Let’s tell you how to configure your Smart TV to better see the 2026 World Cup. The championship starts on June 11, it is almost here, and this edition will differ from the previous ones because, for the first time in SpainRTVE will broadcast all its matches in 4K and HDR for free on DTT.
Therefore, we are going to tell you what you need to be able to watch the World Cup at the highest quality, and how to configure your television to be able to do so. This ranges from how to enjoy 4K broadcasts to how to calibrate image quality.
What you need to watch the World Cup in 4K
Before you start touching any settings, it is a good idea to know if your TV meets the requirements to be able to watch football in 4K. Come on, if you can see the La1 UHD channel. For that, you will need its resolution to be UHD or 4K, the two terms used for it. You will also need the TV to have a tuner DVB-T2which is the standard that TDT uses to broadcast in these resolutions.
If your TV meets both requirementsthen you will be able to watch the matches in maximum resolution using the La 1 UHD channel. Of course, now you will have to search for this channel on your TV, and if you do not have it tuned, you will also have to retune your DTT. The channel was launched in 2024, so if you have retuned your DTT at any point since then you should have it.
If your TV is 4K but does not have the DVB-T2 tuner inside, you can also opt for the DVB-I standard, a hybrid TDT-IPTV model. Additionally, you could also buy a DVB-T2 tuner for the television.
If your TV is not 4K it does not have that tuner you can also watch the World Cupalthough not in this highest quality. You will simply have to watch the conventional La1 channel where they will also broadcast football, although with a less spectacular resolution.
Calibrate your TV to watch football
Regardless of whether you are going to watch the World Cup in 4K or FullHD on La1 or other platforms, there are other things beyond the resolution that you should take into account. Therefore, now we are going to tell you how to calibrate your television to make football look its best.
First, look at your TV’s preset modes
Before starting the calibration, it is first important that you know that Your TV may have some predefined picture modes with which to adapt the image to different scenarios. If there is one for football or sports, it could save you time, although they are not always well tuned.
High-end TVs will have more and better modes, which can serve as a starting point or to not waste too much time. In these cases, it will always depend on each television, but you can start checking if there is any sports mode as a predefined calibration, and check how it works with it.
Here, depending on the manufacturer, you may find that some brands even ask you to indicate the type of content to watch when activating sports mode. In this case everything will be even better, since you can select what you want to watch football so that the television modifies the parameters taking into account the predominant colors during a match.
This would be the easiest setup for most people.. Your TV will generally adapt to watching sports or football, and you will have a good experience. But if it is not enough and you want to get the most out of it, you can calibrate the TV manually.
Before calibrating in manual mode
Assuming that most modern televisions tend to come very well calibrated, and that if your TV has a sports mode you may not notice much difference compared to doing manual calibration, it is also possible that you want to try it or just mess around.
So, if you are going to start calibrating the TV, the first thing is to know that There are several ways to calibrate your TV.. The most complicated is using professional hardware or software, although this will require you to make an extra investment and have advanced knowledge in the field to be able to do it correctly.
Then there is using commercial calibration software, which is somewhat more accessible. However, It can also be a little too complicated. for conventional users, especially if we only want to improve the image a little to see the football game better and not solve serious problems on the television.
Therefore, we are going to focus on a third method, that of using free tools that you can find on the Internet. These tools allow you to have a starting point so as not to calibrate the television “by eye.” This is something that no longer requires an investment, and the tools usually have some indications to help you.
We are going to use EIZO monitor testan online tool, but on YouTube and searching a little on the Internet, you can find others. You will have to have these tools open on TVeither by connecting your laptop via HDMI or opening them in the TV browser. So, with them in the background, you will be able to see the differences when making changes.
To calibrate your television we are going to change 5 parameters of the TV settings:
- Glow: The amount of light our television emits.
- Contrast: The white level of the image and the overall luminosity.
- color temperature: The tone of the colors.
- color saturation: The intensity with which the television reproduces colors.
- Sharpness: the level of detail that the images have. If it is low, the image may be blurry, and if it is high, noise may appear.
Therefore, if you are going to want to start calibrating your TV manually, the first step is look in the menu of your TV how to change these parametersand then use the free program and open it on your TV to use as a basis for calibrating the screen.
Calibrate your TV to watch football
If we start by calibrating the television apart from a predefined mode, what you should know is that sports modes usually give a color temperature that is too cold, so you should give it a little heat to have a more level color temperature. If you start from scratch and the temperature is not touched, you can leave it halfway.
Another tip is to slightly reduce color saturation. Some people may like a high saturation that gives a rich hue to some people, but it doesn’t accurately reflect the real world, so lowering it can help make the image more true to color.
It is also advisable to increase the smoothing of movementsan algorithm called MotionFlow on Sony TVs, Motion Plus on Samsung TVs, AquoMotion on Sharp TVs, and TruMotion on LG TVs. By raising this parameter you will get see fast-moving objects more clearlya ball in case you are watching a soccer game.
In the same way, it is advisable set the gamma correction to a relatively high levelwhich conditions the television’s ability to recover information from dark and light areas. And if you have a TV with an LCD panel, you can adjust the backlight dimming or “LED Local Dimming” to choose the lowest option so that we have a more uniform brightness level.
And finally we have the sharpness or definition, which the sports modes of the television increase too much, which makes the image sharper on its edges but noise appears and details are lost. Therefore, in a soccer match it is advisable to reduce its value as much as possible until the noise level seems imperceptible.
In Xataka Basics | How to add all the World Cup matches directly to your calendar
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings