Set up Smart TV: Settings and Tips to Improve Performance

If you have recently bought a Smart TV or just use it with the default settings from day one, we are sorry to tell you that you are missing a lot of potential from it. Today we explain how you can improve the experience with your smart TV with very simple settings .

Initial setup for your Smart TV

First things first, you have to do the initial setup of the TV so that everything is correct from the beginning. Among these settings you will find several important elements of which we now tell you everything you need to know.

Set up Smart TV: Settings and Tips

WiFi or LAN connection

At the beginning, your TV will ask you to choose the type of connectivity you are going to use. This may be through WiFi, the most common alternative, or LAN connection. Each has a number of benefits:

  • WiFi : we have little to tell you about this method that you no longer know. This will allow you to connect your TV to the home router without cables in between. There are two very important details that you should keep in mind. On the one hand, today we have two types of signal at home, 2G (slower but with a greater range) and 5G (with a much higher speed). Whenever you can for compatibility with your television, connect to the second since the upload and download speeds will be higher. On the other hand, WiFi connectivity is not friendly to long distances between device and router, so keep this in mind.
  • LAN : the “old time” wired connection with the ethernet port (RJ45) . Many televisions have this connection on the back. It is a much faster connectivity than WiFi, but it does depend on the cable remaining connected.

If you opt for wireless connectivity, you just have to select your network from the list and, of course, put the password for it. However, if you connect by cable, pressing and detecting the network will not require a password.

Create a registration account

Another of the most important initial details is to enter / create your registration account on the TV. The type of account will depend on the operating system your TV has:

  • Android TV : if you have a model with Android TV, the Gmail account you use on your smartphone will simply be worth it.
  • Other systems : on the contrary, if you have a Samsung or LG screen, for example, whose system is Tizen or WebOS, you will have to create a new account. Yes, you can use your usual email but you must go through the registration process.

Keep your Smart TV updated

Now that you have access to the start menu of your television, the first thing you should do is check if it is updated to the latest version .

This is especially useful since these updates will not only bring you the latest features and design, they will also keep your computer protected with the security patches that are released periodically.

Put order on your smart TV

Now you can start to manage your Smart TV and move through the different menus and options. It is time to start adding all the things you can to discover the possibilities of this. Let’s go little by little.

Tuning to TV channels

First we are going to add the television channels, something quite typical indeed. In most models you will find this option in the configuration section under the name of “channel search”.

Once here, and having previously connected the antenna cable at the rear, you must select the automatic search for digital channels. Confirm the search and it will begin to tune each one of them on your TV.

Once the process is finished, all the channels will automatically appear in your list within the “digital” input. If this does not appear, click on the “SOURCE” button and select that entry.

Download apps

But of course, if you have bought a Smart TV you will want to do more than watch TV. On these computers, as we imagine you already know, you will be able to install applications just like on your phone. These apps can range from those to consume multimedia content, to games that you can control with your remote control or with devices connected by Bluetooth.

To download these applications you just have to enter the app store . Depending on the operating system, it will be called in one way or another and will be in a different location. If you have Android TV, this store is the Play Store itself .

Once here, you can research the huge catalog of available applications. When you find one that you would like to try, click on it and click “download” or “get” . And voila, you can now find it in your app catalog.

Keep your start menu organized

Now that you have been adding things to your Smart TV for a long time, you may have noticed that the start menu of this has become a real chaos. Each time you add a new one, it is placed with its content in this panel, occupying one more space. In addition, you will also see the own content that the manufacturer installs inside their televisions and the owner of Google if you have Android TV. Applications that may provide interesting things in some cases, but most only annoy and do not reveal what is truly important.

That is why you should spend a few minutes organizing and filtering the information displayed on this home screen, since it will be the first one you see every time you turn on the TV.

Here you will find, depending on your operating system and model, different sections to configure. Based on Android TV, you can find:

  • Favorites : it is the first menu that we advise you to have on the home screen. You can also find it as “My list”. In this section we will have quick access to the applications that we use most frequently . It is very useful when we do not want to go through the recommendations or updates that are shown to us on this screen. You can edit this menu through the device settings or, on some models like Sony’s, you will find the “channel setting” option at the bottom of the home menu. Here you will find the “My list” section.
  • Channels : although it may lead you to confusion, these are the different news or recommendations of the multimedia content consumption applications that you will have on your home screen. As we mentioned in the previous point, at the end of the start menu you will find an access to the edition of these channels. You can also select the order of preference in which they will appear. This depends on each model but, on Sony screens for example, you will access this setting by sliding to the left with the control knobs.

Once you have the start menu clean and tidy, you can consult the content in a practical way. In addition, with fewer services (if you have eliminated the ones you really did not need) the updates and recommendations will load faster.

The best image quality on your Smart TV

Now it is the turn to improve the user experience with your smart TV in the image section.

Depending on the model you have, it will have different image enhancement technologies such as HDR, for example. In addition to these features, there are other common features in most models that you should know and configure properly.

Preset Picture Modes

If you don’t want to mess around with manual adjustments, there are preset image modes . Styles, with different configurations, that the manufacturer has tested and that adapt to the needs that normally mark in their own name.

