Winter's been coming for an awfully long time, but now the Game of Thrones crew has a new catchphrase: The Night King is coming. A preview for Sunday's third episode of the final season showed all our favorites prepping for battle against forces that seem unstoppable. Want to catch up on everything in the third episode of Game of Thrones? Check out our season 8 episode 3 recap here! In the trailer, fires burn and catapults are prepped, Grey Worm grimly dons his helmet. Sansa notes that it's time to "look the truth in the face." Jon Snow looks horrified, Theon draws a bow and Brienne of Tarth rallies the troops. Now playing: Watch this: Game of Thrones Season 8: All your questions answered... "The dead are already here," Daenerys declares. Yikes. The third episode of Game of Thrones' final season airs Sunday, April 28 on HBO. Catch up on episode 2 with our recap: "The night is long (and full of sexual tension)." Originally published April 28.<doc-sep>So, you want to watch Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3 in the best way possible? Maybe you’re rewatching it to ensure you take it all in, or perhaps you’re looking to see it for the first time and you’ve heard THE ENTIRE INTERNET complaining about how dark and foggy the whole episode is. We hear you, and you need to work out a way to make your TV picture brighter and clearer for Game of Thrones episode 3, preferably without going out and spending $/£1000s on a new OLED TV (although that certainly is an option). We test a lot of TVs on GamesRadar+, and unless you’re lucky enough to own one of the best gaming TVs (which also tend to be the best for TV and movies), you’re screen may struggle to present the clearest rendition of the episode and likely leave you a bit in the dark - literally and metaphorically. But, we have a bunch of handy tips to try and clear things up, quite literally. Take a look at the advice below on ways to optimize your TV for the Battle of Winterfell. Annoyingly, it’s not a case of just pumping up the brightness, because the fight is also pretty foggy, which places different demands on your panel. Life is rarely easy, as all the cast of Thrones discover but here’s how to make yours a little better. Fair warning, there are very minor spoilers here concerning lighting and some effects used in the episode. 1. Check your stream or TV feed You can own the best TV in the world, but if your feed is low-quality, there’s only so much you can do. If you’re in the US, the HBO Now stream is fine at maximum quality, as you can get the Battle of Winterfell in 1080p. Similarly, you can receive cable signals at 4K, depending on your provider, and that really is the optimum resolution. In the UK, choices are very limited. Either you have Sky Atlantic, and can enjoy Thrones in HD or you’ll have to put up with the now-dated 720p stream offered by NowTV. There are other options around the world, with service providers that offer 1080p streams, but you’ll need a VPN to access them if you’re not a resident of that country. If you’re in doubt about the quality of your stream, most 4K TVs will display what resolution they’re showing from whatever source is coming in, so pause your stream and check your picture menu. 2. Check your picture mode Quite a simple fix, especially if you don’t want to mess with too many of your settings. Many 4K TVs have pre-set picture modes, and in the vast majority of cases, it’s Cinema / Movie mode that you want active, as this balances everything for movies and TV. If you’re running Game Mode, which is best for games, make sure you switch it to a Movie mode for Game of Thrones. You won’t need the superior refresh rate and motion-smoothing features present in most Game Modes - you need clarity and contrast. While you’re looking at basic settings, do actually check that your TV is outputting at the maximum resolution for the source. Most 4K TVs automatically change the image to maximum resolution, but some older ones don’t do this. Finally, most TVs offer a tint or type of color for each mode, usually called ‘Cool’ or ‘Warm’ etc. We normally find the ‘Warm’ settings are better for darker shows like this one, as they pick out the light a little easier and make characters look more natural. 3. Fix the black levels on your TV Because the Battle of Winterfell uses two different lighting styles, it’s tough to get your picture correct for both. Sure, you could bump up the brightness as a quick fix to some of the darker fight scenes, but you’ll make characters almost invisible in the foggy, icy mist that descends. The surest way to get both looking good is by adjusting your Black Levels to make them as deep as possible. All TVs are different, but there are several tricks native to most that help you with this. Plus, to help you see the results, we recommend running a movie with the widescreen bars at the top and bottom to help you see what a pure black picture looks like. First off, switch off any artificial HDR enhancement mode - anything that attempts to mimic an HDR signal from a non-HDR source. These modes can be handy, but they boost colors in favor of blacks, which can wash out your deeper shades. Secondly, you can adjust your contrast a little, although don’t go too crazy, or the scenes with actual color will look odd and you’re not actually buying any black level fidelity here. We also recommend turning off things like Dynamic Contrast and Black Tone modes, because they’ll both reduce the actual details in dark areas. If you have a TV with full-array dimming, make sure that’s active as it should be - most full-array TVs do it automatically. If your TV has an option for local dimming, and isn’t full-array, this is something you can try adjusting. However, don’t be surprised if it makes everything a bit darker, as the action in the Battle of Winterfell is so fast, it’ll leave most edge-lit LED TVs lagging behind, dulling the overall picture. If you have a faster panel, like a Sony or Panasonic, local dimming may help deepen your blacks without losing brightness of other colors, so it’s worth exploring. 