I am not going to say that I spend the day changing my television as a mobile, because they are devices with totally different life cycles. But in recent years several televisions have passed through my house, some bought by me, others bought by my family and others to be able to test them and transferred by the brands. Like the 43-inch Xiaomi P1 that now lives in front of my bed. I configure all of them and I apply the same doctrine to all of them. Less is more.
I decided a long time ago that you had to listen to those who know when you know less than them, and I am guided by the opinion of film directors and cinematographers when it comes to knowing what to do with a TV. Rodrigo Cortés said it in an Almighty, by the way. The best way to see something as the director had it in mind is deactivate all the automatic reinforcements of your Smart TV. I have done it again on the Xiaomi P1 and holy hand.
All these Android TV settings go away when I set up my TV
Technology advances and software improvements come along with it that aim to make your life easier, improve the user experience of everything you touch. But sometimes those improvements actually work against you and blur everything. With Smart TVs that is exactly what happens. Every smart adjustment makes you completely lose control of how you view the image, and when several are combined together, you end up watching a movie shot on 35mm as if it had been recorded with a GoPro. No offense to GoPro. But you understand me. Recorded for the cinema but looking like a home video camera.
So, the first thing I do with a Xiaomi TV when configuring it, once I have entered the corresponding user account and downloaded all the apps that need to be configured, is go to image settings and start turning things off. Without contemplations. Anything that smacks of automatic help goes out. Here you do not cry for what has been lost, you come to enjoy the path that awaits you later.
In the case of my Xiaomi P1, I go to the configuration of ‘Image’ and the first thing I find is that they ask me for the color profile. I usually choose ‘Movie’ to have a base from which to start, although later I take things away from it. Like, for example, the backlight. The backlight goes out, I set it to 0. I don’t want the screen to look brighter than it should because that annoys the experience quite a bit depending on what content, and because it’s not healthy for the panel to support those lighting levels either. So off. One less thing.
Any adjustment that sounds like “I’m here to help you” means losing control. At least in the image settings.
I keep scrolling down my TV settings and get to brightness. The brightness is placed at 50. It is not usual to place the TV in the middle of the patio, so 50% brightness allows you to see the image well in most locations. It may seem a bit dark at first, but trust me, it’s because of the contrast to what you had before. And with the brightness at 50% the screen will stay in good condition for longer. color temperature, another thing that goes by neighborhoods, I place it in ‘Standard’. Neither cold nor warm nor anything else. ‘Standard’ is the setting that tells your TV not to play anything, just broadcast as it should.
Video smoothing? Disconnected. Another setting that applies unwanted filters on every frame that is projected on your TV. Outside, it doesn’t help. It makes the experience worse so it is deactivated. Ambient light detection? Disconnected. An adjustment that seems to help you, because the brightness of the TV varies depending on the light in the room, but it works against you. If you turn on the light in the living room, the brightness of the TV goes up. If you turn it off, go down. Better to have it disconnected and control the experience yourself. Believe me. Ambient light, outside.
Advanced settings also have things that can be disabled
We arrived at the advanced settings and here we find the color space. In my case I usually choose sRGB, it is the one I prefer. You can opt for the ‘Native’ if you have doubts or you do not have a preferred one. Anything less leave it on automatic. gamma? Half. Noise reduction? Disabled. Adaptive luma control? Disabled. Local contrast control? Disabled. White balance correction. Disabled.
All that is what I “carry” of the settings of each smart TV that falls into my hands. On some models the settings are given slightly different names, others will have even more settings, others fewer. My recommendation, after a good handful of configured televisions, is that any intelligent help that the television software puts at the service of the image is conveniently neutralized. Turn your Smart TV into a Dumb TV. At least when it comes to the image. It will look better.
I leave you a summary of the settings of my Xiaomi TV P1 at the moment:
- backlight: deactivated. Steel.
- Glow: 50%.
- color temperature: standard.
- video smoothing: disabled.
- ambient light detection: deactivated.
- color space:sRGB. Whichever is less automatic.
- gamma: half.
- noise reduction: deactivated.
- adaptive luma control: disabled.
- local contrast control: disabled.
- White balance correction: disabled.
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