Can You Change the Background on a Sony Smart TV (Step by Step)?

Your Sony smart TV is a unique masterpiece, and changing the background of your TV is one of the simplest ways to personalize and tailor it to your taste. However, the question is, can you?

Your home screen serves as a hub for TV shows, apps, and games. The screen saver kicks in when you’re not doing or watching anything. This is where you can personalize your settings. In this post, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of changing the background of your Sony TV and customizing it without much stress.

Install a Third-Party Home Screen App

If you are looking to change your TV’s background, the first thing on your list is to install a third-party home screen app. To do so, go to Google Playstore on your TV and search for a home screen app. After doing this, download any home screen app you’re comfortable with. However, the HAL launcher is a good home screen app to download.

In case the launcher you downloaded is not working, return to Google Playstore to download “Android Studio.” Doing this will make the launcher compatible with your Sony TV.

Enable Developer Mode

Once you’ve installed the screensaver app and confirmed its compatibility with your TV, the next thing to do is to enable the developer mode:

1. Click “home”
2. Select the settings icon. 
3. In the TV row, select “about.” 
4. Scroll down to the “build” icon
5. Click on the icon seven times
6. After which, you’ll get a note that “you are now a developer.”

The developer mode affords you the freedom to tweak many settings on your TV, including how you want your TV background to look.

Open the Picture and Display Option

The picture and display options are found in the settings menu. If you need to make some adjustments, such as simple picture presets, color change, and brightness level, you can make them in the picture and display menu. Doing this helps you to customize how you want your picture to fit into your TV’s background.

Open the Picture Adjustments Window

Open the picture adjustments menu to access all of the picture settings, including the basic and advanced options. You’ll be allowed to change your screen display aspect ratio and size in the picture adjustment area.

You can alter the brightness under the picture settings menu, which can be increased to a max of 50. The color saturation level, which is measured on a 100-point scale, can also be fine-tuned.

Change the Picture Mode and Intensity Levels

You can alter the picture mode in the picture changes menu, choosing from standard, custom, animation, sport mode, game mode, and cinema mode. 

Additionally, you can scroll all the way to the bottom and select advanced settings for more control options. This will bring up a menu of sliders where you may adjust brightness, intensity, gamma, black levels, hue, color rendering, and other settings.

After going through the above steps, it’s not a bad idea to also personalize your entire home screen and make your Sony TV more attractive and appealing to the eye. Here are more ways you can customize your home screen to your desired piece of beauty.

Add, Delete or Rearrange the Channel Rows As Needed

To add or delete rows on your Sony TV’s home screen, follow these detailed steps:

1. Go to the Home screen on your TV
2. Click Settings from the drop-down menu at the top
3. Click on device preferences, then choose home screen
4. Add or remove the channels from your home screen by selecting the channels you do or do not need

You can also rearrange the rows easily via your Sony TV’s D-pad by scrolling to the left twice on the row you want to reorder.

Keep Track of Your Watchlist

You may add programs or movies to your watchlist to view at a later or more convenient time. In the Discover tab, these titles appear as a row:

1. Select the title you wish to add to your watchlist from the “Discover” menu
2. Go to the title information page
3. Select the watchlist option

You can access any content you add to your watchlist whenever you switch on your smart TV. This offers convenience and makes it easy to navigate your options on your Sony TV background.

Final Thoughts

Your TV background does not only serve as a link to a world of streaming media. When it is well customized, it also enables you to navigate through different content on your TV conveniently. As a result, it is very important to make your background a work of art. 

If you would like to learn more about whether or not you can use your Sony Smart TV without a remote control and some solutions for controlling your TV if you’ve lost the remote, check out this article.