Daylight saving kicks in this weekend for much of Australia, bringing longer evenings, later sunsets and, potentially, a reminder that your TV does not look quite as good with sunlight pouring through the windows.

From Sunday, Australians in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT will have an extra hour of evening daylight. While that is welcome news for anyone planning to spend more time outdoors, it can create problems when you head inside and switch on the TV.

The culprit is glare.

A television that looked perfectly fine during a dark winter evening can suddenly be competing with direct sunlight, reflected light from windows and a generally brighter room.

According to Richard Falzon, Product Manager at TCL Electronics Australia, the change can be particularly noticeable in west-facing rooms.

“Most people take a one-and-done approach to setting up their furniture layouts around the TV, whether in the living room or other areas of the house,” Falzon said.

“But while the sofas and TV may not move, the low evening sun will literally change overnight – especially in west-facing rooms.”

Your TV may need a seasonal adjustment

Before rearranging the lounge room, it is worth checking your television’s picture settings.

Many modern TVs include automatic brightness or ambient-light detection that can adjust the image according to conditions in the room. If yours does not, increasing the screen brightness during daylight viewing can help the picture compete with ambient light.

Falzon says maintaining sufficient brightness can prevent the picture from appearing washed out when the room becomes brighter.

“Keeping the TV brightness up will help counteract the on-screen fading and colour degradation that can occur on sunny Australian days,” he said.

“This brighter screen ensures that reflections, when they do occur, do not overpower or distract from the overall picture.”

That does not necessarily mean pushing every setting to maximum.

Picture presets such as Dynamic, Standard or a dedicated bright-room mode can produce a more suitable image during the day, while Cinema or Filmmaker-style modes may still make more sense when the room is dark.

If your TV has an ambient light sensor, it is also worth checking whether it has been disabled at some point while experimenting with settings.

The room matters as much as the TV

There are some decidedly low-tech fixes as well.

Closing blinds or curtains can make an immediate difference, particularly if sunlight is directly opposite the screen. Changing the angle of a television slightly can also reduce reflections without requiring a complete furniture reshuffle.

Where you position lamps and other light sources matters too. A bright lamp reflected directly in the panel can be every bit as distracting as sunlight.

Screen finish is another factor. Some televisions are considerably better at handling reflections than others, which is worth considering if you are shopping for a new TV for a particularly bright room.

TV makers are tackling brighter rooms

Unsurprisingly, TCL also sees bright-room performance as an opportunity to sell newer television technology.

Its latest SQD Mini-LED range includes the C7L, C8L and flagship X11L, combining Mini-LED backlighting with high peak brightness, local dimming and filtering technologies intended to improve contrast and colour performance in brighter environments.

TCL says its glare-reduction technologies are designed to reduce, rather than completely eliminate, reflections.

“TV-watching Australians shouldn’t have to work around the sun hanging around for longer, but it’s something that has long affected viewing habits,” Falzon said.

“While reflections cannot be fully removed from any TV, these features do lessen their impact.”

No television can completely overcome a badly positioned window firing sunlight directly at the screen. But before blaming the television when the clocks change this weekend, spend a few minutes checking its settings and looking at how afternoon and evening light falls across the room.

Your TV probably has not suddenly developed a worse picture.

Summer may simply have arrived in your lounge room.