TCL Q5/Q550G QLED Calibration Settings

We used the following calibration settings to review the 65-inch TCL Q5/Q550G QLED (65Q550G), but they're also valid for the 43-inch (43Q550G), 50-inch (50Q550G), and 55-inch (55Q550G) models. 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 overall, but you should adjust them to match your preferences and viewing conditions.

For SDR content, a few different preset picture modes are available. The 'Movie' picture mode delivers the most accurate image out of the box and allows for the most customization, so that's what we used for our calibration and all SDR content. If you prefer a brighter image, the 'Vivid' preset is brighter overall but less accurate.

For our calibration, from the Brightness Settings menu in the Advanced Settings page, we set Brightness to '41'. Note that the Brightness setting controls the intensity of the backlight, so you should adjust this to your viewing conditions and personal preferences. If you have the Adaptive Brightness setting enabled from the Intelligent Settings menu, it will automatically adjust the TV's Brightness setting depending on the ambient light level in your room.

We also set Contrast to '100', Black Level to '50', and Gamma to '2.2' as it's the closest to our calibration target for a moderately lit room, but you should adjust that setting to your viewing conditions.

Under the Color menu, we also set Color Saturation to '50', Tint to '50', and we chose the 'Warm' Color Temperature as it's also the closest to our calibration target of 6500K. If you're not satisfied with the picture quality of your set, adjusting the Color Temperature is a good place to start. We also left the Sharpness setting to its default value during calibration, which is different than our recommended setting of '15' for upscaling.

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, Black Stretch, Dynamic Brightness, and Micro Contrast. We also disable all noise reduction settings under the Clarity menu. You should adjust these to your personal preference, though.

HDR is automatically enabled for native apps. When you start playing HDR content, a small HDR icon appears on the quick settings menu next to the picture mode. Once you start playing HDR content, some settings change automatically, including Brightness, which increases to '100'. We left all the picture settings at their defaults in HDR, but you should adjust them to whatever looks best.

It's usually best to leave Color Space set to 'Auto', as the TV automatically chooses the color gamut to match the content.

For HDR to work from external devices, you must set the HDMI Mode setting to 'Auto' or 'HDMI 2.0'. The automatic setting usually works well, so you shouldn't have to adjust this setting, but if you have any issues with older devices, try changing this to 'HDMI 1.4' instead.

The TCL Q5/Q550G QLED supports Dolby Vision from native apps and most external devices. As with normal HDR content, some settings change automatically when you start playing Dolby Vision content. We recommend leaving these settings as-is; don't copy our SDR settings over.

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 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.

Although we usually leave these settings disabled during most of our testing, you should adjust the settings in the Motion menu under Advanced Settings to your liking, as different people prefer different levels of motion interpolation. If you want to enable motion interpolation, turn on the Motion Clarity setting and adjust the Blur Reduction and/or the Judder Reduction sliders until you find the level of soap opera effect you like.

The TCL Q5/Q550G QLED removes 24p judder from 24p content when then Natural Cinema setting is set to 'On'.

This TV can enter Game Mode from any picture mode. When you start gaming, set the Picture Mode to 'Game' 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, the TV automatically enters Game Mode when it detects a game is running and leaves it when the game stops. The Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) feature can be enabled from the Inputs settings page.

If you want the TCL Q5/Q550G QLED to display chroma 4:4:4 when using it as a PC monitor, set the Picture Mode to 'PC'.

The TCL Q5/Q550G QLED can pass uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver through a single HDMI connection. For eARC to work with Dolby formats, set Digital Audio Out to 'Pass Through'.

One of the first things we did was disable all of the extra image processing features, as we didn't want the TV to adjust the image during testing. We disabled the Energy Saver setting in the Power & Energy menu and ensured the Sleep Timer feature was set to 'Off'.

This TV has a good selection of accessibility features. It supports automatic closed captioning, text-to-speech, and an experimental high-contrast text mode, just to name a few. There's also an option to disable the picture entirely, leaving the audio, which is great if you want to listen to music and don't need the screen on.