It's widely believed that Sony makes some of the best TVs you can buy, primarily because of its incredible image processing capabilities. But even with all that processing power and pedigree, if you use your new TV's out-of-the-box picture settings, you'll be missing out on Sony's top performance.
Luckily, you don't have to spend hundreds of extra dollars to get a truly great image—you just need to make a few key changes. And we're here to tell you what they are. Please note that some settings may not be suitable for your TV depending on its age.
Never miss any of our unbiased technical content and behind-the-lab reviews. Add CNET as Google's preferred source.
Also read: The best TVs of 2025
Disable eco settings
- Disable power saving
- Eco settings can significantly limit the brightness output.
To achieve energy consumption targets, most TVs come with eco settings turned on, and Sony TVs are no exception. And as useful as saving energy is, eco settings invariably have a negative impact on picture quality, especially brightness, making your new Sony TV look less than its best. It's like adding a 55 mph speed limiter to a Ferrari.
Go to the Power & Energy menu in your Google TV's OS system menu: All Settings > System > Power & Energy. Select Energy Saver and switch the Energy Saver setting to Off. As you can read in the submenu description, Power Saver “adjusts brightness and panel controls to reduce the TV's power consumption,” which means the TV will never reach maximum brightness. Any setting that takes control completely out of your hands can result in unwanted image adjustments—at least when it comes to accuracy. Which brings us to…
Disable Ambient Optimization Pro
Sony's Environmental Optimization may reduce picture quality, so it's best to turn it off.
- Disable Ambient Optimization Pro
New TVs – Sony or otherwise – have a built-in ambient light sensor. The goal is to read the ambient light brightness and color temperature in the room and dynamically change the image on the screen. Sony calls this feature Ambient Optimization Pro, and while some may like it, it changes the precision of your TV and takes its performance into your own hands. Open Settings, open the Display & Sound menu, scroll down to Ambient Optimization Pro, and turn off Automatically adjust based on ambient light.
See also: Instantly improve your TV picture by changing these simple settings
Choose the exact picture mode in SDR and HDR.
- Switch the picture mode to Professional or Cinema.
- Be sure to check the SDR and HDR signals.
Now that the automation settings are no longer in the way, it's time to choose an image mode for different types of content. For the most accurate image, be sure to select “Professional” (which was called “Custom” a couple of years ago), which removes a lot of extra processing. The Cinema picture mode is very close to Professional and is also a good choice, but is more geared towards watching movies in a dark room and still includes some processing.
Sony has also partnered with various services to have calibrated modes for those specific services. These include Netflix Calibrated, Prime Calibrated for Amazon Prime Videoand Sony Pictures Core Calibrated. Enhanced IMAX another one dedicated to IMAX Enhanced content found on Disney+. They can offer great experiences with these specific services and are worth a try, but I still recommend staying in Professional mode for the most part, as these specialized modes may still include the default options mentioned above, such as adjusting ambient lighting.
Be sure to enable HDR content like HDR10 and Dolby Visionto ensure the correct picture mode is selected when the TV recognizes this content. For HDR10, I recommend the same mode as for SDR – Professional or Cinema. Dolby Vision can be either Dolby Vision Dark or Dolby Vision Bright. Both provide excellent image accuracy, so choose based on the brightness needed in your room.
If you're adjusting the gaming picture mode for minimal input lag while gaming, be sure to change the color temperature to Expert 1 for maximum accuracy.
Adjust the TV's brightness to suit your room.
TV brightness has received a lot of attention over the past few years as brands race to create the brightest TV ever. And while the ability to increase brightness is always welcome—brighter images combined with inky black levels create incredible contrast—maximizing a TV's brightness isn't always the best solution for every situation. A room with a lot of ambient light requires a brighter TV, so in this case I would raise the brightness slider to maximum. But if you're looking for reference SDR quality in a dark room, the light output should be 100 nits, which requires the brightness slider to be set toward the lowest setting. Most modern TVs are much brighter in SDR mode, and this setting is a matter of preference. If you prefer, you can easily skip this step.
“If the brightness needs to vary depending on the ambient light in the room,” I hear you ask, “then why not use Ambient Optimization Pro, which we disabled earlier?” This setting dynamically changes the brightness And color temperature, which can be distracting and cause inaccuracies. If you disable this feature and change the brightness yourself, performance will be smooth and consistent.
The nice text Sony has in the menu settings explains whether you're setting the SDR or HDR mode. Settings such as brightness, contrast and gamma will include either (SDR) or (HDR). For those who like to customize settings, this is a nice quality of life experience that other companies would benefit from enabling themselves.
In addition to the Brightness setting further down in the Picture Settings menu, there's Peak Brightness, which adjusts the TV's local dimming. This setting can be set to Off, Low, Medium or High to change the maximum light output and also affect flowering performance. New Sony TVs tend to have good color limiting, so I'd recommend setting Peak Brightness to High for the most impressive HDR quality.
Check the HDMI settings for connecting external devices.
Changing your HDMI settings gives you all the bandwidth you paid for.
Many people assume that if you plug an HDMI 2.1 device into the HDMI 2.1 port on your TV, you're good to go. But this is not necessarily the case. All TVs have the ability to change the HDMI signal format for compatibility with older devices. Often, TVs come with HDMI ports set to the most compatible setting—HDMI 1.4—so customer service lines don't have to deal with calls from new customers complaining that their old soundbar isn't working properly with their new TV. The downside is that your game consolefor example, may not send a 120Hz signal to your TV because the HDMI port is not configured for it.
If you open the External Inputs menu (All Settings > Channels & Inputs > External Inputs), an HDMI Signal Format submenu will appear that allows you to configure this setting for each individual HDMI port. There are usually two settings: Standard Format (HDMI 1.4 setting) and Extended Format (for HDMI 2.0), with the Extended Format being the one you want as it allows 4K/60Hz signals to be sent to this input. Some HDMI inputs may include a third option – depending on the year and model, this may appear as Advanced Format or Enhanced Format (4K120). This (surprise, surprise) will allow this port to accept signals from a gaming console or PC at 4K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. If you are setting up input for games, be sure to enable VRR.
There are a few advanced settings you can play with and tweak to your liking, such as Motionflow (Sony's motion interpolation) and CineMotion (for judder). Sony's Reality Creation is also a great feature for upscaling low-resolution content. But if you check and adjust the five settings listed above, your Sony TV will impress and dazzle for years to come.
