Sony A75L OLED Calibration Settings

We used the following calibration settings to review the 65-inch Sony A75L OLED (XR-65A75L), but they're also valid for the 55-inch (XR-55A75L) model. These settings apply to most types of content, except for gaming or use as a PC monitor, which requires a few additional changes, listed below.

These settings are meant to provide a starting point; they're not meant to be copied 1:1. They provide the most accurate image, but you should adjust them to match your preferences and viewing conditions.

For SDR content, you can choose a few different preset picture modes. We used the 'Custom' Picture Mode because it's the most accurate out of the box and allows for the most customization.

You should adjust the Brightness to your specific viewing conditions; changing this doesn't impact the overall picture quality. Note that the Brightness setting adjusts the backlight, while Black Level adjusts blacks, and the Peak Luminance setting allows the TV to get brighter.

There are a few settings you can adjust on the Picture settings page to optimize the image to your preference. We set the Contrast to '90', Gamma to '0', and Black Level to '50'. For our calibration, Black Adjust and Advanced Contrast Enhancer were disabled, but you should adjust these to your liking. We also used the 'Expert 2' Color Temperature because it's closest to the target color temperature.

In the Clarity tab, we set Sharpness to '55'. We also set Reality Creation to 'manual', and its resolution to '20', as it can help to improve the image quality of lower resolution content. Random Noise Reduction, Digital Noise Reduction, and Smooth Gradation were also left disabled as they can cause a loss of fine details in higher quality content.

To set HDR so it's automatically enabled, set HDR Mode to 'Auto' in the Video Signal tab. When you start playing HDR content, a small HDR icon appears in the picture settings menu. When HDR is enabled, some settings change automatically, including the Brightness, which increases to 'Max.' We used the 'Custom' Picture Mode for HDR, the 'Expert 2' Color Temperature, and left the other settings as-is. Adjust the settings to find the image you find is best. We set the HDR Tone Mapping setting to 'Gradation Preferred' but set it to 'Brightness Preferred' if you want a brighter image. There are also 'IMAX Enhanced' and 'Cinema' Picture Modes, but they're less accurate than 'Custom'.

When watching Dolby Vision content, you choose between 'Dolby Vision Bright', 'Dolby Vision Dark', and 'Vivid'. 'Dolby Vision Bright' is the most accurate, but choose whichever you prefer.

For HDR to work from external devices, you need to adjust the HDMI Signal Format accordingly. HDMI ports 1 and 2 support HDMI 2.0, so they're limited in the bandwidth they support. However, HDMI ports 3 & 4 have four different HDMI Signal Format options you can choose from:

• Standard Format: Limits the bandwidth to HDMI 1.4. Use this for older devices that don't need the extra bandwidth, like DVD players, cable boxes, or the PS3 and Xbox 360, as using a higher setting may result in compatibility issues.
• Enhanced Format: Uses the full bandwidth of the selected port. HDMI 1 and 2 have HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, which is good for older gaming consoles like the PS4 or Xbox One, or Blu-rays. HDMI 3 and 4 have HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, which is ideal for current-gen gaming consoles, PCs, and other HDMI 2.1 devices.
• Enhanced Format (Dolby Vision): Meant for Dolby Vision content, like from streaming devices like a Roku stick or Apple TV, or Blu-ray players. It limits the refresh rate with 4k signals to 60Hz, so if you want to use the TV for high-frame-rate gaming and the game doesn't support Dolby Vision, make sure you don't have this setting selected.
• Enhanced Format (VRR): Enable this when gaming and you want the VRR support.

The following are the results of calibrating the white balance of our unit to 6500K in HDR. They are provided for reference and shouldn't be copied as the calibration values vary per individual unit, even for the same model and same size as the TV we reviewed, due to manufacturing tolerances. If you want to try them, you'll need to enter all values shown, as all of them are active simultaneously. If you have worse picture quality, simply reset them to the default values.

Sony TVs usually feature great, highly customizable motion features. Although we disable most motion settings for most of our tests, you should adjust these to whatever looks best for you. Some settings, like motion interpolation, may need to be adjusted depending on the specific content you're watching.

If you want to enable motion interpolation, set CineMotion to 'High', Motionflow to 'Custom,' adjust the Smoothness slider to its max, and keep the Clearness to its minimum. Most of these settings will need to be adjusted depending on the specific content you're watching. The Clearness adjusts the Sony A75L OLED's black frame insertion feature, which only flickers at 60Hz. However, you can't enable the BFI feature at the same time as VRR.

The Sony A75L OLED can remove judder from 24p sources. It automatically removes it from native 24p signals, like Blu-rays. For 60p/i signals, like a cable box or from streaming apps, set Smoothness and Clearness to their minimum with Motionflow set to 'Custom' and enable CineMotion.

From the base SDR and HDR settings, very few changes are required for a great gaming experience. When you start gaming, it's best to switch to the 'Game' Picture Mode to get the lowest input lag and use the same settings for SDR or HDR. Enable Auto Picture Mode so that the TV automatically switches into Game Mode when you start playing a game. From the game dashboard, you can quickly adjust a few gaming-related settings, including VRR, Motion blur reduction, and Black equalizer. There's even an option to add a virtual crosshair.

Unlike TVs from most other brands, no special settings are required for PC use on the Sony A75L OLED. Just make sure you're using either the 'Game' or 'Graphics' Picture Mode and that you set HDMI Enhanced Format to 'Enhanced Format' for the input you're using. Both of these modes offer low input lag and display chroma 4:4:4 properly, which is important for text clarity.

The Sony A75L OLED supports eARC passthrough on HDMI 3, so you can pass high-quality audio to a compatible receiver. It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio formats. To enable either, enable eARC Mode, set Digital Audio Out to 'Auto 1', and enable Pass through mode from the Audio Output settings.

One of the first things we did was disable Power Saving, as we didn't want the TV to adjust the image during testing. From the Picture menu, we disabled Auto Picture Mode and Light Sensor as we don't want the picture settings changing during calibration. From the Eco Dashboard, we made sure that Power saving and the Light sensor were fully disabled.

Although we don't expect this to be an issue for most people, burn-in is a possibility on the Sony A75L OLED. You should be aware of a couple of settings to ensure you get the most out of your new TV. These can be found in the Expert Panel Settings menu.

Pixel Shift, as the name describes, shifts the entire image a few pixels to one side and gradually shifts it in a different direction over time. This helps reduce burn-in effects from very small elements, like fine lines in a game HUD. We recommend leaving this enabled. The screen shift isn't very noticeable unless you're using the TV as a PC monitor.

The Panel Refresh feature lets you run a complete pixel refresh cycle to reduce the possibility of burn-in. However, Sony recommends only using this option a maximum of once yearly.

The Sony A75L OLED has a few accessibility features, and the settings are available in the Accessibility section. You can enable Captions, Audio Description, High Contrast Text, and Text to Speech, to name a few.