Why the same TV can use 37% more power without a single new setting
A TV's screen is by far its biggest power draw, and picture mode is what decides how hard that screen works: how bright it runs, how aggressively it processes the image, and how much of the panel's contrast range it tries to push. What Hi-Fi's own lab testing measured this directly on a real 65-inch Sony A95L OLED, cycling through its four main presets, from least to most processed, and logging power draw on SDR content (the large majority of what Australians actually watch): Professional drew 84 W, Cinema 108 W, Standard 114 W, and Vivid 156 W, a 37% jump from Standard to Vivid on the identical television showing the identical content. Standard's measured 114 W sits almost exactly on this site's own 65-inch OLED registry figure (115 W), which is why the table above treats Standard as the baseline and scales Filmmaker/Professional and Vivid off that same ratio rather than guessing at a different TV's numbers.
Run that scaled ratio through the calculator's own default of 4 hours a night on Australia's current state rates and the gap is real money, not a rounding error: Vivid costs $63 (ACT) to $87 (SA) a year against $34 to $47 on Filmmaker/Professional, a gap of roughly $29 (ACT) to $40 (SA) a year for a free setting change, on this same one television. The government's own energy rating label can't warn you about any of this: it's awarded from a single test in one specific picture mode, never the brighter one a household might actually leave the TV on.
What this costs, state by state
A 65-inch OLED at this site's own registry-median wattage (115 W, the calculator's own 65-inch OLED figure), scaled by the SDR power-per-hour ratios an independent reviewer measured across the four picture presets on a real 65-inch Sony A95L OLED (that TV's own measured figures: Professional 84 W, Cinema 108 W, Standard 114 W, Vivid 156 W), at the calculator's own default 4 hours a night. The table's watt figures are this site's registry-median wattage scaled by those measured ratios, not the reviewed TV's own raw numbers, which is why they sit a few watts apart from the ones just quoted. The Filmmaker/Professional column measures only Sony's own Professional mode; Filmmaker mode on other brands is assumed to behave the same way, not separately tested.
| State | Rate | Filmmaker/Professional mode (85 W) | Standard mode (115 W) | Vivid mode (157 W) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | 32.4¢ | $40.21 | $54.40 | $74.27 |
| Victoria | 29.8¢ | $36.98 | $50.03 | $68.31 |
| Queensland | 31.2¢ | $38.72 | $52.38 | $71.52 |
| South Australia | 38.1¢ | $47.28 | $63.97 | $87.33 |
| Western Australia | 33.6¢ | $41.70 | $56.41 | $77.02 |
| Tasmania | 28.9¢ | $35.86 | $48.52 | $66.24 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 27.4¢ | $34.00 | $46.00 | $62.81 |
| Northern Territory | 31.7¢ | $39.34 | $53.22 | $72.66 |
Reference rates for 2026–27. Your row is highlighted once you set your location.
What Australia's own TV standard already assumes, and what it doesn't tell you
Australia's mandatory GEMS television standard, AS/NZS 62087.2.2:2011, doesn't leave picture mode to chance: it specifically requires every TV sold here to have a defined ‘Recommended Home Viewing Picture Mode’, sets rules for how a customer selects it, and mandates an on-screen warning when the set is left in its brighter ‘Store’ demo mode instead, the same eye-catching setting a showroom cranks up to stand out under fluorescent lighting. The star rating on the box is earned in that one defined home mode, not in Store, Vivid or Dynamic. CHOICE's own buying advice tells shoppers to expect a delivered TV to already default back to a Standard or Normal setting once it's out of the shop, which matches the government requirement, but nothing stops anyone switching it to a punchier mode afterwards, and once that happens the star rating on the box no longer describes what the TV is actually drawing.
Energy Rating, the Australian Government's own site, backs this up as a direct efficiency tip rather than a theoretical one: it names turning the brightness down and using a power-saving picture mode among its short list of ways to cut a TV's running cost, alongside keeping the screen out of direct sunlight so the brightness doesn't get wound up to compensate. Sony's own Australian support pages go further and name the modes directly, flagging Vivid as one to avoid for long viewing if the goal is a lower bill and pointing to Standard as the energy-conscious everyday setting, exactly the ordering this page's own measured figures bear out. None of this needs a new appliance or a tool hire, only a few taps in a menu most people never open after the day the TV came out of the box.
Common questions
Which TV picture mode uses the least power?
Filmmaker mode, or the closest equivalent your brand offers (Sony calls it Professional), which turns off most of the extra processing and brightness boost other modes add. It measured about 26% less power than Standard mode in the same independent test, on top of whatever it also saves against Vivid.
What does the gap come to for an 8-hours-a-night household instead of the default 4?
About $58 (ACT) to $80 (SA) a year between Vivid and Filmmaker/Professional, double the $29 to $40 a year this page's default 4-hours-a-night figure gives, since the gap is a straight per-hour rate multiplied by however long the TV is actually on.
Is a game console left idling as costly as a TV on the wrong picture mode?
In the same range, yes: our companion guide on what your console burns while it just sits there finds an Xbox left on its factory-default standby setting costs $18 to $25 a year more than switching it to Energy saving, close to this page's own $29 to $40 Vivid-versus-Filmmaker gap.
Sources
Measured SDR power draw by picture preset on a 65-inch Sony A95L OLED (Professional/Cinema/Standard/Vivid): What Hi-Fi (via Yahoo Tech), I spent hours measuring how much power my OLED TV uses in its different picture modes. Australia's GEMS television picture-mode requirements (Recommended Home Viewing Picture Mode, Store mode warning): Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Television) Determination 2012, AS/NZS 62087.2.2:2011 clause 2. Government efficiency tip naming picture mode and brightness directly: Energy Rating, Tips for using your television efficiently. Brand-level picture mode guidance: Sony Australia, How to lower your TV power consumption and save energy. Delivered-TV default setting and in-store demo mode context: CHOICE, How to buy a great smart TV. TV size/wattage registry medians: the same energyrating.gov.au registration database (July 2026 snapshot) as our TV running cost calculator. Electricity rates: AER Default Market Offer and each state's regulated reference tariff, current for 2026–27. All fetched July 2026.