6 Ways to Fix Dark Content on Your TV

Main points

• Avoid natural light to improve your viewing experience – content is made to be enjoyed in the dark.
• Use bias lighting to adjust screen brightness, reduce eye strain, and increase contrast for easier viewing.
• Consider buying an OLED TV for the best contrast between dark colors and deep blacks.

In recent years, movies and TV series have become much darker. While we can thank Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder for bringing a burst of gritty content, it’s not just the tone that’s darker. But it’s actually darker too, like it’s hard to see. A few years ago many of us were confused or annoyed by an episode of Game of Thrones, but as we’ve seen in House of the Dragon, Batman, Yellowjacket, and many horror movies , the Game of Thrones experience is not an anomaly. This was the beginning of the dark age of television.

Television’s “Dark Ages” came about for a variety of reasons, most of which have to do with advances in technology that allowed creators to capture more detail in the dark.

This era has arrived for a variety of reasons, most of which have to do with technological advancements that allow creators to capture more detail in the dark. Some filmmakers are going for a specific dark vision, while others may not be good enough to use the latest innovations in the best possible way. Additionally, the speed at which some content is produced means some quality is lost, and processing along the way may reduce contrast.

There’s also a greater focus on movie quality, which means some movies and shows are designed to provide a theater-like experience, even though you might be watching them at home on a sunny afternoon.

While the “why” of it all may be interesting, it’s important to know how to fix the problem. Here are some tips and tricks you can do to improve the situation and make a significant investment in completely changing your viewing experience.

1 Avoid outside light

Mimic the theater setting as closely as possible

The amount of sunlight that enters a room has a huge impact on how well you can enjoy what’s on your screen. Newer TVs like the Samsung QN90C are designed to accommodate viewing in brighter spaces, with screens that reduce glare and reflections. Even if you have a high-end smart TV, you must make every effort to eliminate natural light from entering the room and shining on the TV.

Pay attention to the position of the TV relative to the window, and if you can’t avoid placing the TV in a well-lit area, invest in blackout curtains. Remember, so much of this content is produced with the intention of being viewed in a theater-like setting. So try to recreate it at home.

2 but turn on some lighting inside

Create more contrast and reduce stress

Bias lighting is a useful trick for affecting screen contrast when viewing in the dark room we just created; it’s also an effective way to avoid eye strain and potential headaches. Bias lighting has a way of adjusting the brightness of a screen, whether it’s a TV or a computer monitor, by acting as a baseline between complete darkness surrounding a shiny screen. So instead of shining a lone light source in a sea of ​​black, bias lighting creates contrast for your eyes and takes less stress off your brain.

The light behind the screen (optimally at 6,500K) changes your perception of brightness and contrast.

Backlighting is a great way to achieve this contrast. The light behind the screen (optimally at 6,500K) changes your perception of brightness and contrast. I personally like strip lighting around the wall behind the TV as bias lighting. Smart strip lights, in particular, not only change color and brightness, but also have pre-programmed sequences to complement the viewing experience. This means it can help with harder-to-see content, but can also enliven more mundane stories.

3 Modify settings

But don’t overdo it

One way to slightly improve your picture is to look at the basic settings for brightness, color, and contrast. Adjusting these levels won’t bring about radical changes, but they’re still helpful and a good starting point. It is important not to deviate too far from the median. Turning any of these up or down too much can drastically weaken the image, so avoid going to extremes in either direction, especially when it comes to brightness.

Gamma affects brightness and contrast by adjusting shadows on the screen: setting it to 2.0 or lower will help with dark content.

Depending on your TV, there may be some advanced settings worth exploring. Gamma affects brightness and contrast by adjusting shadows on the screen: setting it to 2.0 or lower will help with dark content. In some cases, you can turn up the backlight, which will increase brightness. Your TV manufacturer may provide guides on its website to help you make adjustments for the best look.

Note that it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole by playing with settings. For those who really want to get the best, most faithful image possible, there are some guides on YouTube that will walk you through using control images to change settings for testing purposes. You can also purchase installation discs such as Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark to calibrate your TV.

4 Embrace (most) smart TV features

Get rid of the soap opera effect

Newer Sony, Samsung and LG smart TVs all have similar features and more or less do the same thing: embrace the director’s vision. If the director has a clear vision from the start, this is an easy way to automatically adjust various settings to achieve a faithful reproduction of the image.

These new features also often turn off the dreaded soap opera effect that gives many movies and scripted TV shows an uncanny, eerie feel. Every TV brand has their own term for this motion technology, but no matter what they call it, it should be turned off.

5 Check the source

Align content, cables, and screens

Compression is an issue that can result in poorer image quality, which is more noticeable when the screen is darker. You’ll want to make sure all the components of your viewing train are compatible and optimal, from the content itself to the screen you’re watching on and any cables or consoles in between.

For example, while a 4K TV can deliver an impressive image, it becomes less impressive if the content you’re watching comes from a file on a laptop connected to the TV. Likewise, a Netflix 4K plan may be worth investing in as they have detailed and colorful 4K content, but you’ll need to make sure you have fast internet and a suitable TV.

6 Invest in OLED

worth the price

The best way to make these darker scenes look better is to buy a better TV, and that will almost certainly be an OLED TV. OLED TVs are the best way to enjoy dark content consistently. Sony and Samsung, initially championed by LG, have also recently jumped on board to produce OLED TVs, as these screens are very good at creating contrast between deep and deep blacks.

This is because OLED screens have individual pixels that emit light themselves. They can also be turned off individually, meaning that at any time, when a pixel on the screen needs to be black, it can be completely black. LED screens cannot do this.

LED screens are backlit and to varying degrees struggle to achieve the truest blacks, simply because each pixel is not individually controlled. LED screens use local dimming to achieve on-screen darkness, but since they can’t be turned off completely, some light is still evident, making dark content on the screen a bit blurry. Advances in LED technology are bringing the quality of OLED TVs closer, such as miniLED screens that reduce the backlight size. While that’s a significant improvement, it’s still not OLED-level darkness and contrast.

For better or worse, light content is here to stay. If you want to spend time enjoying your favorite movies and shows, it’s important to take the time to optimize your viewing experience in advance. Otherwise you will be left out in the dark.