If you are looking how to improve Roku picture quality, then you came to the right place. In this post, we are going over the different picture modes and how they can impact picture quality.
Furthermore, we are going to discuss what HDR is and how it can enhance your Roku TV quality by using the integrated settings, so keep reading to learn how to use these features and hopefully improve your picture quality.
If you didn’t know your Roku TV has several different preset picture modes where you are given the freedom to adjust as per your desires. Each of these presets align with the different occasions, for example, movie, gaming, and sports.
On top of that, there are some advanced picture settings that you can play manually with until you are satisfied with the picture quality.
Make sure to stick around to avoid some well-known frustrating occurrences and successfully improve the picture quality of your Roku TV.
What Are the Best Picture Settings for Roku TV?
Here we will introduce all available picture modes (settings) that are available and how each of them influences the picture quality.
The list below illustrates all picture settings modes available for Roku TV, in performance utilization order.
Low Power More
The Low Power Mode is dedicated to saving energy by capping the performance. If you are currently using Low Power Mode, you might experience bad picture quality and lag.
If you are looking to improve Roku picture quality, make sure that you are not using the Low Power Mode and preferably switch to Vivid or Movie mode.
Normal Mode
This mode is mainly used by Roku TV users that focus on advertising content for long periods of time (commonly for TV’s running commercials 24/7).
The Normal Mode allows the TV to save power and capping the performance to be just enough to provide what is considered to be a “good” picture quality.
For some users with a keen eye, the Normal Mode picture quality might be unacceptable.
Vivid Mode
As the name suggests, this model delivers bright colors to the Roku TV picture with the intention to be used in environments where a lot of light is involved.
If you are currently using Vivid Mode on your Roku TV, your picture might be overwhelming with brightness, contrast, and sharpness.
However, here we are looking at good image quality and only a few can distinguish the downscale difference between better presets.
Sports Mode
This mode is dedicated to delivering the best picture quality for senses where a lot of action is involved. It mainly enhances the bandwidth real-time rendering with the purpose of eliminating frame skipping and smudge.
Movie Mode
As the name suggests, this mode aligns perfectly when watching movies in dark environments.
It is recommended to be used as a main preset if you are not willing to adjust settings manually and it is proven that you cannot go wrong with it.
Without any hesitations, we can safely conclude that this is the best Roku TV picture quality for gaming as well.
Now when you know what exactly each model is dedicated to, you can easily identify which one to use and most importantly when to use it.
If your Roku TV picture quality was compromised due to an inaccurate picture mode, congratulations, you just solved your issue.
If not, under our next heading we are going to show you how to navigate and adjust each setting individually.
How To Improve Roku TV Picture Quality Manually?
Keep in mind that the above-described picture modes are simply preset of already existing settings that can be found in your Roku TV menu under the “Advanced Picture Settings” tab.
In there you will find the following settings:
- Brightness – Configure the desired peak of light level on your Roku TV screen.
- Contrast – Impacts the density of the white portions of the image
- Sharpness – Sharpens the edges of picture formations
- Color temperature – Adjust the red and blue intensity of the image
- Tint – Configuring the skin tones
- Color – Adjust how interest you would like color to be
- Dynamic contrast – Configure the backlight levels of the entire image
- Backlight – Adjust the possible peak of the screen backlight
Keep in mind that there is a “return to default” button so feel free to play with these settings manually until you are satisfied.
If, however, your image is still not as good as you want it to be, in our next paragraph we are going to discuss what High Dynamic Range (HDR) is and how to use it.
How To Improve Roku Picture Quality Using HDR?
Before everything else, we should mention that not all Roku TVs are capable of displaying High Dynamic Range (HDR).
You can check on that by searching for your model online. If your TV supports HDR let’s first understand how it works.
Your TV might be receiving media with playback of SD, HD, 4K, or HDR.
Once an HDR input is detected you will be able to choose HDR10 or Dolby Vision picture mode, which is an outstanding selection of color and overall preset.
Note: All Roku TV models that support HDR also support HDR10 format and here is what it contains:
Dark HDR – Darker tone of picture quality focusing cinema experience
Normal HDR – Balanced picture quality good for cases where more color is required
Bright HDR – More Vivid colors and brighter picture
In contrast, Dolby Vision is supported only by a few Roku TV models, and if your model does not, when HDR content is delivered on the input the TV will play it with its ordinary preset.
How To Easily Switch Between Modes?
If just now you have discovered all the Roku video quality settings, you definitely have a lot to explore.
A good tip here would be that Roku TVs actually remember the last preset used for a certain HDMI port.
For instance, if you are using Vivid mode on HDMI1, every time you connect your HDMI cable to this post it will automatically use the Vivid mode.
Until you change it. This allows you to have multiple picture quality modes across all different HDMI ports and switch between them fast and easily.
Roku TV Picture Quality Still Bad…
If adjusting the picture quality settings did not improve anything, then the issue might be related to your TV screen.
Note that if you are using the network, some media streaming platforms such as YouTube and Netflix can downscale quality automatically when there is a shortage of traffic.
As a last resort, you can always contact the official Roku TV customer service and explain your issue and what exactly you’ve tried so far.
The bad picture might be related to an internal problem and only the developer knows how to troubleshoot (if possible).
Bottom Line
We can safely conclude that Roku TVs are extremely customizable when it comes to the question “how to improve Roku picture quality?”.
Sometimes using the default settings is the best way to troubleshoot inaccurate configurations, but you cannot go wrong by trying out different scenes and presets.
We hope our post was helpful and if you are interested in more technical-related content, our blog certainly has something for you.
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Finn Wheatley holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from UCL, London. He helped small data science consultancy firms, helping large corporations to grow their data capabilities, deploy advanced machine learning-based analytics and troubleshoot tech-related issues. Check out more about him here.