Samsung Smart TVs have long been among the market’s most popular and best-selling TVs. This is mainly because Samsung produces some of the highest-quality devices with suitable software and quality screens. Also, a big plus is that many of its TVs, Samsung produces its screens. This means that the company can make the most of its potential as they develop itself and understand better how to work with them. However, some users still encounter problems such as global Dimming.
If you encounter global Dimming, you shouldn’t rush out and take your Samsung TV back to the store. More often than not, this problem is either due to the game mode enabled or to auto-dimming. I will list below you can quickly fix this problem with simple steps. However, you should be careful because some require you to enter the Service Menu. This is a manufacturer’s menu where you can configure every aspect of your TV. If you click on everything in it, you risk substantially breaking your Samsung TV or damaging it. Let’s take a closer look at how it works and what you need to do.
What is global Dimming, and why may it be enabled?
Let’s start by understanding what global Dimming is and why you might have a problem with it. If you’re not interested in learning more about how it works and what to do to avoid it in the future, you can skip to the next section of this article, where you’ll find step-by-step instructions for how to fix the problem.
Global Dimming is a dimming technology based on the fact that several LEDs along one edge of the LCD panel are treated as a single “zone” and dimmed for dark scenes and boosted for bright scenes. Its advantages are that it is very energy efficient and well suited for scenes with a limited dynamic range. It is most often seen in laptops.
The disadvantage of this design is that the simultaneous contrast ratio never exceeds that of the LCD panel, usually around 1000:1. You may have problems with color reproduction. For example, the picture may change colors abruptly or be too dark. This is usually due to auto-dimming issues where the light sensors in your Samsung TV are not working correctly. Also, some users have noted that these problems appear when you turn on the game mode. Most likely, this is because the scene on the screen changes very quickly, and your Samsung TV does not have time to adjust color rendering quickly for them. However, you can fix these problems quite quickly.
How to turn off global Dimming on different Samsung TVs
Depending on your Samsung TV, there are two main ways to disable global dimming. The thing is that in Samsung TVs released before 2017, the way to disable auto-dimming is different. To check the year of manufacture of your Samsung TV, you can refer to the user manual. You can also try both methods and see which will work for your Samsung TV. To do this, you need to:
If you have a Samsung TV before 2017
- Turn on your Samsung TV and press the Menu button on the remote.
- Go to System Options.
- Scroll down and select Echo
- Hover your cursor over the Echo solution and press OK.
- Here, select the Echo sensor feature.
- A slider will appear in front of you. You need to toggle it. If it is green, you need to switch it to gray, and if it is gray, switch it to green.
You should understand that this will only work for Samsung TVs released before 2017. If your Samsung TV was released in 2017, the guide will also not work.
If you have a Samsung TV after 2017
- Turn on your Samsung TV and press the Menu button on the remote.
- Go to Settings.
- Next, you need to go to the General tab.
- Scroll down and select Ambient Light Detection.
- Select Ambient light detection settings.
- Turn this feature on or off.
This way, you can turn off the auto-dimming feature, which can help you with colors and pictures that are too dark. As I mentioned above, you can also try to turn off the game mode. You can do this in the settings under the General tab. For some users, this also helps to cope with problems.
