing. For nighttime movies, we recommend switching to Cinema Home mode.

If you’re a stickler for precision, however, switch to Cinema Pro or Custom mode. When using Sony televisions as game displays, they should always be set to game mode to ensure the fastest response time possible

Motion processing

Sony has a well-deserved reputation for having the best motion processing in the TV world. However, this does not mean that the user cannot improve the image from its original state. Smooth and Standard settings are generally best avoided, at least when watching movies.

Such settings can cause unwanted processing side effects and make motion unnaturally smooth. Sony’s True Cinema mode is the best option for movies, and Clear is worth setting when watching high-quality streaming TV shows.

You can also try a custom setting that keeps the shake and blur components at about 30% of their maximum power. Alternatively, there is the option to follow the advice of Hollywood celebrities like Tom Cruise and Denis Villeneuve and simply turn off all MotionFlow processing.

Personally, however, we think the resulting jitter, especially on lower-budget Sony TVs, would be too distracting for many viewers. The key is to watch a few minutes of each source. You can then figure out which Motionflow setting gives the best results. This can make a big difference in the overall impression of the picture.

Noise Reduction

Noise reduction processing has its uses. Being able to smooth out excessive grain or digital compression artifacts with low quality sources can provide more watchable end results. However, the key words here are “low quality sources”.

Noise reduction, whether generic or MPEG NR, is designed specifically to eliminate digital compression artifacts. However, it is not required at all for high-quality sources such as 4K or HD Blu-ray, or high-quality 4K streams. However, Sony TVs tend to leave noise reduction systems active.

This can cause a perfect image that does not require noise reduction to look soft and processed, with a lack of fine detail. Therefore, when viewing content from a high-quality source, especially 4K, you should make sure that all noise reduction modes are turned off.

Light Sensor.

Many Sony TVs have a built-in light sensor that they can use to monitor your surroundings and adjust picture quality accordingly. However, if you are not watching Dolby Vision content on one of the premium Sony TVs that support Dolby Vision IQ, it is recommended that you turn this feature off.

This option can result in noticeable image inconsistency and excessively dim images especially when promoted in a dark room. Dolby Vision IQ uses a light sensor to monitor ambient light levels.

This is needed to continually correct HDR images to ensure that they always retain the same degree of sharpness and impact that they would have shown when developed in a mastering set. However, on older or not-so-expensive TVs, the user will get a rougher effect. In this case, it is best to turn off the light sensor.