TCL QM8/QM851G QLED Calibration Settings

We used the following calibration settings to review the 65-inch TCL QM8/QM851G QLED (65QM851G), but they're also valid for the 75-inch (75QM851G), 85-inch (85QM851G), and 98-inch (98QM851G) 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 in a moderately-lit room, 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 '4'. 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. The Local Contrast setting controls the full array local dimming feature. For our testing, we set this to 'High'.

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. Finally, we set Sharpness to '0' under the Clarity menu for most content. For 480p content, we set Sharpness to '20'

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. 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 2.1'. 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 QM8/QM851G 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; do not copy our SDR settings over.

The following are the old results of calibrating the white balance of our unit to 6500K in HDR using the 2 point method. We don't publish the values we used for our new 20 point calibration.

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 at the same time. If you end up with 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 Clear LED Motion setting controls the TV's backlight strobing, or black frame insertion, feature. Enabling this feature reduces the appearance of persistence blur but significantly decreases the peak brightness of the TV.

The TCL QM8/QM851G QLED automatically removes 24p judder from any source; no additional settings are required.

Game Master is TCL's gaming overlay, which comes with its own gaming-oriented picture modes and enhancements. When enabled, it also automatically turns on the TV's Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), i.e., Game Mode and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) features. When Game Master is set to 'Auto', it will automatically be enabled upon detection of a recent video game console. For signals requiring full bandwidth, you must set the HDMI Mode to 'HDMI 2.1'.

If you want the TCL QM8/QM851G to display chroma 4:4:4 when using it as a PC monitor, set the Picture Mode to 'PC' and set the HDMI Mode to '2.1'. However, you cannot have Game Mode enabled on this TV when in the 'PC' Picture Mode, so this means that on a PC, you have to choose between either getting chroma 4:4:4 support in 'PC', or the lowest input lag possible in Game Mode. The input lag is still quite good in the 'PC' Picture Mode without Game Mode, so it's what we recommend for most users, but if you primarily use your PC for gaming, you might prefer to sacrifice text clarity for the lower possible input lag.

The TCL QM8/QM851G can pass uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver through a single HDMI connection. For eARC to work with Dolby Atmos formats, set Digital Audio Out to 'Auto' and set it to 'Pass Through' for DTS:X formats.

One of the first things we did was disable all of the extra image processing features, as we don't want the TV to adjust the image during testing. We disabled the Energy Saver setting in the Power & Energy menu and disabled the Intelligent Picture settings.

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.