In an HGTV world, ‘natural light’ is the hottest accessory for any room — but can be a home theater setup’s arch nemesis. Today’s television sets have amazing picture quality, but the darkest blacks and brightest colors won’t have the same impact when viewed in a brightly-lit room. Bright lights and sunlight can wash out the picture, create distracting reflections, and make viewing practically impossible.

Luckily, there are hacks to optimize viewing in a room filled with light, without buying blackout curtains! Here are three of our best strategies for improving your television viewing.

3 Home Theater System Hacks for Bright Rooms

Switch your Home Theater Setup

In some cases, fixing this kind of issue may be as easy as moving your television to a new spot in the room. For best results, your television set shouldn’t be in direct sunlight. Placing the set perpendicular to a large window can help, as well as using shelving or an entertainment center to block direct sunlight from hitting the screen.

Turn Up the Settings

Sets typically arrive in your home theater system ready-to-watch, but you can customize brightness, contrast, and colors, which can help improve viewing in a bright room. Look for a “light output” setting on plasma sets and “backlight control” on LCDs. This simple fix can make a big difference, especially during the day when the light is brightest.

Buy a New TV Set

If all else fails, and it’s in the budget, look into a new device created specifically for bright rooms. Samsung’s PNF8500 series, one of the best-performing plasma televisions on the market, provides outstanding bright-room images and lots of smart TV perks. Sony’s R520 has outstanding bright room performance and a matte screen, which further improves picture quality. The Vizio E01 series has a great bright-room performance with a variety of Smart TV content and a small price tag.

These sets can bring a new viewing experience to your bright room, giving you the best of both worlds.

Ready to invest in a new bright room TV? Contact us today for recommendations on your new television set and room setup.