How to turn off AI picture processing on any TV

Run the color uniformity test Plain full-screen colors. Open it in the TV’s browser before and after you change settings, so you’re judging the TV and not whatever show you happened to be watching.

How we checked this: we don’t own these TVs. Every menu path below comes from the maker’s own support pages and manuals, linked in the sources and checked on 2026-10-24. Menus change with model year and software updates. If yours is different, tell us and we’ll fix the guide. More on our method on the how we test page.

New TVs ship with a stack of “AI” features. Some change brightness with the room light, some sharpen and upscale, some switch picture modes based on what they think you’re watching. Your TV’s AI has an opinion about every frame. You’re allowed to disagree with it.

The good news: you can turn nearly all of it off in a few menus. The exception is the pop-up some Samsung owners can’t get rid of. That has its own section below.

The quickest fix: Filmmaker Mode

Before you dig through menus, try one setting. Filmmaker Mode is a picture mode defined by the UHD Alliance, a TV industry group. Its FAQ says it “disables certain post-processing features such as motion smoothing, sharpening, noise reduction, and others.” The UHD Alliance lists LG, Panasonic, TP Vision, Samsung and VIZIO as supporting brands, and Hisense lists it in its 2024 Google TV manual too.

1. Open the picture settings (usually the gear button on the remote, then Picture).
2. Pick FILMMAKER MODE under Picture Mode. Expected result: the picture looks dimmer and warmer. Samsung’s picture settings page warns that Filmmaker Mode “may appear darker than other picture modes.” That’s normal.
3. No Filmmaker Mode? Use Movie or Cinema. On Sony Google TVs, Sony describes the Professional mode as one that “preserves the original quality of the content.”

Picture mode alone doesn’t always switch off the AI layer that sits on top of it. Samsung’s AI Mode and LG’s AI Picture Pro are separate toggles, so check the brand section below.

What each AI feature changes, and where to turn it off

Brands use different names for similar things. Here’s what each maker says its feature does, in its own words where we could, and where the switch lives.

One thing no menu turns off: basic scaling. A 4K panel has 3840 × 2160 pixels, about 8.3 million, so a 1080p show has to be scaled up to fill it. What you can switch off is the extra processing that the AI branding refers to.

Samsung: AI Mode, Intelligent Mode and Picture Clarity

Which menu you need depends on the model year.

2025 and 2026 models (AI Mode):

1. Press Home, then the left key, and select Settings.
2. Go to All Settings > Advanced Features > AI Mode Settings.
3. Toggle AI Mode to Off. Samsung’s AI Mode page covers 2026 models on software 1247 or later, and its Australian page covers 2025 models from QN70 up.

Heads-up from that same Samsung page: after a software update, AI Mode settings moved into the Picture and Sound mode settings, and existing AI Customization users were switched to the Standard picture mode. If your picture changed after an update, that’s a likely reason.

2024 models (Intelligent Mode): go to Settings > All Settings > General & Privacy > Intelligent Mode Settings and turn Intelligent Mode off. That’s the path on Samsung’s Intelligent Mode page.

Motion smoothing is separate. Samsung’s motion smoothing page gives this path:

1. Settings > Picture > Expert Settings > Picture Clarity Settings (called Auto Motion Plus Settings on older TVs).
2. Set Picture Clarity to Off. It defaults to Auto.

While you’re in Expert Settings, Samsung’s picture settings page lists Contrast Enhancer and Auto HDR Remastering there too. Turn them off if dark scenes look crushed or the picture keeps shifting. Then set Apply Picture Settings to all sources, so you don’t have to repeat this for every HDMI input.

What about Samsung’s “AI Upscaling”? Samsung markets it as a Vision AI feature. We didn’t find a separate on/off switch for it on the Samsung support pages we checked, so we won’t invent a menu path. Filmmaker Mode plus the steps above is the closest thing Samsung documents.

LG: AI Picture Pro, AI Brightness and TruMotion

LG keeps the AI settings in the General menu, away from the picture menu. Easy to miss.

1. Press the Settings button and select All Settings (on the Magic Remote, hold Settings for a second to jump straight there).
2. Go to General > AI Service.
3. Turn AI Picture Pro off. Turn AI Brightness Settings off too if you don’t want the TV adjusting dark areas to the room.

LG’s AI Picture Pro page gives that path for webOS 6.0, 22 and 23 (2021 to 2023 models). 2020 models call it AI Picture. 2019 models keep it under Picture > Picture Mode Settings > AI Picture. LG also notes that AI Picture Pro can’t be used in Game Mode or on copy-protected content. Not sure which webOS you have? LG says to press the mute button three times in a row.

Newer LG TVs aren’t covered on that page. If your menu doesn’t match, check under General or Picture for an “AI” entry.

For motion smoothing, LG’s TruMotion page gives All Settings > Picture > Advanced Settings > Clarity > TruMotion for webOS 6.0 through webOS 24. Choose Off. LG also offers Cinematic Movement, which it says makes motion “feel like you are in a movie theater,” and LG’s soap opera page suggests Off or that mode for films. The same Clarity menu also holds Super Resolution and noise reduction.

Sony: Auto Picture Mode, Reality Creation and Motionflow

On Sony Google TVs, press the Quick Settings button, then Settings > Display & Sound > Picture (some models add a Picture & Sound step first). That’s the path on Sony’s picture settings page. Then:

1. Turn Auto Picture Mode off. Sony says it changes the picture mode automatically on HDMI inputs, and you “may notice a sudden change in the brightness or saturation.”
2. Turn Light sensor off if you don’t want brightness following the room light.
3. Under Clarity, set Reality Creation to Off. Sony describes it as “Super Resolution processing and noise reduction.”
4. Under Motion, set Motionflow to Off. Sony says it “increases the number of video frames.” CineMotion (Film Mode in the UK) is a separate film-motion setting. Sony describes it as reproducing the motion of 24 fps film content.

Sony’s Cinema and Professional modes are the closest thing to Filmmaker Mode on its Google TVs.

Hisense: Auto Picture Mode, Super Resolution and Motion Enhancement

These paths come from a Hisense 2024 Google TV user manual. VIDAA models and other years may use different menus.

1. Settings > Display & Sound > Picture > General > Auto Picture Mode: Off. Hisense says this menu only appears when ACR (automatic content recognition) is on.
2. Settings > Display & Sound > Picture > Clarity: turn Motion Enhancement off, and Motion Clearness if your model has it.
3. In the same Clarity menu, Super Resolution handles edges and detail. Turn it off if outlines look too sharp.
4. Back in General, use Apply Picture Settings to apply this to all sources.

TCL and Roku TVs: motion settings

TCL’s Google TV motion guide is upfront that names vary by model: Motion, Motion Smoothing or Action Smoothing, Judder Reduction, Motion Clarity. Press the gear button, go to Picture > Advanced settings, and turn smoothing and judder reduction down or off. TCL also says each HDMI input can have its own picture mode and Game Mode, so repeat this per input.

Roku TVs (including TCL and Hisense models running Roku) use the Star button. Roku’s support page: start a video, press Star, then Picture settings > Customize Picture > Expert settings, and set Action Smoothing to Off or Low. Roku warns that some OS updates “turn motion smoothing back on,” so check again after an update.

Motion smoothing is a separate setting from “AI picture”

This trips people up. You turn off the AI mode and movies still look like a daytime soap. That’s motion smoothing, and on every brand above it’s a different switch.

Motion smoothing (also called motion interpolation) creates extra frames between the real ones. Samsung’s explainer puts it plainly: most movies are filmed at 24 frames per second and “are not intended to be viewed with these features.” Turn it on anyway and you get the soap opera effect: films that look like they were shot on a camcorder.

LG’s soap opera effect page adds a fair point: some people like it, especially for sports filmed at 60 frames per second. So it’s your call. Our take: turn it off for films and TV dramas, then try a low setting for sports and see if you like it.

