5 AI features that boosted my TV watching experience for free

Summary

• Generative AI in new smart TVs enhances viewing experience through AI features.
• AI upscaling optimizes image clarity, depth, and sharpness for an improved viewing experience.
• Smart assistants, audio processing, and motion enhancing are AI features improving TV interactivity.

AI is the future. At least right now it is, when everything in tech seems to be focusing on AI in one aspect or another. Generative AI, specifically, has made massive strides over the past few years, but AI technology has been improving our devices for decades.

Did you know most newer smart TVs have AI features built into them? These can not only improve how you watch media but also help those around you hear better by having features that adapt audio to your surroundings. Plus, they can also help you choose what you want to watch.

Not all TVs have the same AI features, so I want to highlight some of the best features out there. Here are some of the top AI features for smart TVs.

1 AI upscaling

See the picture the way it was intended

AI upscaling is one of the most recognizable and most useful features when it comes to your picture. The AI processor takes in the information as to what is being shown on the screen and optimizes it for your viewing pleasure. It upscales the color, clarity, depth, and sharpness of the picture, boosting the picture to match whatever your TV’s resolution is. In short, your content has never looked this good.

Certain brands are famous for their upscaling. LG uses deep learning to register faces, backgrounds, and more on the screen and adjusts the TV to make them all pop. Samsung has TVs that process the images and upscale them to make it feel like you’re in the scene itself, raising them up to 8K for some TVs.

If the TV is known for its upscaling, it will be front and center in its marketing materials, as most people care about the clarity of the picture above all other features.

2 Smart assistant

This seems to be standard, but they can go even further

Many TVs have voice remotes that allow you to control the TV settings with speech, which all run through TVs’ smart assistant AI technology. This will react to prompts given to it by users, so you can have the TV do what you want it to do without having to search through a dozen menus to get to the setting.

While smart TVs having microphones can open them up to some security vulnerabilities, more often than not it is a perfectly safe way to control your TV.

Roku TVs come with voice remotes, as do ones with Alexa Fire TV built in. TCL TVs, among others, take the smart assistant duties a step more by allowing it to control other smart devices in your home. You can even run smart home automations through your TV if you want.

Your TV boosts the sound to match the decibel level in the room.

3 Audio processing

Feel it in the whole room

An incredibly cool feature that you might not even be aware of until it kicks in is audio processing or adaptive sound. Certain TVs have different names for it, but basically, your TV will analyze what kind of room it’s in, how crowded it is, and adjust its volume accordingly.

One way to realize this is a feature is to yell loudly at your TV and have the volume go up without touching the remote. Your TV boosts the sound to match the decibel level in the room. Well, you could also check settings, but this way is more hands-on.

There are TVs that will actually drown out background noise in a scene to help you focus on dialogue, which can eliminate the need for closed captioning. Adaptive sound can help you enjoy the content, no matter how hectic a room is. This makes it the perfect feature for large viewing parties for big sporting events.

4 Algorithms for content preferences

Your smart TV is smart enough to know what you want to watch

Most smart TVs have some form of content selection. The home screens show you some titles that are available for you to watch on different streaming options, many of which have apps built into the operating system. Your TV will start to learn what you like to watch and suggest content based off of your preferences.

Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon, Sony, TCL, and more manufacturers all offer smart TVs with this ability. You can even add a Roku streaming device, an Amazon Fire TV Stick, a Google Chromecast, or an Apple TV 4K to your regular TV to get this same effect. Once you start to watch some content, be ready for more like it.

5 Motion enhancing

Good for gaming and streaming

If you’re a gamer, you are likely paying attention to refresh rates and resolutions more than anything else on a TV. AI features can benefit gamers as well as regular users with motion-enhancing qualities like motion smoothing. This will make the game look more fluid and minimize lag to keep you at the top of your game.

Motion sensing and smoothing can identify things on the screen and get ahead of the action by independently tracking their motion, which actively keeps games from glitching. Your TV can also analyze a game’s movement patterns and improve the picture to reduce any kind of blur. Samsung AI Motion Enhancer Pro is a good example — it even works for real-time sports.