Own a Hisense TV? I’d change these expert settings to noticeably improve the picture quality

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Kerry Wan/ZDNET

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Whether you’re looking to buy or already own a Hisense TV, you may be wondering how to get the best possible picture quality. The Hisense settings menu offers a surprisingly wide range of options to play with to get the best picture for your space. You can tweak everything from basics like brightness and contrast levels to more advanced options like color space and Calman calibration (if you have the equipment).

Also: Why TVs look bright and vibrant in stores, but dull in your living room – and how to fix it

Your changes can be applied across all media sources or to a single one, making it easy to set up multiple custom picture modes you can quickly switch among. And don’t worry, if you mess up or change your mind, there’s a handy reset button at the bottom of the picture settings menu that restores each option to its factory default.

To help walk you through the process, I’ve written out a menu map for setting up various picture settings so you can spend more time actually using your Hisense TV and less time getting lost in a sea of sliders and checkboxes.

One and done options

If you simply want to make a few selections and start watching your favorite shows and movies, or play a video game, new Hisense TVs offer plenty of “set and forget” picture options. There are seven picture mode presets: Standard, Sports, Energy Saving, Theater Night, Theater Day, Filmmaker, and Vivid. Each offers different brightness, contrast, color processing, and refresh rates to suit a variety of media, making it easy to switch from movies to games on-the-fly.

To get even more out of the presets, you can toggle on a few more options.

Also: The best Hisense TVs: Expert tested and reviewed

Settings > Picture > Auto Picture Mode/Content Type Detection/Intelligent Scene/Automatic Light Sensor all toggled ON
Picture > Brightness > Active Contrast ON > HDR Enhancer ON
Color > Low Blue Light ON > Dynamic Color Enhancer MEDIUM
Clarity > Super Resolution ON > Motion Enhancement STANDARD > Motion Clearness OFF

By toggling on all these options, your Hisense TV will automatically detect the type of content you’re watching, switch picture modes, and optimize settings for smooth motion, clear details, and bold colors, without you having to lift a finger.

For live TV

If you primarily want to use your Hisense TV for watching live news, sports, and entertainment, setting it up for the best picture only requires a few tweaks:

Settings > Picture > Sports
Brightness > Local Dimming HIGH > Brightness 100 > Contrast 75 > Black Level 25 > Dark Detail ON > Gamma 2.2 > Active Contrast ON > HDR Enhancer ON
Color > Color 50 > Hue 0 > Color Temperaturre STANDARD > Low Blue Light ON > Color Space DCI-P3 > Dynamic Color Enhancer MEDIUM
Clarity > Sharpness 25 > Smooth Gradient Medium > Super Resolution OFF > Noise reduction MEDIUM > MPEG Noise Reduction Medium > Motion Enhancement STANDARD > Motion Clearness OFF

For streaming

Hisense Canvas TV S7 Series — Kerry Wan/ZDNET

If you’ve cut the cord with your satellite or cable provider and switched to exclusively streaming your content, you can get a cinema-quality picture with changes in a few key areas:

Settings > Picture > Filmmaker Mode
Brightness > Local Dimming MEDIUM > Peak Brightness HIGH > Brightness 50 > Contrast 40 > Black Level 10 > Dark Detail ON > Gamma BT1886 > Active Contrast OFF > HDR Enhancer ON
Color > Color 50 > Hue 0 > Color Temperature Warm1 > Low Blue Light ON > Color Space DCI-P3 > Dynamic Color Enhancer LOW
Clarity > Sharpness 3 > Smooth Gradient OFF > Super Resolution OFF > Noise Reduction MEDIUM > MPEG Noise Reduction> MEDIUM > Motion Enhancement FILM > Motion Clearness OFF

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I felt that Hisense’s Filmmaker Mode preset was a bit dark, so I bumped the brightness to 50 and changed the Local Dimming option from low to medium to improve my chances of actually seeing what’s going on in dark scenes.

For gaming

Hisense TVs make great screens for dedicated gaming spaces or for TVs that have to pull double duty as the family entertainment box. And while Hisense smart TVs don’t have a specific picture mode for gaming, you can create your own with some quick adjustments:

Settings > Picture > Vivid mode
Brightness > Local Dimming MEDIUM > Peak Brightness MEDIUM > Brightness 100 > Contrast 75 > Black Level 10 > Dark Detail ON > Gamma 2.2 > Active Contrast OFF > HDR Enhancer ON
Color > Color 55 > Hue 0 > Color Temperature Warm 2 > Low Blue Light OFF > Color Space DCI-P3 > Dynamic Color Enhancer MEDIUM
Clarity > Sharpness 25 > Smooth Gradient LOW > Super Resolution OFF > Noise Reduction MEDIUM > MPEG Noise Reduction MEDIUM > Motion Enhancement STANDARD > Motion Clearness OFF

The Vivid picture mode gives you bright, bold colors that suit a variety of art styles across different game genres, and by bumping up the black levels and enabling Dark Detail, you can boost contrast to make characters and interest points pop against landscapes.

For control freaks

New Hisense TVs offer a wide range of options for users who prefer to control every aspect of their TV’s picture quality. If you navigate to Settings > Picture, you’ll see the Picture Calibration Settings option all the way at the bottom.