Typically, when someone asks me for a recommendation for a budget streaming device, my go-to answer is one of Amazon's Fire TV Sticks. They're affordable and, more importantly, incredibly easy to set up and use. Just plug one in, connect it to your TV's HDMI port, and you can start streaming within minutes of taking it out of the box.
That said, while Fire TV Sticks are user-friendly and make it easy to stream your favorite movies and shows, they can still require some fine-tuning to make the experience as good as possible. For example, right out of the box, the picture quality can sometimes look washed out, ads may start playing automatically on the home screen, and there are many useful features that Amazon doesn't highlight during the initial setup.
Whenever I get a new Fire TV Stick, the first thing I do is head straight to the settings menu to make a few tweaks that improve the overall experience. With that in mind, here are four essential tweaks I recommend for any Fire TV Stick, whether it's new or old, to get the most out of it.
Turn off Always HDR
Get rid of washed-out colors on your TV
When I first connected my Fire TV Stick 4K Max to my TV, I immediately noticed something looked off. The colors on the home screen and in some streaming apps looked incredibly washed out. At first, I assumed it had something to do with my LG TV's HDR settings, but it turned out my…