Optimising your Samsung TV for Olympic Games Viewing Experience

Tweak your TV settings to ensure an optimised and immersive sports encounter

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – 28 July, 2016 – With the Rio 2016 Olympic Games due to take place between the 6^th and 21^st of August 2016, even the most passing of sports fans will likely find themselves glued to their TVs at some point, supporting the various South African athletes participating. With SuperSport promising six dedicated HD channels, as well as a 24-hour Olympic news channel, watching the biggest sporting event in the world is certainly going to be an entertaining experience. So why not make sure you watch it in the clearest and most vivid manner possible, by optimising your TV to suit the nature of the programme you are viewing?

This, of course, is sometimes easier said than done, but it is of vital importance, since even the best TV on the market, if incorrectly setup, may well look worse than a mediocre TV that is properly adjusted.

“Since sport broadcasting often happens during the day, watching these in real time means the sun will often be shining through your windows, creating an obscuring reflection. Therefore, to view your chosen event properly, you must compensate for this by adjusting the picture to a brighter setting,” says Matthew Thackrah, Deputy Managing Director at Samsung South Africa.

Thackrah points out that simply turning up the brightness won’t necessarily help. He explains that this setting actually has more to do with the black contrast set-up of the TV. “Thus, setting the brightness too high may result in black colours within the visuals appearing as grey, which could reduce the depth of the picture.”

“To fix this, you will have to increase the contrast – sometimes called ‘picture’ – which controls the white level. However, this too should not simply be increased. Ideally, you want to take your time and find a scene with a bright, white image contained in it and then adjust the contrast to the point where the white object is bright, but still contains detail and crisp edges,” says Thackrah. He adds that to help solve such challenges, Samsung SUHD TVs utilise ‘Ultra Black’ technology, which consists of a panel coated with tiny uniform bumps, designed to absorb or re-direct external light without hindering the light emitted from the panel.

Thackrah indicates that if you own an LCD TV, there is a ‘backlight’ control that changes the picture’s brightness without throwing any other settings out of sync. So if sunlight is making the game hard to see, one simply needs to turn up the backlight.

“Samsung TVs generally come with a ‘Sports Mode’, which enables you to recreate the feeling of being at the stadium, in the comfort of your own living room. Sports mode automatically optimises your picture to suit the nature of what you are showing on screen, which in this case will allow for a totally immersive Olympics viewing,” Thackrah continues.

With Samsung TVs that come equipped with Sports Mode, you can enhance your TV activities with advanced features that let the viewer control the action. In other words, users can zoom in on a particular feature, such as when two sprinters appear to cross the line together, or even go back to watch highlights – whenever they like.

“Samsung’s range of TVs encompasses something for everyone, from the more basic, entry-level models, through to our premium SUHD TVs. All units however, are designed to ensure your enjoyment of this year’s Olympic Games.”

Samsung remains committed to providing the highest quality appliances to customers. This ethos is reinforced through Samsung’s selection of celebrated South African Olympian, Cameron van der Burgh, as brand ambassador for TVs. “Cameron’s ambassadorship is certainly a perfect fit for our TV offerings due to his position as an Olympic gold medallist. Similarly, Samsung’s televisions have been global number one for ten consecutive years. We pride ourselves in sharing the qualities reflected in both our superior products and Cameron’s incredible achievements,” Thackrah concludes.