Some of the modes you will find could be:

  • Standard : a “normal” configuration that adapts well to most situations, but does not enhance any specific section.
  • Vivid : This mode tends to greatly improve the contrast and saturation of what is displayed on the screen.
  • Cinema : in is an option similar to that of live but without reaching high levels of sharpness or saturation. Try to give us a better experience for playing series or movies.
  • Personal : a “manual” setting without going into too much detail.

You will find these modes within the device settings, in the image section. In the case of Sony televisions, for example, you can access this section with the “Action Menu” button. Once here, click on image and, in the new menu, enter the “Image mode” option.

Advanced picture mode

Of course, if you want to get the most out of the quality of your screen, the best thing is that you manually customize each of the image parameters according to your tastes and needs. These settings are found next to the picture modes that we talked about in the previous section and, in this case, they usually name you as “advanced settings”. Here you can find:

  • Brightness : represents the degree of brightness of the screen. If you increase this value you will see how the details are lost in the lighter parts of the image and, if you reduce it too much, you will notice that in the dark parts the details stop differentiating. Also, if you raise this value too high, the brightness of the panel itself may end up bothering you when looking at it.
  • Contrast : this parameter affects in a similar way to the previous one, but without changing the degree of brightness of the screen. If you increase or decrease this value too much you will have the same “losses” of detail in light and shadow. But, images with a little more contrast in its proper measure can be more striking to the eye.
  • Gamma : is a parameter that defines the fluidity of the transition from black to white on a screen. If we take this parameter to its extremes we will be able to “explode” the higher lights too much or, in the opposite case, have an image that is too dull.
  • Black Level – Defines the depth of “darkness” in the darkest parts of the image.
  • Color – Can also be found as “saturation” and defines how vivid colors are on the screen.
  • Tone : this value expresses the tone or temptation of the panel, that is, if it enhances the greenish or reddish tones.
  • Color temperature : similar to the tone but, in this case, it defines how cold or warm our image is. In other words, how bluish or orange it looks.
  • Sharpness : this is a parameter that affects the sharpness with which the edges of images are displayed on the screen. Increasing this value a little can give a feeling of greater “quality” of the image but, like other parameters, if we go overboard uploading it, the image will become too marked.
  • HDR : it gives us a much more vivid image and with a greater dynamic range whenever possible. Our recommendation is that you leave this parameter on automatic so that, as long as the HDR content is available, you can enjoy it at the right time.

Turn off “Motionflow”

If there is one option in our televisions that has generated incredible controversy in recent years, it is “motionflow” which is also known as “image smoothing” . This setting makes the movements that are reproduced on our screen seem much more fluid but, in some cases, they greatly worsen the experience by generating strange artifacts.

The controversy of this adjustment comes from film and image directors who plan in detail everything they show in movies and series. Then this smoothing of the image comes along and changes it completely or even greatly worsens the viewing experience.

If you are one of those who enjoys watching series and movies on your Smart TV on a regular basis, we strongly recommend that you deactivate this option.

Improve the sound of your Smart TV

Another section that you should take into account when setting up your television is the audio. Many models include endless technologies such as clearAudio, surround sound, Dolby and many more that we can adjust to improve the sound experience. Within the settings of your device you will find a sound section where you can see each of these settings.

But, as was the case with the image section, there are different preset sound modes that you can configure to enhance the sound sensation without going into too much detail. A good option may be the ” cinema ” mode that boosts the low frequencies of the sound and activates the surround sound options.

Other cool settings

So far we have already seen the main things to be able to get more out of our smart TV with the appropriate initial configuration. But, there are some adjustments that have escaped us along the way and that depending on what situations can be very interesting.

Parental control

If you have children at home, one of the most interesting options if you are concerned about what they see or use on the television is parental control. By configuring this section that you will find in the settings of your device at a glance, you will limit from the content that can be played, the applications that can be used or the places where they can enter.

Improve privacy on your smart TV

Now that everything around us is connected, the privacy of our personal information is something that has begun to concern us at great levels. Like any other computer in which we can iterate through voice commands, anything we ask Google Assistant or Alexa from our remote will be recorded. If you want this not to happen, you just have to press the icon to invoke the assistant and say the command “Deactivate sharing information”. If at any time you want to activate it again, you will have to invoke the assistant again and say any command so that it asks you to activate the sharing of information.

Another interesting section that you should take into account is the installation of applications from unknown sources. These may be some of those that the manufacturer himself includes in our factory television, or we can add them ourselves. These types of applications can be a source of malware that endangers our privacy and information, so we recommend that you keep the option to block them active. You will find this in the Smart TV settings, in the “Privacy and security” section.

Use the screensaver

If you have a smart TV with Android TV, they integrate a Chromecast with the benefits that it entails and that we have already talked about in other articles. If you want to learn how to make the most of this addition, you can take a look at the video that we publish on our YTube channel that we leave you below:

One of them is the screensaver , which can show us images that will change like a picture. This option can be very useful as decoration or, why not, to discover incredible places thanks to Google photos. You can configure the screensaver of your TV through its settings.

These are the initial configurations that you should make with your Smart TV to have the best experience with it and, of course, the best image and sound quality. If you have questions with any of these sections, do not hesitate to leave us a comment and we will try to solve it as soon as possible.