What does sharpness mean on a tv

Just something to keep in mind. If the image suddenly looks blurry , that's definitely too low. There's a sweet spot with any TV, it's just a matter of finding it.

It's possible, though rare, that you have a TV with permanent edge enhancement. Even turning the sharpness control to zero and going through every setting and picture preset in your TV, you still may see edge enhancement or other processing. This was more common with older TV sets, though.

These days it's fairly rare. Many TVs and some high-end projectors have processing features separate from the sharpness control. These are usually deeper in the settings menus, or in separate "advanced" sections. Some of these can enhance the apparent detail without adding undue amounts of edge enhancement. Others, of course, do more harm than good. Part of this is due to the increase in overall processing power available in mid- and high-end TVs. For instance, Samsung, LG, and Sony have discussed using AI for their upconversion , which is how you get a decent-looking lower-resolution image on a high-resolution television.

There's no blanket advice here. Sit close, and see if it's adding noise, edge enhancement, or if it's making the image appear sharper.

Purists will likely want to keep these features off, especially with high-quality content like from a 4K Blu-ray, but with some content it might help. Occasionally, the edge enhancement is in the source.

This was common on early DVDs, where edge enhancement was added to make them "pop. It's just something to keep in mind if you're trying out different settings, don't use just one source or program. TV manufacturers love edge enhancement, largely because it makes their TVs seem super detailed when viewed in a store.

There are also some sources, generally low-quality video like standard-def TV channels or even VHS tapes, that can benefit from a TV's detail enhancement circuits. These sources are so soft and low-resolution to begin with, that when blown up to the size of today's large televisions they may look better enhanced. If you go to your TV right now and turn the sharpness control all the way down the picture is absolutely going to look soft.

Much like with high color temperatures , anyone who isn't used to making fine adjustments to their TV controls has gotten used to a certain "look" to their TV's picture. So at first, even the correct sharpness setting might seem soft, especially if your TV has been in the Vivid or Dynamic picture mode. Try the new, lower sharpness setting for a few days. If you then don't like the look of the un-enhanced image, that's fine. Turn it back up.

It is probably the most confusing secret of all the picture quality fundamentals we will be exploring. Here is where the confusion usually is: Perceived image sharpness is not the same as resolution or the total number of pixels — although there is a correlation. The reality is that if you were to take two full HD images, flat screen or projected, and have them at the same sharpness and without some of the new intelligent detail enhancement that we will talk about in a minute , most people would have a very difficult time seeing any difference between the two images.

However, if the sharpness, or fine detail enhancement, was better on either of the two examples above, almost anyone could see the difference. The last image above is a good example of what many TVs look like at many retail stores.

Each manufacturer is trying to grab the attention of the prospective customer and they will sacrifice true best picture quality for a very high contrast, high color, and overly enhanced or sharpened image to make their TV stand out to the typical walk-by in-store traffic.

Posted By: Stuart Sweet October 21, But this is how television worked for generations. Well of course a TV tube required a lot of adjustment. In the days before computers all those adjustments were done by hand. Some of you remember having a TV repairman come to the home or watching Dad fiddle with the controls; others of you may have just seen it in old movies.

As TVs gained computer control, a lot of those adjustments were done automatically but the user still had some control. Obviously with a flat television none of that comes into play at all. And yet, flat TVs have a sharpness control that does pretty much the same thing as the one on older TVs.

By this time you may have wondered… exactly what does it do? Yet, some people want to have a sharper or softer picture. If you have access to a test pattern, you can tell easily; otherwise go to an image with a lot of sharp details and turn the sharpness down to the point just before it starts getting soft.