There is little question that OLED technology brings some of the best picture quality available on the TV market, offering unmatched contrast performance and excellent viewing angles.

The tech commentary sphere is awash with guides to the best OLED TV’s, but what they don’t tell you is that getting the best picture is never as simple as buying a high-end TV and plugging it in. To get the most from your pricey new OLED panel, you’ll need to manually calibrate your TV to reflect your room setup and personal viewing preferences. The sheer number of settings can prove daunting, but we’re here to walk you through the calibration process with a comprehensive guide.

When you’ve finished physically setting up your TV, navigate to the display settings tab. You’ll see several picture presets, the exact names of which may vary slightly between manufacturers. There is guaranteed to be a Vivid/Dynamic option; don’t choose this, as it’s a showroom setting that sacrifices details and color accuracy for added visibility in extremely bright environments. Movie/Cinema modes are also useless, but for the opposite reason: they’re only effective in a room that’s perfectly dark all of the time. ‘Standard’ or ‘Natural’ are the best starting point, offering the most balanced brightness, contrast, and color saturation template.

Next, you’ll want to dive deeper into the custom settings. ‘Contrast’ should be correct by default, but can be adjusted within the 85-100 range according to personal taste. ‘Brightness’ (also called “OLED Light” on some LG TV’s) should generally be left as it is but can be slightly adjusted if your viewing environment is dark or extremely bright--keep in mind, however, that dialing up the brightness puts your OLED panel at greater risk of image retention and burn-in problems over the long term. Sharpness is likely too high by default and will have to be adjusted downward in small increments until you no longer see jagged lines and other unwanted artifacts like the infamous halo effect. ‘Color,’ as well as ‘Tint/Hue’, should be left on default. ‘Color Tone’ makes the picture warmer or cooler, and should be adjusted according to preference as well as room lighting. If ‘Eco’ mode is enabled by default, turn it off to prevent your TV from automatically adjusting brightness. Noise reduction settings can be safely left on, but won’t make a difference except for older cable TV/VHS/DVD content.

Whichever brand you choose, your OLED TV will come with a number of special modes. ‘Game mode' is essential to enjoying video games on your TV, as it cuts down on input lag to make for a more responsive gaming experience. Note that all motion smoothing settings, like LG’s ‘TruMotion’, are a major source of input lag and should always be turned off when gaming. ‘Sports mode', on the other hand, is calibrated for big gatherings in bar-like settings and should generally be left untouched for home use.

These are all the settings that you should review to get the best picture from your OLED TV. It’s a good idea to do all this tinkering against the backdrop of several high-resolution images chosen by you-- that way, you have a consistent frame of reference to gauge the effects of your changes. Also, consider that there are no ‘wrong’ setups; this is about what looks best to you, in your specific viewing scenario. Calibrating your TV is an ongoing process of trial and error, but the good news is that you only have to do it once.

Mark Episkopos is a frequent contributor to The National Interest and serves as a research assistant at the Center for the National Interest. Mark is also a PhD student in History at American University.