TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED Calibration Settings

We used the following calibration settings to review the 65-inch TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED (65S55​), but they're also valid for the 50-inch, 55-inch, and 75-inch models. These settings apply to most types of content, except for gaming or use as a PC monitor, which require a few additional changes, listed below.

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

For SDR content, there are five preset picture modes. The 'Movie' picture mode is the most accurate one out of the box and allows for the most customization. For our calibration, from the Fine Tune Picture menu in the Advanced Picture Settings page, we set Contrast to '100', Brightness to '50', and Sharpness to '0'. We also set Color to '45' and Tint to '0'. Finally, we chose the 'Warm' Color Temperature.

To make the image brighter in SDR, you should first select the TV Brightness range in the Options menu to one of the five preset options and then adjust the Backlight on the Picture Settings depending on your specific viewing conditions. Changing this setting does not have any impact on the overall picture quality. The Brightness setting is a picture adjustment setting. The Local Contrast setting controls the full array local dimming feature. For our testing, we set this to 'High'.

As we aim for an image that's as close as possible to the content creator's intent, we disable most image processing options, including Dynamic Contrast. You should adjust these to your personal preference, though.

HDR is automatically enabled for the native apps. When you start playing HDR content, a small HDR icon appears next to the picture mode on the quick settings menu. Once you start playing HDR content, some settings change automatically, including the Backlight.

For HDR to work from external devices, you have to set the HDMI Mode setting to 'Standard'. This setting works well with most recent devices, but if you have any issues with older devices, try changing this to 'Compatibility' instead.

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 at the same time. If you end up with worse picture quality, simply reset them to the default values.

Although we disable most motion-enhancing functions for most of our tests, you should adjust these to whatever looks best for you. Some settings may need to be adjusted depending on the specific content you are watching or because of your personal preferences.

Although we usually leave these settings disabled during most of our testing, you should adjust the settings in the Advanced Settings menu to your liking, as different people prefer different levels of motion interpolation. If you want to enable motion interpolation, adjust the Action Smoothing slider until you find the level of soap opera effect you like. The LED Motion Clarity setting controls the TV's black frame insertion feature. Enabling this feature reduces the appearance of persistence blur but significantly decreases the peak brightness of the TV.

The TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED can only remove judder from 24p sources, like a Blu-ray player or a streaming stick with a Match Frame Rate feature.

This TV can enter 'Game' mode from any picture mode. When you start gaming, set Game Mode to 'On' to get the lowest possible input lag. Continue using the same settings for SDR or HDR. This TV also supports auto low latency mode (ALLM) as long as the Auto low latency mode setting is enabled. When connected to supported gaming devices, including the Xbox One S|X, the TV will automatically enter game mode when it detects a game is running and leaves game mode when the game stops. You can enable the variable refresh rate feature from the HDMI settings page.

The TV automatically detects when it's connected to a PC and will automatically enter PC Mode.

The TCL 5 Series/S555 2022 QLED supports both ARC and eARC, allowing it to pass high-quality audio from a connected source through to a connected soundbar or home theater receiver. To use it, you must set Audio output to 'eARC (HDMI 4) and Digital output format to 'Passthrough'.

From the Power settings menu, we disabled all power savings options, as we don't want the TV to turn off or adjust the settings during our testing. We left these disabled, but if you want to limit the power consumption of the TV, these settings help. We also disabled the Picture Optimization, as we don't want the picture settings to change during our testing.

This TV has very few accessibility options, unfortunately. You can customize captions to your liking, including changing the font, color, size, and location, as well as adding a background or window around them.