Tweaky Posted July 5, 2021 Posted July 5, 2021 I'm interested on what Gamma settings people are using on their TV's. [All modern TV's will have a option to select from a variety of preset Gammas, usually hidden in the advanced options of your TV's picture menu] The vast majority of people have no idea about being able to do this, or how to go about doing it, or what changing the Gamma can do, and probably shy away from touching the available setting because of it, but it is a well worthwhile thing to try with your TV. If using a LCD/LED TV you might need to adjust the Backlight settings, so write down what you have it currently set at before you change it. [ALSO , and this only applies to TV's that have Backlighting, If using a LCD/LED TV you should ALWAYS use Backlight to change the TV's light output, leave the Brightness control at ZERO, as that does NOT make the TV brighter or dimmer, it only adjusts the Black level....if your Blacks are Grey that's probably the reason why, check your Brightness level, it is probably set too high, adjust it down, or preferably OFF, until they appear Black again, and still show shadow detail in the Blacks ] It is quite safe to choose a different Gamma preset on a TV without the fear of doing any damage to it [even on so called, fragile OLED TV's ], or make the change irreversible, just write down which Gamma preset is highlighted when you find it in your TV's menu, that will be it's current one, then choose one closest to it [either up or down] a see if you see a improvement, then choose the next one up again etc....all a matter of personal preference which you might find the best. If you are lucky, your TV will also show a gamma setting called BT.1886 in the gamma menu, which is a Gamma curve designed for flat panel TV's [It sometimes needs some other settings on your TV to be set exactly for this setting to appear, usually something like AUTO Contrast turned OFF, check your TV's manual for this ] it is specifically designed to give flat panel TV's good shadow detail in the Blacks, without losing image Punch. Try that if you have it available, you might be pleasantly surprised at the difference What does Gamma do to a image? Simplistic answer is: If you adjust the Gamma on your TV, it changes the apparent "grayness" of blacks, shadows, midtones, and to a lesser extent, even highlights. Gamma describes how the image transitions from black to white, and affects all the grays in between. ... A low Gamma has a shallower curve, so shadows will appear brighter. Full explanation is : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction You don't need to calibrate your TV to see the difference, as long as the light output of your TV is around 120 cd/m2 light output [It usually starts hurting your eyes if set brighter in a semi dark room when showing a scene with a lot of White in it, so you can sort of guesstimate if you are in the 120 cd/m2 light output ballpark area ]. You can only Eyeball light output when watching standard definition 'Bluray movies or FTA TV". Don't try to use a 4K UHD DISC to eyeball your TV's light output. Nearly all new TV's have terrible a Grey Scale, and that can only be fixed with calibration, strangely enough, most new TV's are excellent at reproducing colour, and when calibrating don't really need much done to them in that area. So if you don't have your own calibration gear, and you can Eyeball your TV to the 120cd/m2 light output, your best bet for possibly improving your picture might be trying a different Gamma setting. Personally I've tried numerous gammas with my LCD TV, all calibrated [I did a quick 12 point 10% graduated Grey scale calibration at gamma 2.3 yesterday] just because I was bored. I'll give it a few days to give a final verdict, but it didn't have the punch of the BT.1886 calibration, but was nearly as good as the 2.2 gamma calibration in the midtones, which is where I find the BT.1886 gamma not quite as good. Horses for courses. Anyway, have a trial with changing your TV's Gamma settings, you might get a "Oh WOW, I didn't know my TV could look like that ! " Moment. Please post back which one you found the best....and what type of TV it is, Plazma, LCD, OLED...CRT [if any are still running] I'd just be interest to know what people prefer, more definition [low gamma ] or Punch [Gamma 2.4 / and above] or BT. 1886 if available. 1
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