A smoothed picture can also show its own glitches. Sony’s Motionflow noise page, for instance, mentions noise at scene changes and at screen edges in fast scenes. If you see shimmer around moving objects, motion smoothing is the first suspect.

Samsung Vision AI pop-up: what you can and can’t turn off

Vision AI Companion is Samsung’s on-screen assistant on 2025 TVs (Q7 and above, The Frame LS03F and some Smart Monitors). It isn’t a picture setting. Samsung’s Vision AI Companion page gives two ways to switch it off:

1. Home > Settings > All Settings > Advanced Features > Voice > Bixby Settings > Enhanced AI Features, then turn off the Vision AI Companion service.
2. Or open Vision AI Companion > Settings > Terms and Conditions, and withdraw consent.

The daily pop-up is a different story. In an October 2025 Samsung Community thread, owners of an S95F, an S90F and a Q7F said the Intelligent Mode Settings menu a moderator pointed them to didn’t exist on their TVs. A Samsung moderator then replied: “Currently, we do not have a way to turn them off, but certain models can time them out,” and asked for model numbers. Later in the thread, an owner of a QN65S90F said the pop-ups still appeared with AI Mode off under Advanced Features, and owners were still asking for an off switch in August 2026.

So if you’ve turned off every AI setting and the pop-up still shows up, it’s probably not something you missed. Contact Samsung support with your model number and software version, and check for updates in the meantime.

Settings keep coming back? Check these

• Per-input settings. Samsung and Hisense have an Apply Picture Settings option for all sources. TCL says each HDMI input keeps its own picture mode.
• Per-mode settings. Changing motion smoothing in Standard doesn’t change it in Movie. Pick your picture mode first, then turn things off.
• Game Mode. LG and Sony both disable some processing in Game Mode, and consoles often switch the TV into it automatically. Fine for games, but it explains why the picture looks different on that input.
• Software updates. Samsung and Roku both document updates that changed picture settings. Recheck after an update.
• Starting over. Samsung’s Expert Settings has Reset Picture at the bottom. Roku TVs have Settings > System > Advanced system settings > Factory reset > Reset TV picture settings.

Once the AI is off, it’s a good moment to check the panel itself. A new TV is still inside its return window, so run the dead pixel test full screen. On an OLED, the burn-in test and our burn-in vs image retention guide cover the faint-ghost problem.

Frequently asked questions

Related fixes

• Color uniformity test (free tool)
• Dead pixel test
• OLED burn-in vs image retention: how to tell, fix and prevent it
• Burn-in test
• TV fix guides

Sources

• Samsung US: How to use AI Mode on your Samsung TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung Australia: Using AI Mode on your 2025 Samsung TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung US: Intelligent Mode features on your Samsung TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung US: Motion smoothing and the soap opera effect on Samsung TVs, checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung Canada: Picture settings for your Samsung TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung Singapore: What is the Vision AI Companion on your Samsung TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung Community: Disable vision Ai pop-up (thread, Oct 2025), checked 2026-10-24.
• Samsung Community: Disable vision Ai pop-up, page 3 (Aug 2026 replies), checked 2026-10-24.
• LG USA: How to Use AI Picture Pro, checked 2026-10-24.
• LG Canada: AI Picture Pro Mode (AI Brightness Settings), checked 2026-10-24.
• LG Canada: TruMotion, checked 2026-10-24.
• LG Canada: Turn off the soap opera effect, checked 2026-10-24.
• Sony USA: Adjust the picture settings on your TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Sony USA: Noise appears during fast-moving scenes (Motionflow), checked 2026-10-24.
• Hisense USA: Google TV user manual (2024, PDF), checked 2026-10-24.
• TCL: Troubleshooting motion issues on your TCL Google TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• Roku: How to reduce motion blur on your Roku TV, checked 2026-10-24.
• UHD Alliance: Filmmaker Mode FAQ, checked 2026-10-24.