(Credit: Will Greenwald)
TVs have come a long way in contrast, color, and accuracy. Their default settings out of the box are usually overly cool and skewed to look more eye-catching, but with a few button presses you can usually get a picture that's pretty faithful to how the content you're watching was produced.
That said, you might be able to eke out even better colors by calibrating your TV. Professional calibration is a time-consuming and expensive process that requires special equipment and training, but as an easier alternative, you can pick up a $30 to $60 test disc and take half an hour to play with some settings for a more pleasing look.
I'm an ISF-certified TV calibrator, and these instructions will walk you through a very basic calibration process based on Imaging Science Foundation methods and require no experience on your part. All you have to do is order a Spears & Munsil Benchmark and Calibration Disc. It's available as a standard 1080p Blu-Ray disc ($29.95) or a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray ($59.94). Keep in mind that these are different physical media formats, so if you want the 4K disc, you'll need a UHD Blu-ray player (or a PlayStation 5, Xbox One X, or Xbox Series X) to view it.
The Spears & Munsil disc is a very useful tool for anyone looking to calibrate their TV or just understand more about how video signals work, and is recommended by ISF founder and president Joel Silver. It comes with extensive instructions both on the disc and in the included booklet, but many of them are unnecessary and can be simply disregarded unless you're a professional and familiar with TV calibration to begin with.
(Credit: Spears & Munsil)Now, before getting started, I will note that the majority of TVs I've tested over the past two years offer excellent standard dynamic range (SDR) color accuracy out of the box, many times being spot-on with broadcast standards when using the proper picture preset. They also tend to be quite accurate when displaying a high dynamic range (HDR) signal, and in both cases show very good contrast performance as well.
By following our guide to the best picture settings for your TV, you can get a viewing experience that's about as close to ideal as a given panel can get without going through a more exacting calibration process.
However, if you're interested in how TV calibration works, or you want to tweak your picture on a more granular level, read on.
More Ways to Improve Your Picture
Now that your TV is perfectly calibrated (or at least calibrated as best as possible without several thousand dollars' worth of software and equipment), you want to make sure that you're sending it the highest-quality signal possible. Check out our guide on HDMI cables to understand what the different types mean, what different brands are available, and how much you should be spending to get the best performance.