Are you struggling with the auto-dimming on your TCL TV, it automatically goes darker in dark scenes which makes it difficult to watch.
You don’t have to worry whether it is the TCL Roku TV or the TCL Android TV, the screen going dark automatically is a common issue among both of them. I have even experienced it myself with a friend’s TCL Android TV.
To put it simply, TCL TVs dim the display when a dark scene is detected, it happens due to incorrect settings, input faults, temporary glitches, etc, which can get quite annoying, so I’ll explain why it occurs and how you can fix it.
Why is My TCL TV Auto Dimming?
TCL TV auto-dimming is an energy-saving feature that dims the TV when it detects a dark scene. This helps to reduce energy consumption and prolong the life of the TV’s backlight.
Auto-dimming works by detecting when a scene goes dark and then dimming the display accordingly. It also monitors the room’s lighting and adjusts the screen brightness accordingly.
Apart from the energy-saving mode, it also happens due to HDR functionality, Dynamic contrast, as well as DBC (Dynamic Backlight Control), features on all TCL TVs.
When does TCL TV Auto Dimming Occur?
This often occurs when the TV detects a dark scene, such as when watching movies or shows that switch between bright and dark scenes.
Whenever this happens, it feels like the TV is constantly adjusting its brightness to match the room’s lighting.
This can be annoying as it can make the picture appear too dark or too bright depending on the lighting in your room and It’s like some sort of auto brightness is always turned on.
Note: This flickering effect can also occur if your TV is set to dynamic contrast mode, which will adjust the brightness of your TV based on the content being watched and it would keep flickering between being super dark and normal color.
How to Stop TCL TV from Dimming
The issue is not major and can be corrected easily at home by tweaking a couple of settings and making a few changes to the TV inputs.
So, without further ado, let’s see what you can do to fix your TCL TV’s auto-dimming problem.
Check for the energy-saving mode
Firstly, you should make sure that this isn’t caused by the Energy Saving Mode.
If you have energy-saving mode enabled, you can disable it to stop your TV from automatically dimming in response to changes in your room’s lighting conditions.
Let’s look at further tweaks that may help.
Turn off dynamic contrast
Dynamic Contrast is a picture setting on your TV that adjusts the contrast of the picture quality, making it look brighter or dimmer at different times.
This can cause flickering between too much brightness or darkness when you’re watching something, so turning this mode off should help reduce or eliminate this issue.
To turn off Dynamic Contrast, you can usually find the option in your TCL TV’s Picture Settings menu.
Update Apps
If your TCL TV is auto-dimming while streaming content through apps like Netflix, it happens due to a glitch in picture settings caused by the outdated or buggy app itself.
As some users have reported that their TVs were automatically dimming when watching Dolby Vision shows on Netflix.
In this case, it’s important to update both the streaming app (Netflix) as well as restarting your TV, this will ensure that you have all of the latest bug fixes that may resolve any issues with auto-dimming.
Change Display Preset
It is quite possible that changing the display preset from HDR to Vivid may be an easy way to fix auto-dimming issues with your TCL TV.
This has been reported by many users and seems to solve the issue without needing any further changes or advanced technical knowledge.
Here’s how to do it on your TCL TV:
- Press TCL TV remote, select Picture, and press OK.
- Use ▲/▼ to choose the picture option, set to preset preference.
This will open up a list of different presets you can choose from – including Standard, Vivid, Movie, Sports, and more.
If that doesn’t solve the issue, you can proceed to the next troubleshooting method and check if your TCL TV model has the “DBC Enable” option and if it can be only accessed via the secret menu.
Turn Off the “DBC Enable” Option
DBC stands for Dynamic Backlight Control and some users have reported that turning this off has solved their auto-dimming issues because this feature is also responsible for dynamic changes to your TCL TVs display.
Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Settings > Picture > Advanced settings. Press 1 9 5 0 on your remote (while the contrast option is highlighted), then navigate to Param Setting > DBC and set “DBC Enable” to Off.
Moreover, there are multiple secret menus on TCL Roku TV and here below I have found all Secret Codes through which secret menus can be accessed on your TCL TV.
Hard Reset TV
If none of the above methods work, try performing a hard reset on your TV as this may solve any underlying software-related issues which could be causing your auto-dimming issue.
On TCL Android TV, follow these steps:
- Press the Settings button > Scroll to More Settings > Device Preference > Reset.
- Choose “Erase Everything” on the “Factory Data Reset” warning screen.
For TCL Roku TV Users:
Press on your remote to open the main screen.
- Go to Settings > System > Advanced system settings > Factory reset, then select “Factory reset everything“.
Update Firmware
Lastly, make sure you are running the latest firmware version for your TCL TV as this may help fix any software-related issues which could cause the display to go bright and darker automatically.
TCL Android TV
- Press the Home button on the TCL Android TV remote control, then navigate to Settings > More Settings > Device Preferences > About.
- Select System Update and choose Network Update in the pop-up box.
- Click OK when prompted to search for an available software update.
TCL Roku TV
- From the Home screen, go to Settings > System > System Update > Check Now.
- If an update is available, press ‘Update now‘.
Conclusion
Seeing the screen going extra dark or bright or even flickering in between certainly affects our viewing experience.
I hope you liked the above post and it will be helpful to solve this issue on your TCL Roku as well as TCL Android TV.
To conclude, I discussed why TCL TVs have auto-dimming, dark, bright, and flicker and how to stop it from happening. I have shared various methods such as turning off energy saving mode, dynamic contrast, DBC Enable, and updating firmware/streaming apps as well as performing a hard reset on your TV if necessary.
Lastly, to quickly wrap it up, in order to prevent the issue from happening again, Make sure to turn off energy saving mode if you don’t want your TV automatically dimming in response to changes in room lighting conditions and make sure you are running the latest firmware version for your TCL TV in order to prevent any software related issues from occurring which could cause auto-dimming.
