Don't just adjust the settings on your TV. Your HDMI port settings should also be tweaked.

Most smart TVs aren't optimized for home viewing out of the box. That might sound strange, given that home audiences are usually the main target. Often, though, TVs are given overly conservative default settings, or else they're set to modes that might catch your eye in the store but actively sabotage image quality. There's a reason why Filmmaker Mode had to be invented.

This extends right down to HDMI ports. You'd think ports wouldn't need settings at all, what with the notion of plug-and-play. But they do exist, and the truth is that if you've never changed them, your TV and its connected devices probably haven't been operating at their full potential.

Typically, you only need to turn on a setting called Enhanced for each of your inputs. TV makers do put their own spin on matters, though, so keep your eyes open. In fact, it might be worth setting aside 15 minutes just to check out all the menu options to improve your 4k TV's picture quality.

HDMI inputs frequently default to a "standard" mode intended to maximize compatibility with anything you might plug in. In theory, this sounds like a great idea. However, I've never once encountered a compatibility problem, and the tradeoff is a bottleneck on your most advanced hardware, such as game consoles and Blu-ray players. It's probably high time TV makers take the opposite approach.

In the interim, you can fix this on many TVs (such as Google-based Sony and Hisense models) by locating HDMI input options and flipping each input to Enhanced , or some variation of that label.

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