My question is about film grain and the way it shows up on larger OLEDs, like my brand new 77" Sony A80L. I recently unboxed it and the picture is beautiful in every way, except one: When I watch movies shot on film, particularly those from with a lot of grain, like the 70’s and early 80’s, it can show up as “blurry.” I’ve Googled deep for every thread, every commentary on this issue, and often the answer is, “Older films are grainy. Get over it.”

But the original grain is not the problem. I love that grainy look. That “noise” is part of the texture and charm of that cinematic era. What I don’t want to lose is clarity. What I don’t want is extra noise, added by the TV. After all, I bought a big TV to recreate the theater experience and there was no blurriness when I saw Apocalypse Now in the theater in 1979.

I’ve followed every online recommendation I could find, from leaning into Filmmaker Mode (or Cinema mode) to reducing sharpness to zero within those modes, and many other settings adjustments. I have ultra-high speed HDMI cables. I also realize the source matters: I have less blurriness when watching the latest Godfather 4K UHD re-issue than, say, watching the same film via certain streaming services. But that movie on 4K disc, and others, still has moments of distracting blurriness which takes me out of the movie watching dream state into a state of being annoyed with my new, expensive TV.

Is this just a reality of buying a TV that’s bigger than, say, 55"??