Change these Sky Glass settings immediately for a better TV experience

Just bought yourself a fancy new Sky Glass TV, have we? Good on you – it's a great access point to Sky's broad entertainment options, plus all your favourite apps and streaming services.

Many will pay a monthly subscription to have a Sky Glass 2 or Sky Glass Air (the model without the 'soundbar' as part of the design), rather than forking out full whack up front. That's part of this model's appeal.

Great as the Sky Glass proposition is, however, there are some tips and tricks which can allow you to eke yet more out of its picture quality and software. I've owned a Glass set for years, but if you're new to the game then here are five immediate changes to make for a better experience.

1. Turn up the backlight

• Settings button (triple dot '...' on remote) > Settings > Picture and Sound > Picture > Auto Backlight Adjustment

Sky Glass adapts to how much light is coming into your room, which can be great – but, given its sometimes lean towards 'eco' power output, it's not always its brightest.

There's a way to fix that. Grab your remote, hit the 'triple dot' button to bring up the quick menu (not immediately obvious, until you get used to it) then follow the path above through the Settings to Picture.

Turning off the Auto Backlight Adjustment means the ambient sensor will ignore how much light is present. After this, you'll need to scroll down one to 'Backlight', which you can scale from 0-100. The highest number is the brightest, adding some extra punch.

My Sky Glass is in the kitchen, as a second set, and there are big front windows there – so it tends to be fairly bright. For my sometimes daytime weekend viewing this is the best setting for me, helping the picture to cut through.

2. Adjust the viewing mode

• Settings button ('...' on remote) > Viewing Mode

Now this might seem kind of obvious, but it's easily missed. Sky Glass, by default, is set to 'Auto', which does a pretty sterling job for most things.

However, not everything you're going to watch is one and the same and, honestly, making a quick adjustment per your viewing can make all the difference.

If you're watching animation, then Vivid or Extra-Vivid add contrast and colour – but I'd avoid this for 'normal' TV, otherwise skin tones go off the charts, for example.

If you're watching a drama then Entertainment brings things down a touch, Movie even more so – filmmakers love the moody vibe – while Sport is better for motion clarity.

You can see in real-time the difference in picture when scrolling between the options before selecting. Don't overdo it, but do slide away from Auto when appropriate and it'll deliver an even better experience.

3. Let Dolby Vision HDR be dark

• Settings button ('...' on remote) > Settings > Picture and Sound > Picture > HDR Picture Mode

You might've heard of high dynamic range – or 'HDR', for short – before. It's a way for content providers to send a real-time lighting 'map' to a show that can determine how far bright or dark any given area will be.

This creates much greater dynamism than traditional 'standard dynamic range (SDR)' viewing. It gets a little confusing for some, however, as there are multiple providers of HDR types – but one of the best and most prominent is Dolby Vision.

On Sky Glass, Dolby Vision comes in two flavours: 'Bright' or 'Dark'. Here's where I'm going to suggest – assuming you have a dark room condition for nighttime viewing of movies – you pick the Dark option, allowing Dolby to go all cinematic for your viewing.

Dark will see a shift down the scale, so while you won't see things as brightly, it's comfortable for your eyes, plus you get the see the subtleties in black-level difference more prominently. It's the film buff's pick – and mine.

4. Activate auto volume correction

• Settings button ('...' on remote) > Settings > Picture and Sound > Sound

I might have titled this section as 'Activate Auto Volume Correction', but there are actually a heap of sound options within Sky Glass that are well worth using – or considering for certain scenarios.

The Auto Volume Correction is designed to stop, say, the ads between your show-watching being really loud. I've noticed this when watching Amazon Prime's Fallout recently, the ads being much louder than the show. Select this setting to prevent that.

But there's more. If you want some added weight for, say, your movie-watching, then the Bass Boost option is there to give some more heft to the audio. Enhanced Speech Quality will boost the mid-level instead, if you need some extra to help hear dialogue.

Lastly, Night Mode is on hand to prevent dynamic soundtracks from being, well, too dynamic. It's designed to keep things quieter, with fewer peaks and troughs, so you don't disturb others trying to sleep or your neighbours.

5. Set up your favourite channels

• Settings button ('...' on remote) > Settings > Viewing Preferences > Set up favourites

Much as I enjoy Sky Glass, I do sometimes find the electronic programme guide (EPG) to be a little counter-intuitive.

Especially when trying to find channels fast for live coverage – something I struggled with when watching the World Darts Championship just gone.

But here's a way to select your favourite channels so they're collated into a Favourites list. Follow the pathway through Settings above and you'll then be presented with your list of most-watched channels.

You can either agree on what's presented as being your list and hit 'Save' or instead select 'I'll choose', allowing you to select from all the channels you wish. This way, when you enter the TV Guide from the homepage, you can scroll up and your selected channels will be on show.

You can edit favourites at any time, or if you activate 'Refresh' within its settings then any channels you watch more frequently than those in your favourites will also automatically be added. It's a neat solution.

I use this in tandem with Playlist, which is a great way to catch-up on content – seeing as Sky Glass can't record to a drive, as per Sky Q.