The TCL49S403 Roku TV is a heck of a deal for less than $340: 4K and almost 50″.
But it comes with flaws. First is the limited viewing angle: you need to be sitting nearly directly in front of it to get any pop to the image at all. 30 degrees off center, and the picture quality goes to hell.
There is nothing that can be done about that – it’s in the hardware.
And second, the color is, shall we say, less than spectacular out of the box. And the build-in controls don’t do much to help it.
The color was “adequate” (the most commonly used word in reviews) but that was about it. And my 4K Apple TV was pretty much terrible (a big idappointment because that is why I bought the TV in the first place!)
But I’m not here to bitch – I’m here to serve. I got my Roku TV serving up splendid colors, and I’m a happy camper.
To do that, I had to choose some unusual settings from the TV menu, and then (the real secret) use the advance settings which are only available from your Roku App on your phone!
One of the nice features of the TV is that these setting can apply independently to each of the HDMI ports, so you can have unique settings for each of your devices.
I’m not saying that -my- settings will match -your- hardware, but I’m pretty sure they will set you off in the right direction
HDMI 1 (My Tivo box)
Brightness-brighter
PICT mode – sports
Gamma – 2.2. (2.4 is a bit too dark)
Noise reduction – off
Color temp – cool
Dynamic contrast – off
Backbite – 100
Brightness – 50
Contrast – 95
Sharpness – 60
Color – 65
HDMI-2. Apple TV
Brightness-brighter
PICT mode – bright hdr
Gamma – 2.4*
Noise reduction – off
Color temp – normal*
Dynamic contrast – off
Backbite – 100
Brightness – 50
Contrast – 95
Sharpness – 82*
Color – 69*
NOW… on your iPhone, first select the HDMI input your’re going to adjust, and then try these settings in the 11-point color secction:
20 x 15 x 20. (Normal)
25-25-25. Cmyk
In short, you’re bumping up the color intensity by those percentages.
I bumped up the “Custom” setting in CMYK, and chose that for my Apple TV, and bumped up the “Default” setting by 20-15-20. (It was a little too green for my taste, hence the 15.)
I hope this helps someone else as much as it has helped me.