These secret menus on your TCL TV can be useful

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

TCL is one of the most popular TV makers on the market, in part because many of its LED sets are priced toward budget-conscious buyers. Many TCL TVs are also renowned for their picture quality. But what does the user interface look like? On the surface, most user interfaces are quite intuitive and give you access to all the features and settings you could want. That’s great, but what if you want to play around with deeper optimizations that aren’t so superficial?

TCL does not implement its own smart TV software; instead, the manufacturer licenses platforms such as Google TV, Roku OS, and Fire OS. These systems give you access to TV content over the Internet, but they also serve as gateways to several hidden TCL menus. Developers like to hide these dashboards because most of the advanced options don’t apply to the average TV user. If you don’t know what these secret settings are for, using them incorrectly can result in a bricked TV.

If you’re confident in your technical know-how, we’ve put together the instructions on how to access the TCL menus that the developers have hidden. We’ll start with Google TV: take your remote and launch the Settings menu. Next, go to Picture Settings, highlight the Contrast field and use the on-screen keyboard to enter “1950”, as confirmed by the r/tcltvs community. This should take you to the TV’s factory service menu.

Depending on your TCL TV model, you may need to use a different code to view the secret screen. Additional options include 9735, 6428, 9705, 6405 and 6425. The factory service menu will display information about various TV settings, including panel opening times, HDMI status, diagnostic information, etc. You’ll also be able to access hidden developer options by going to Settings > System > About and tapping “Build Android TV OS” seven times. Hit the Back button and you should now see a Developer Options tab consisting of options like “Disable Animations” or “Bluetooth Audio Codec View”.

We mentioned earlier that TCL TVs also use Roku TV OS and Fire OS. The first actually has several hidden screens that are unlocked by a series of remote control inputs. All secret codes start with five presses of the Home button, followed by a series of directional inputs.

One of these dashboards is literally called the “Secret Screen”, and is accessed by pressing Home five times, followed by three presses of the Fast Forward button, then two presses of the Rewind button. From there, you’ll be able to factory reset your TV, run tests via USB, and much more. Here are three more input patterns to unlock more of Roku OS’s hidden menus:

• View a list of all downloaded apps (Home 3x, Up 2x, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left)
• Access hidden wireless settings (Home 5x, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up)
• Additional HDMI Settings (Home 5x, Bottom, Left, Top 3x)

To access a hidden developer-only screen on TCL TVs running Fire OS, go to Settings > Device & Software > About. Next, highlight the name of your TV and press the Enter button seven times. You should receive a “You are a developer” message and there should be a Developer Options tab in the Settings menu. Accessing this menu is required if you plan to download apps and other software to your TCL TV, as you will need to enable “Applications from Unknown Sources”.

As you can see, most of the hidden TCL screens are actually just a few button presses away from being accessible. There may be slight variations in the terminology and location of settings, depending on factors such as year of release and software version, but most of this guide should be applicable. TCL also makes projectors that work on Google TV, so these steps apply to those devices as well.