How to Turn Off HDR on a TCL TV

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is excellent for watching programs with high-quality video. However, some TV sets don’t always maximize HDR’s full potential. For one, the immediate area’s lighting can have a huge effect on picture quality. Maybe your space is too bright during the day or there’s too much glare in your room – both can affect what’s on the screen.

If you’ve been looking for steps on how to do so, you’ve come to the right spot. This article shares actionable tips on doing just that. The good news is that the secret really lies in accessing the secret menu and do a little tweaking.

How to Turn Off HDR on a TCL TV

Owners of a TCL TV can watch content in HDR if their streaming service or the program itself is available on HDR. Devices that play HDR content expand the contrast and color range of the video, creating a more immersive picture. As the name suggests, High Dynamic Range creates a much wider contrast between the bright and dark portions of what’s on the screen.

Take as an example modern LCD screens. They can be as bright as 300 nits when playing regular (SDR) content. On the other hand, HDR content can be as bright as 1,000 nits, depending on TV capabilities.

However, you’ll run into problems with HDR under the TV’s default settings of maximum backlight and contrast. To make things worse, some TVs even darken the image to make up for falling short of the HDR features.

That’s why turning off HDR can actually improve picture quality.

Yes, it’s possible to turn off HDR by tweaking the secret menu options. Just follow the steps below to do so on your TCL TV:

1. Power on your TCL TV.
   
2. Access the secret menu by entering the following sequence: Home (five times), rewind (1x), down (1x), fast forward (1x), down (1x), rewind (1x).
3. Navigate to the “Change HDR Mode” section from the right-hand menu.
   
4. Select “Disable HDR.”
   

If the code from Step 1 didn’t work, try the following: Home (five times), rewind (1x), pause (1x), fast forward (1x), pause (1x), rewind (1x).

Note that TCL TV models may have different codes for entering the secret menu. If the code above doesn’t work, try entering your TV model and the “secret menu” keyword into Google to find the correct one.

After you’ve disabled HDR, you will be streaming content in SDR instead of HDR.

Alternative Solutions

If you can’t access the secret menu for some reason or your TV doesn’t allow you to turn off HDR, you can always tweak your picture settings.

You can start by setting the backlight to the maximum. Backlight will reduce the difference between dark and bright elements without crushing the shadow detail like brightness would.

Also, you can adjust local dimming or tweak the gamma setting to 2.0 to brighten up the picture a bit.

If you’re using the TV in Cinema or Movie mode, switch to Standard mode instead.

How to Turn Off HDR on a TCL Android TV

TCL TVs run on either Roku or Android. The steps to turning off HDR for both versions involve navigating to the secret menu. However, the codes to getting there are different.

You can turn off HDR on your TCL TV Android device by following the steps below:

1. Start your TCL TV.
2. Press the following buttons on your remote: Home (5 times), rewind (1x), play (1x), forward (1x), play (1x), rewind (1x) in sequence.
3. You’ll be welcomed by the secret menu. There will be a side menu on the right. You want to enter the “Change HDR Mode” section by using the right arrow on your remote and pressing “OK.”
   
4. A new window will pop up asking you to select the HDR mode. Select the “Disable HDR” mode.
   

Alternative Solutions

If you’re not satisfied with your image quality and unable to turn off HDR (impossible with some models), you can try tweaking the image settings.

The first thing you can do is turn up the backlight. Just navigate to the Image Settings and turn “Backlight” up. Note that this is separate from “Brightness,” which you will want to keep at the default level. Changing the brightness may affect shadow detail.

Alternatively, you can adjust local dimming. You want to open your Settings and try different Local Dimming settings. Also, you can change the gamma setting to 2.0 (or lower) to brighten up your picture.

Alternatively, you can tweak the picture preset. Movie or Cinema mode on most TV sets is optimized for a dark room and may make the picture too dim during the day. Try using Standard mode instead.

Play with the settings and find what works for your TV in accordance with the lighting conditions.

Turning Off HDR on a TCL TV

HDR video content on any TV, including TCL, can often be too dark, resulting in excessive glare when watched in a brightly lit room. The easiest solution is to just disable HDR. Fortunately, the secret menu allows you to do just that. Just make sure to enter the code accurately, navigate to the HDR settings, and turn it off. If you don’t have access to the secret menu or find that it’s impossible to turn off HDR for your TV set, you can tweak your TV’s settings to compensate for it.

This article has provided you with step-by-step instructions on how to turn off your HDR using the secret menu of your TCL TV. Hopefully, you’ve found what you were looking for.

Why did you want to turn off HDR in the first place? Did the sequence code work on your TV set? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.