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How to Adjust Brightness on Fire TV Stick

As an owner of a Fire TV Stick, I know how frustrating it can be when the brightness of the screen is off. After doing some research and testing, I’m here to share how I adjusted the brightness and some of the other solutions I discovered. In this blog post, I’ll provide step-by-step instructions on how to adjust the brightness of your Fire TV Stick. So if you’re looking for an easy way to adjust the brightness of your Fire TV Stick.

In short, you can’t do so. Not directly, at least. You may change some HDR and color settings, but you won’t have a straightforward brightness controller. If you want that, you should use your actual TV settings.

IssuePossible CauseSolution
Off brightnessTV settingsAdjust the brightness or backlight in your TV settings.
HDR settingsChange the HDR settings on your Fire TV Stick.
Color depthAdjust the color depth on your Fire TV Stick.
Color formatChange the color format on your Fire TV Stick.

Adjusting the Brightness of the TV Itself

In most cases, the brightness is controlled by the TV itself. This is to prevent input devices, like Amazon Firesticks, for example, from tampering with the TV’s basic settings when inserted or removed.

Accordingly, you’ll need to rely on the TV’s settings, not the Firestick’s, to adjust the brightness. 

Since TV manufacturers vary, there aren’t exact steps to follow. However, navigation through the settings is more or less the same in most TVs. Generally, adjusting the brightness requires you to do the following:

  1. Go to the settings of your TV using either the remote or the buttons on the TV
  2. Find the “Picture” or “Video” settings
  3. Most TVs rely on sliders to help you adjust the settings to your liking, navigate to “Brightness” or “Backlight” and adjust it to your liking
  4. Once you’re done, exit the settings and see if you’ve reached your desired brightness

Change Some Firestick Settings

The steps mentioned earlier will allow you to change the brightness according to your needs, but what if you already have a suitable brightness but still noticing issues when you plug in your Firestick? 

This is when you can use the fairly limited options of the Fire TV stick itself. Unfortunately, you won’t have an obvious brightness bar that you can change, but you can still have a few workarounds. Here are some:

Adjust the HDR

HDR, or high dynamic range, is a setting that allows for great contrast in the colors of your display. One of the main functions of HDR is providing just the proper brightness for the displayed content.

However, relatively older shows weren’t shot with the higher-quality cameras we have today. The irony here is that HDR, instead of providing excellent brightness, actually reduces it. 

This leaves you with a darker screen that seems to only appear when watching specific shows/episodes.

To solve that, you need to change the HDR settings of your Fire TV stick. Here’s how:

  1. Head over to your trusty “settings” cog at the top right of the screen
  2. From the setting boxes that appear, select “Display & Audio”
  3. Scroll down to “display,” it should be the third option from the top
  4. Scroll down to the last option, “Dynamic Range Settings”
  5. You’ll see that one of two settings (Always HDR or Adaptive) is selected. Try to switch between them, then come back to your show and see if the problem is solved.

Adjust the Color Depth

Color depth is the number of colors available for each TV pixel to display, measured in bits. Sometimes, the color depth could result in an overall brightness change. 

Normally, the color depth is set to 8 bits, but you can attempt to change that and see if it works for you. Here’s how:

  1. Use the “Settings” (as mentioned earlier) to reach the “Display” tab
  2. Navigate to “Color Depth,” it should be the fourth option from the bottom
  3. Switch between “Up to 12 bits,” “Up to 10 bits,” and “8 bits” and see if one of them provides a brighter screen

Adjust the Color Format

The color format is your TV’s method of displaying the color you see. The two current methods are RGB and YCbCr.

Without getting too much into details, RGB uses a combination of red, green, and blue to display the image, while YCbCr uses a combination of brightness and chroma signals.

Normally, RGB should have a brighter image than YCbCr. However, you may switch between them to see if the brightness improves. Here’s how:

  1. Use the “Settings” to reach the “Display” tab
  2. Navigate to “Color Format,” it should be the third option from the bottom
  3. By default, it should be set to “Automatic,” you may change it to RGB or YCbCr and see if the brightness improves

That’s it!

You can’t directly adjust the brightness on your Fire TV stick. Instead, go ahead and change the original display settings of your TV.

If you’re already content with your TV’s display, but noticing issues with certain shows, then you may change some Firestick settings. Try to adjust the HDR, Color Depth, and Color Format to see if your brightness improves.

Read more: how long do 4k TVs last?