It is officially football season, and whether you host regular game parties or just want to relax and enjoy your favorite team getting absolutely trounced yet again, it’s best to make sure your TV and the rest of your system are at their best. Consider this a fall tune-up for your A/V system.
It’s also a good time to consider upgrading. Some of our best TV picks are bigger, brighter and often have better image quality than TVs from just a few years ago. They’re often cheaper, too. Just as important is the sound. Either a simple soundbar or a receiver and speakers can elevate any game. However, if an upgrade isn’t in the budget, here’s how to make your current system look and sound its best.
Go big(ger?)
A bigger screen can be a more engaging experience. The biggest TVs are cheaper than ever. Or, if you’re able to control the light in your room (curtains, for instance), and don’t mind turning down the lights a little to watch the game, you can get a cheap projector for life-size football players on any wall for just a few hundred dollars.
If your TV is smaller, you can get a similar effect by sitting closer. Rearranging your furniture for several months might not pass the spouse test, but for the important games, it might be worth the temporary inconvenience for a “bigger” screen.
Check the setup: HDMI, high-def and Wi-Fi
The first thing you want to do is make sure the TV is set up correctly. If you have a high-definition cable or satellite box, make sure it’s connected via HDMI for the best fidelity. Double-check that it’s outputting at least HD resolution as well. Does your cable or satellite provider have separate channels for HD? It’s worth checking that, too.
If you’re streaming the games, and don’t want to miss a moment, make sure your internet and Wi-Fi are up to the task.
If you’re streaming the games, you’ll want to have plenty of bandwidth. Make sure other devices in your house beyond your TV — like the kids streaming 4K Netflix upstairs — aren’t using the Wi-Fi at the same time. You can also try moving stuff around, going with a wired Ethernet connection or, if all else fails, upgrading your internet speed. We have a full guide to avoiding buffering with all the details.
Another option is hooking up an antenna to watch the over-the-air broadcast. Granted, this only lets you watch local games on the major networks, but they might be in higher quality than what you’ll find on cable or satellite. They’re also free. Well, free, other than the antenna, and depending on your TV, an inexpensive tuner.
Read more: Watch TV for Free: How to Install an Over-the-Air Indoor Antenna
A soundbar is a smart move to improve the game’s audio over and above your TV’s crappy speakers.
Sound matters
You should definitely get your audio set up correctly, too. Hopefully, you’re using an external audio system or soundbar, which can not only deliver real or simulated surround sound but also much better dialogue. If you’re stuck with the TV speakers for audio, set your box or device to output stereo (2.0) as opposed to 5.1 surround sound (Dolby).
Read more: Best Soundbars and Audio for Football in 2025
Maybe you’re the kind of person who prefers to listen to the crowd and turn down the announcers. If that’s the case, try playing around with the sound controls. Many TVs and external sound systems have a multiband equalizer that lets you decrease certain frequencies independently of others, quieting those sounds you don’t want to hear. If your equipment doesn’t have an equalizer, try experimenting with a sound mode or even the basic bass and treble controls.
And if you happen to be listening to the surround-sound broadcast on a surround system, you can turn down the center channel to minimize the dialogue from the announcers. Conversely, if you’d rather hear them over the crowd, turn down the other speakers (left, right and surround) and turn up the center.
Read more: Can’t Hear That Play-by-Play? Check These TV Sound Settings
If the most accurate picture mode isn’t bright enough, try a couple of user adjustments.
Picture settings: Bright ideas
No matter where in the US you live, a lot of games are on during the day. If you have sunlight streaming in and no curtains to pull, you might be able to adjust your TV some to help. If the picture seems too dark, try increasing the backlight control, which boosts the power of the illumination (typically LEDs) behind the LCD screen. If you have an OLED TV, try increasing the OLED Light setting instead. Also, be sure to disable any room lighting sensors, automatic brightness controls or energy saver controls. We also have some tips to minimize reflections.
Depending on your TV, you might also have a picture mode designed for a bright room. Look for something like “Brighter” or “Calibrated bright” to get a brightness boost without the terrible color of a Vivid or Dynamic mode. If your TV doesn’t have a mode like that, you should choose the Movie or Cinema mode. Again, if it seems too dark, bump up the brightness as described above (though not the “brightness” control; that’s different).
Accurate color is worth celebrating.
Not easy being green
During our calibrations, we attempt to get the most accurate color possible. For football, the most common color you’ll see is the green of the field, and if it’s not accurate, it’s pretty easy to notice. The human eye is sensitive to green, and you can usually tell if it looks too brownish or dull, or too yellowish or vibrant.
If you don’t have access to our picture settings, one of the best ways to ensure accurate colors, including green, is to engage the Movie or Cinema preset. Yes, it sounds counterintuitive, but Movie usually provides a more accurate green than Sports or other picture modes. Those are often punched-up and oversaturated-looking, with greens that are much more intense than in real life. If you like the punchy look, on the other hand, maybe you’ll prefer one of those modes to a more accurate one.
On some TVs, Movie settings will look too dark, even if you turn up the backlight all the way. If that’s the case, choose a different picture mode and look for a control called “color space” or something similar. There, you’ll want to choose the HD or Auto or Rec 709 setting rather than the Native setting. You may also be able to make the grass look more natural by decreasing the color control.
Our advice with the soap opera effect and football: It pays to experiment beforehand.
If you have a TV equipped with smoothing or dejudder (aka the soap opera effect), do some experimenting with those settings as well. Look for a setting called Auto Motion Plus or Picture Clarity on Samsung models, TruMotion on LG sets, Action Smoothing on TCL panels, Smooth Motion Effect on Vizio or MotionFlow on Sony TVs. Football can sometimes benefit from the blur-reduction effects of those settings, but on the other hand, you may notice artifacts, for example trails behind fast-moving objects like a ball during a quick pass or kick. If you notice these effects, try turning the setting off completely.
Also, and this is very important, remember to turn those settings off when you’re done with football. Movies and most TV shows will look very odd with those settings enabled.
Final step: Kick back for kick off
“Kick back” being metaphorical in this case.
There’s some kind of drama every football season. Will this year be filled with records getting broken, legends forged and unforgettable moments securing their place on highlight reels for the rest of time? Maybe. There’s only one way to find out. So stock up on snacks, sit back and enjoy … or scream at the screen. That works too.
Note: This story was first published in 2019 but has been updated with new info and links.
