Newer TV's come with lots of features and settings. And while many sound like performance-boosters, Consumer Reports says that there are three specific settings that will actually make the picture look worse, no matter what brand TV you own!
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The first setting you want to turn off is Noise Reduction.
"Noise, or "snow," was a bigger issue with older analog TVs," says Consumer Reports Tech Editor Jim Willcox. "Today, we're getting cleaner, higher-quality digital signals. The problem is that when you engage noise reduction, it comes at the expense of fine detail and texture. So images look a lot softer. When you turn off noise reduction, you'll get more detailed-looking pictures and more natural-looking images."
The next setting you want to focus on in Sharpness Control.
"Sharpness Control artificially boosts fine detail and texture, and it can exaggerate the edges of objects in the picture," Willcox said. "Now, the problem is it may seem like at first that you're getting greater detail, but sharpness control is actually masking fine detail and it can create halos around objects in the picture."
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So turn it way down or completely off!
And the third and some say, the most hated TV setting you should turn off, is Motion Smoothing.
"Some Movies and a lot of TV shows are shot 24 frames per second or 24Hz," Willcox said. "Video, on the other hand, is shot at 60Hz, which is why some programs like game shows, sports, and reality shows have a lot smoother motion than films. The problem is, when you turn on motion smoothing, it makes movies look a lot like video, something people call "the soap opera effect." The good news is that a lot of TV's allow you to turn off motion smoothing."
For the final bit of advice, Consumer Reports says to not worry about straying too far with any of these adjustments. Most TV's have a reset option to restore factory settings.