According to Engadget, modern 4K TVs are often optimized to look good on a showroom floor, not in a living room. That means out-of-the-box settings can distort picture quality and cause eye strain. The good news: you don't need a professional calibration tool to make visible improvements.
The first step is to change the picture mode. Look for "movie" or "filmmaker" mode, which turns off the most obnoxious visual settings like motion smoothing and other post-processing. Filmmaker Mode is an official spec endorsed by directors, but it's not available on all TVs. If your TV's movie mode doesn't disable motion smoothing, turn it off manually—it can make movies look "somewhat oily" and ruin the cinematic feel.
After choosing a preset, work through settings like brightness, contrast, sharpness, color temperature, and gamma. Because display panels vary even between identical models, each TV may need to be tuned differently. Use test patterns if you want a more objective sense of what you're adjusting. Also turn off eco mode settings, which reduce brightness and save little energy.
For HDR content, Dolby Vision is a rare enhancement that actually helps. It should kick in automatically when playing supported content. If multiple Dolby Vision modes are available, choose Normal, or Cinema if you see it. Even in Dolby Vision, check that post-processing and sharpening settings are still disabled, as they may re-enable.