This TV test pattern generator shows 13 setup patterns: an original setup chart, 75% color bars with grey steps, brightness and contrast bars, a sharpness chart, an overscan frame, a color text check, grey steps, gradients, circles, a crosshatch and plain white and black. Use it in the TV's own web browser, from a laptop or PC connected by HDMI, or save the patterns as images at 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 and play them from a USB stick. Each pattern is drawn at the screen's real resolution, and each comes with a short line saying what a correctly set TV shows.
How to use the TV test patterns
- Pick the most accurate picture mode first: Filmmaker Mode, Movie, Cinema or Calibrated. Turn off energy saving, ambient light sensors and dynamic contrast while you adjust.
- Choose how to show the patterns:
- In the TV's browser. Open this page on the TV and press Start full screen test. Use the remote's arrow keys or OK button to step.
- From a laptop over HDMI. Set the laptop to the TV's resolution, put the browser on the TV and press Start.
- From USB. Choose a size under Image size, press Save image for each pattern and open the files in the TV's media player.
- Set the room lights the way you usually watch.
- Work in this order: overscan, brightness, contrast, sharpness, then color. Each setting affects the next.
Step 1: overscan and picture size
Show the Overscan pattern. You should see the white line at the very edge on all four sides. If it is cut off, the TV is zooming in a few percent and throwing away the outer pixels, which also softens the whole picture. Fix it in the picture size or aspect ratio settings: Just Scan on LG, Fit to Screen on Samsung, Full Pixel on Sony, and 1:1, Dot by Dot or Overscan off on other brands. The colored frames show how much is cut: 1%, 2.5% or 5% from each edge.
Step 2: brightness and the black level
Show the Brightness pattern. Lower the black level control until the 1% bar disappears into the background, then raise it until the 2% bar is just visible. The background must stay truly black. Brands name the controls differently. The one that sets the black level is called Brightness, Black level or Shadow detail. The one that sets how much light the screen gives out is Backlight, OLED light or, on some brands, Brightness. Set that one for comfort in your room.
If no setting gives a black background with the 2% bar visible, the TV and the computer disagree about the video range. A PC sends full range RGB, where black is level 0. Set the TV's HDMI black level or video range to full, which LG calls High and Samsung calls Normal, or set the computer to limited range instead. Do one, not both.
Step 3: contrast and the white level
Show the Contrast pattern. Raise contrast until the bars start melting into the white, then lower it until the 98% bar is clearly visible again. On most modern TVs the default contrast is already right, so expect a small change at most. Too much contrast clips bright clouds, snow and faces to flat white.
Step 4: sharpness
Show the Sharpness pattern. Lower sharpness until the light and dark outlines around the squares and lines disappear. Sharpness adds edge outlines, it does not add detail. On many TVs the right setting for 4K sources is zero or close to it, with a little more for low resolution channels.
Step 5: color and tint
Show Bars and steps. Judged by eye, color bars only tell you whether something is badly wrong, such as a very vivid mode. For a real adjustment you need the TV's blue only mode, called RGB Only Mode on Samsung, or a blue filter held in front of your eyes. With only blue visible, adjust Color until the grey bar at the left and the blue bar at the right look equally bright, then adjust Tint until the cyan and magenta bars match. Without either, leave Color and Tint at the defaults of a Movie or Filmmaker mode, which most TVs get close to right.
Check the grey steps, gradients and geometry
The Grey steps should all be different and neutral, with no pink or green cast. If they look tinted, choose the Warm or Warm 2 color temperature, which is closest to the 6500 K standard on most TVs. Stripes in the Gradients point to heavy processing: turn off dynamic contrast and noise reduction, or try a gradation smoothing option if the TV has one. Circles must be round. Ovals mean the aspect ratio is set to stretch or zoom.
Text from a computer looks fuzzy or fringed
Show Color text. If the colored letters smear while white text elsewhere is sharp, the TV is getting or processing color at reduced resolution. Set the computer's output to RGB, and put the TV's HDMI input in PC mode: on LG and Samsung TVs you do that by setting the input's icon or name to PC. Game mode also skips most of the processing.
The picture looks too smooth or too harsh
Motion smoothing makes films look like home video. Brands call it TruMotion, Auto Motion Plus, Picture Clarity or Motionflow. Turn it off, or use the lowest film setting, for films. Vivid and Dynamic modes push color and sharpness up, which looks bright in a shop and tiring at home. If game controls feel slow, switch to Game mode and check the delay with the input lag test. If the TV shows nothing at all from the laptop, the guide to hdmi no signal covers cables, inputs and resolution.
TV test patterns, then and now
Broadcasters once transmitted test cards when stations were off air, so engineers and viewers could adjust their sets. The best known American one, the Indian-head pattern, was made by RCA in 1939 and used for decades, until color bars took over in the color era. Those cards were designed for round cornered tubes and analog signals. The patterns here are original designs for flat panels, drawn at every pixel of a modern TV. Streaming apps carry patterns too: search for Test Patterns in the Netflix app to play a set of setup screens through the same path as your films. For the panel itself, run the dead pixel test on the TV as well.
What these patterns cannot do
A web page cannot measure the light from your TV, so the patterns get brightness, contrast, sharpness and overscan right by eye, and color only roughly. Accurate color needs a meter and calibration software. Many TV web browsers draw at 1920 × 1080 even on a 4K TV, so for pixel level checks use a laptop or USB images and the 4k test pattern. HDR has its own scale, covered by the hdr test online. To set up a projector instead, use the projector test pattern set, which adds focus, keystone and convergence patterns.
TV test pattern questions
How do I put a test pattern on my TV?
Three ways: open this page in the TV's own web browser and press Start; connect a laptop by HDMI and run the patterns full screen on the TV; or press Save image for each pattern, copy the images to a USB stick and open them in the TV's photo viewer.
Which TV test pattern should I use first?
Overscan first, so you know the TV shows the whole picture. Then Brightness, Contrast and Sharpness. Color bars come last, and they are only useful with a blue filter or a blue only mode.
Can I download these TV test patterns?
Yes. Pick 1920 × 1080 for HD TVs or 3840 × 2160 for 4K TVs under Image size, then press Save image on each pattern. They save as lossless PNG files, which most TV media players open from USB.
Why does my TV cut off the edges of the picture?
The TV is overscanning, which means zooming in a few percent, a habit left over from old broadcast TV. Turn on Just Scan on LG, Fit to Screen on Samsung or Full Pixel on Sony, or look for 1:1 or Dot by Dot in the picture size settings.
Do these patterns work for HDR?
They are standard range patterns, which is what TVs are set up with first. HDR has its own brightness scale, so use the HDR test for HDR highlights and check the TV's HDR picture mode separately.