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Find out moreThe TV features you need for watching sport this summer
The Euros, Olympics and Wimbledon are all imminent. Is your TV up to the task?
In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot of sport on the horizon. The Euros will surely culminate in an England vs Scotland final, Katie Boulter might pull off an upset and take home the Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon, and fingers crossed for more gold medals than a primary school sports day at the Olympics.
To make sure you don't miss a thing, you'll want a good TV to watch it all on.
If you're happy with your telly then there's no need to rush out for a new one, but if you're in the market for an upgrade then these are the features to look out for. Plus, if the summer of sport sparks about as much excitement in you as a cross country run in secondary school, know that these features can help more than just sport look good.
Top TV deals: see our pick of great TVs at great prices
Can you watch in 4K?
It depends what you're watching. UEFA took the baffling decision to not film the Euros in 4K, which means the BBC and ITV can't broadcast it in 4K on their streaming services.
Things look more positive for the Olympics, which are being filmed entirely in 4K for the first time. That means you'll likely get 4K streams on iPlayer, but there are still no free 4K channels in the UK, so it will be on catch-up apps only.
Wimbledon has been broadcast in 4K before, but we've yet to see an official announcement from the BBC about its broadcast plans.
What is 4K TV? See all its benefits in our expert guide
Motion control is paramount
There aren't many sports that don't involve something fast; even snooker and curling have their moments.
Whatever sport you like, you need a TV that can handle motion. Otherwise, the crisp outlines of players on the pitch or a ball arcing through the air will have all the precision and solidity of a child's first attempt at colouring in.
It's not always easy to tell what motion-compensation tech a TV has, but it's something that often gets cut to make TVs cheaper. The more high-end the TV, the more likely it is to have tech to prevent footage looking choppy and jerky.
That's not to say cheaper TVs can't handle motion, it's just a corner some manufacturers cut to get a lower price. Motion makes up a large part of our picture-quality assessments, so if a TV scores poorly for picture, odds are it struggles with fast action (and sometimes even slow action).
How important is refresh rate?
Most TVs are 50/60Hz, which means they can refresh the image on screen that many times per second. There are some TVs that manage 100/120Hz or even as much as 144Hz.
A higher rate equals smoother action, but that's not the whole story, particularly as most of the content we watch isn't actually broadcast or streamed above 60Hz.
In fact, UK broadcast TV sits somewhere between 25 and 50 frames per second, depending on what you're watching.
TV brands often advertise their high-refresh-rate TVs with images of tennis balls bouncing or footballs flying through the air to show just how smooth they are, but what's the point of 120Hz if the content you're watching can't take advantage of it?
Well, the TVs are doing something clever. They are essentially duplicating the frames they receive in the broadcast or streamed signal to increase the number you see every second and make the content look smoother.
This artificial smoothness isn't to everyone's taste, particularly cinema purists who prefer some blur and judder for a more dreamlike experience, but it's good for sport or documentaries where you want precision and content that looks closer to reality.
Think about how you'd feel watching something live in the real world. You don't see blur at the zoo watching the animals or at a live sporting event, so you don't want that when watching similar content on your TV either.
Viewing angle
Sport is a communal experience for many and it's nice to celebrate (or commiserate) with friends. More people means some viewers will be sitting on the periphery, and watching some TVs at an angle isn't a pleasant experience.
Sitting centrally is always best. Here you'll see the picture as intended, but start to move off centre and you'll notice the colours start to fade, turning lush green grass grey.
If you're buying your TV in-store, you can easily see this for yourself by standing at different angles and spotting the drop in colour. The ludicrously vibrant picture settings retailers opt for will make the difference all the more stark.
We test this, too. We use special software and cameras to measure the differences in brightness and colour saturation at dozens of angles, horizontally and vertically, to give our viewing-angle rating. So, if you see a TV rated four or five stars in this area, you know it's great for a get-together.
Get the picture settings right
Whether you're buying a new TV or not, setting the right picture settings will help it look its best.
If you know the model number of your TV, then use our best TV picture tool and see the settings our lab experts used.
If you don't find your TV or you don't know what it's called (the model number is usually on a sticker at the back of the TV), then follow these tips to get a great, versatile picture.
- Make your picture black and white – turn off any picture enhancement modes and reduce the Colour setting until you get a black and white picture.
- Adjust the brightness – pause a scene in a movie with a lot of dark scenes, something like 'The Matrix' or 'The Dark Knight'. Toggle the Brightness control until you can only just make out the detail in the darkest areas.
- Adjust the contrast – now find a bright scene and change the Contrast setting until the picture is bright enough to be comfortable to watch, but without looking ‘washed out’.
- Find a compromise – continue to tweak the brightness and contrast while switching between the bright and dark scenes until both feel comfortable to the eye but there’s still detail in the shadows.
- Adjust the backlight – the picture should pop without being lit up like a battlefield (unless you’re watching War Horse, of course).
- Get the skin tones right – pause on a close-up of an actor’s face, ideally during a scene with lots of natural light. Turn the Colour setting back up until the skin tones look lifelike. A good rule of thumb is to keep going until the actor stops appearing sickly, but not permatanned.
- Try your TV's colour presets – some TVs have colour tone options, such as cool, warm or neutral. Find the one that works best for your particular TV; you may find neutral is the best option.
- Switch picture enhancements back on – the picture modes or enhancement features you switched off at the start can now be turned back on. Some will reduce distortion, others will smooth out motion; the key is to try them gradually and don’t be afraid to turn them off if you see odd-looking results on-screen.
Most TVs have a sport mode, too, and this will typically turn on all the motion enhancements to make the image look as smooth as possible. The good thing about this mode is that it won't mess up the standard settings you've painstakingly configured, so try it for the footie or tennis and turn it off when you get back to your standard viewing.
Top TVs for motion
We've picked out a couple of models that all do well for sport, but you can also check our TV reviews to see in-depth assessments of more than 200 models.
LG OLED42C34LA - £765
OLED TVs are often good for motion because of the way they produce pictures. Backlit TVs such as LCD and QLED models have a layer of bulbs which turn on and off as they track across the screen, but OLEDs have millions of tiny pixels that turn on and off for specific control, which can help motion to look better.
It's no guarantee, of course. A TV needs to have a good processor to help keep fast action free from judder and smearing, and the OLED42C34LA does just that. It has a 120Hz screen, too.
Check our LG OLED42C34LA review to see if the sharpness, colours and sound are up scratch, too.
Samsung QE55Q80C - £689
The QE55Q80C has a 100Hz screen, despite costing far less than the fancy OLED and Neo QLED TVs at this size.
Samsung's great at screens and the Q80C is bright and colourful, but still natural. It's a backlit TV, which means it can't match the contrast of an OLED TV, but motion control is great.
Check our Samsung QE55Q80C review for full details.
