They say that we’re living in a new “golden age” of television.  With so many amazing new TV series now available from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and even traditional cable or broadcast networks like AMC or CBS, it’s hard to keep up with so much high-quality television coming our way every week.  But HBO’s Game of Thrones series has captured the crown of our attention over the past few seasons – and especially with this week’s climactic, but not yet final episode of "The Long Night."  This episode has also captured a lot of attention for something that we’re passionate about here at TCL.  And that’s great TV picture quality.

GOT

Image: 4 high-performance TVs in “movie” mode playing Game of Thrones, “The Long Night.” Clockwise from top-left, TCL 55” 6-Series with an MSRP of $649, a competitor’s $1800 OLED TV, a competitor’s $900 4K HDR TV, another competitor’s $1800 QLED TV. After careful observation, we think Game of Thrones clearly looks best on the TCL 6-Series :).

At TCL we’re big TV fans and we want to share our knowledge of what goes into making a TV with great picture quality and how to get the best performance out of your TV – even when watching some of the most challenging TV shows, like the Game of Thrones’ darkest battle scenes.  Don’t worry, there won’t be any story spoilers here, but for those who haven’t seen it, the latest Game of Thrones episode is dark.  Really, really dark.  It’s over an hour of inky black.  The show’s creators used darkness to create an exceptionally dramatic atmosphere, but for some of the audience watching on a TV that wasn’t up to the task, most of the show was just too hard to see much of anything.

We don’t know exactly how TV show creators make their magic happen, but the recipe for great TV picture quality is pretty straightforward; color, contrast, and clarity.  Intelligently combine and control those elements together in a television using the best technologies available, and you’ve got a high-performance picture quality monster like TCL’s 6-Series.  When a TV show like "The Long Night” pushes the edge of what’s possible with only just a tiny amount of color, even less contrast and little clarity, you’re going to be frustrated if you’re watching on a low-performance TV.

GOT

Image: 4 high-performance TVs in “movie” mode playing Game of Thrones, “The Long Night.” Clockwise from top-left, TCL 55” 6-Series with an MSRP of $649, a competitor’s $1800 OLED TV, a competitor’s $900 4K HDR TV, another competitor’s $1800 QLED TV.

The Game of Thrones season isn’t over.  We’re told that even bigger episodes are on the way.  It’s not too late to get one of the best TVs in the Seven Kingdoms – and you don’t even have to break the bank.

Might we suggest you stream the rest of the season on a TCL 6-Series – available in a screen size of up to 75 inches?

Contrast

With up to 160 Contrast Control Zones, this TV delivers dramatic contrast with precisely managed areas of light and dark that gives shape and depth to images on the screen that would appear washed-out or flat on lower-performance TVs.

Color

Episodes like the “The Long Night” have very little color, but what little color does appear becomes even more important.  To really see the deep red leaves of Winterfell’s Weirwood tree in the torchlight, you’re going to need a TV with wide color performance like the 6-Series.  With the latest LED technology, the 6-Series displays colors that are closer to the limits of what the human eye can see when compared with traditional TVs that can only show a muted and dull color palette.

Clarity

The cameras that filmed Game of Thrones often captured only a few faint images visible in the darkest scenes.  When those images are transmitted over a streaming service or even a traditional cable TV network, those images are compressed for efficient distribution.  After that long journey from the cameras to your TV, not so many usable pixels finally arrived.  So, it’s important to have a high-resolution 4K HDR TV that can make the most of every pixel in every scene.  With over 8 million pixels and super-smart processing to get the best out of each one of them, you won’t miss a single shadow with 6-Series.

Simplicity

All that great picture performance technology doesn’t mean much if you can’t find the show you’re looking for or can’t easily adjust the image to best match the lighting of your home theater.  With the powerfully easy Roku TV smart platform, it’s a snap to stream directly from HBO Now and switching from “Vivid” to “Movie” picture mode is available with just one button press.

We’re stocking up on the popcorn and mead (is that what they’re sipping all the time in King’s Landing?) for the next Game of Thrones episode.  Don’t forget to dim the lights, set your TV to “Movie” mode and enjoy some amazing TV on a powerful TCL TV.