00:00In this video, I'll be taking you through all the TV settings to change for watching sports,
00:04whether it's for a big game or you're just looking for some helpful tips and tricks to
00:08make the most out of watching live sports on your TV. For the sake of this video,
00:13I'm demoing all the settings to change on the Samsung S90D OLED TV, a TV I actually gave
00:19Editor's Choice Award. That's to say, some of the things I'll talk about are picture settings
00:23for Samsung Smart TVs, but in general, every major TV brand has some version of these same
00:28settings, even if they're branded a bit differently. So not only will I link a great deal for this TV
00:33in the description, but I'll also include some links to some brand-specific settings guides.
00:38Now's a great time to make sure you're subscribed to this channel so you never miss a new video from
00:43me and the team. Better yet, drop a comment if this is your first time here. Back to TV settings for
00:48watching sports. The first setting I recommend changing right away is switching the TV to
00:54daylight cinema. Or if your TV doesn't have that, then simply cinema mode. I know it's tempting to
01:00enable the sports picture mode, but believe it or not, it isn't the best one to use when watching
01:05football or, well, any sport for that matter. For almost any TV we've ever tested in the lab,
01:10cinema mode is the most accurate picture setting. It gives the most accurate colors, which means no
01:15toxic waste-looking neon grass or oversaturated jersey colors. You might notice a yellowish hue that
01:21wasn't there before. Don't worry. We're going to fix that next. Maybe you've noticed that movies tend
01:27to look better with a warm sepia tone. Your TV's cinema or movie mode will usually add in an extra
01:33tinge of sepia to really make the effect pop, but it doesn't have the same effect on sports. I mean,
01:39you don't want to feel like you're watching through a cooler of yellow Gatorade. To fix this,
01:43all you have to do is change the white balance of the TV, usually found in the advanced settings,
01:47back to either neutral or cool. Cool shifts the colors to more of a bluish hue, which can make
01:53jerseys look extra crisp, while neutral is more of a natural balance in between. I suggest playing
01:58around with both to see which one looks better to your eyes specifically. I can't believe I'm telling
02:03you this, but in the instance of watching sports, some motion smoothing isn't all that bad. The key
02:09word here is some. What you're going to do is go into the advanced motion settings on any Samsung,
02:14LG, or Google TV, and change the motion smoothing settings to custom. Make sure to reduce judder to
02:20the lowest setting no matter what. Judder attempts to stabilize the fast-moving action, and that sounds
02:26like a good thing, but in practice, it makes people look plasticky. I always turn it off. But then set
02:32blur reduction up to its highest setting. Blur reduction reduces ghosting that can occasionally
02:37pop up when the ball is moving through the air. Although some sports are transitioning to 4K broadcasts,
02:42most you'll find you'll be watching in an upscale 1080p resolution. That means you might want to go
02:48into the settings of the TV to boost the sharpness. Sharpness essentially helps define the edges of
02:54objects, and though it's never going to look as good as having a higher resolution, it can help a bit
02:59during sports. With that, play around with brightness. My main piece of advice is not to go overboard with
03:04brightness, but tapping up the brightness makes small details easier to see. 65% or 70% of the maximum
03:12brightness should be a happy medium. I can't talk about the best TV settings for watching sports
03:16without talking about sound. I know you might be tempted to use the TV's dynamic sound setting to
03:22recreate the sound of the stadium in your living room, but if you're stuck using your TV's built-in
03:27speakers, then it's going to be very hard to hear what the announcers are saying, especially if you're
03:32watching the game with a bunch of people in the room. Make things easier by turning on the
03:36amplify setting or change the sound mode to dialogue. Some TVs have further settings to make
03:42voices sound clearer, but any of these should make the announcers easier to hear and the game
03:47easier to follow. These are just some of the ways I recommend improving your picture and sound
03:53settings for watching live sports on your smart TV. I suggest you play around with the settings to
03:58find what works best for you, but hopefully I've given you some help on where to start. Let me know in
04:03the comments section if there's any settings I missed. And again, make sure to hit that subscribe
04:07button so you know when the next episode of Setup Essentials goes live. My name is Ryan Epps.
04:13This has been Tom's Guide. Thanks so much. Take care.
04:16Oh, oh, oh. Smell you. I smell you. Great, thanks. Thanks for smelling me.
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