The latest Sky Glass picture quality update makes it look like a completely different TV

Sky Glass is always improving, which is part of the reason we think it's one of the best TVs you can buy right now. Regular changes are rolled out across the entire system making it nicer to use, more efficient or giving you even more functionality. But there’s one upgrade coming soon to all Sky Glass customers that will make a world of difference to the whole experience. 

Sometime between now and Christmas, Sky Glass users will spot a big change in the TV's picture quality thanks to a free update being sent out to all of its television sets. I’ve been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the difference it makes in person at the Sky Campus in Osterley. 

Since its launch about a year ago, one of the big pain points surrounding Sky Glass has been the quality of the actual display panel. Despite 80% of users being happy with the image quality, others have quite vocally found it to be dull or even a little grey at times, it can lack brightness and the colours sometimes look washed out. This update is swooping in to solve that across all sorts of content from movies to sporting events. 

So what’s changed? Local dimming has been improved, there’s a higher contrast ratio (a 40% increase to be more precise) and the brightness has been boosted as well. You’ll also be able to make use of a new Vivid mode which amps up colours on the screen without being too overpowering, a feature which has already been made available to most people. 

They're even introducing black bar detection which picks up the empty space above and below a movie, completely switching the backlights off for a more immersive viewing experience.

I saw the old picture and the new one side by side during a demo at Sky HQ. The image was very noticeably better with the new update, it had more life to it, the colours look bolder and more detail comes through as well. That applies to the green of the grass on a football pitch or the accuracy of different skin tones in shows like Gangs of London. My conclusion was that they looked like completely different TVs but actually, this just comes down to a firmware update. It’s pretty remarkable.

That's not the only update coming to Sky Glass before the end of the year though, there are lots more that are worth knowing about too like Find My Remote and the new personalised playlist feature.