4. Max out your backlight When you first bought your TV, you may have messed with the settings a little and either toned down the backlight (or just left it at standard settings). For this episode, you need to pump up your 4K TV’s backlight as high as possible, as this will determine how bright your picture actually is on the front. Think of it as a lightbulb with a dimming switch - you want it to glow as bright as possible, to boost the colors and blacks on your screen - so you need to have this at maximum. Be aware, however, that maxing out your backlight will use more power, so switch it back to normal once you’re done watching the Battle of Winterfell. 5. Don’t just alter the brightness and color You may think that, hey, if you want to make a scene brighter, you should just up the brightness. That can work for murky scenes in SD shows like the X-Files where HDR and custom black options wasn’t a thing, but it’s best left alone here. Again, if you mess with the brightness you’ll lose depth with blacks and make them greyer. Which can help highlight non-black colors, but here will actually make the fog sequences almost unwatchable. Similarly, there’s no real point adjusting colors because this won’t impact black levels - it’ll only make the light sources unnaturally vibrant. 6. Block out external light and glare This seems super obvious, but unless you’re lucky enough to own a TV with anti-glare technology built into the screen, like Samsung’s anti-reflection filter, then you’ll struggle to see in dark scenes with a lamp or living room light reflecting on the screen. TVs have glass panels, glass reflects light, and the best color for reflecting light is black. The more black you have on screen, the more likely you are to see the reflection instead of what’s actually displaying in the picture. Switch off all your lights for this one, draw your curtains, and if you’re super worried about reflection, you can even put objects next to your screen to block out light from the side of the TV. 7. Artificial motion enhancers - on or off? Many modern TVs offer artificial motion enhancers, to smooth the picture you see, which insert additional frames in between those supplied by the source. It’s TruMotion on LG TVs, Motion Plus on Samsung, etc. And this really varies per TV and source - so we can’t blanket recommend whether or not to switch on or off.<doc-sep>If you want to avoid spoilers, stay current, or participate in social media conversations, you have to watch Game of Thrones the moment it airs. If you have cable, you probably don’t think twice about it. But if you’re looking for an alternative method, one site always seems to have people covered: Twitch. On Twitch, streamers are regularly servicing Game of Thrones fans who want to watch the latest episode for free as it airs — and it’s not exactly with HBO’s approval. With just a few seconds of browsing Twitch’s “Just Chatting” category each Sunday night, it’s easy to come across an assortment of streams showing the new episode. There seemed to be more people streaming the premiere a couple of weeks ago than there were streaming the most recent episode, “The Long Night.” But “Long Night” streams still weren’t scarce. No search is required; just scroll down until a stream pops up. Twitch has a history of its creators streaming copyrighted content. The big pay-per-view fight last summer between YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI got more pirate streams on Twitch than legitimate views on YouTube. World Cup games in 2018 were streamed on Twitch, and it’s easy to find marathons of TV shows like South Park or random accounts streaming full-length movies. People can even get away with streaming full UFC pay-per-view matches by pretending to be playing a video game. Season 8’s Game of Thrones episodes have been no exception. One of the top videos that appeared the week of the premiere ran without issues. It was in English, and the channel’s host was chilling in the corner of the screen. The title of his video included “Game of Thrones season 8 premiere.” Over 500 people watched. The host didn’t seem concerned that Twitch moderators and administrators might shut down his channel if they discovered what he was doing. But people participating in his chat did. People repeatedly asked him to change his streaming category and video title to make the stream harder to find. “Dude, Twitch mods are on the hunt,” one message read. “Change the name of your video! Twitch mods are shutting down channels,” another chatter wrote. “Can you imagine tens of thousands of people watching The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones together?” Viewers of these pirated streams have different reasons for tuning in. Some are HBO Now subscribers dealing with laggy service, while others don’t want to pay $15 a month for HBO. Some people just wanted to watch the show with a community of like-minded viewers on Twitch. People have asked for a shared television watching experience on Twitch for years, though it remains prohibited. “I really wish they could start doing that for sports and favorite TV shows as well,” one Twitch user wrote in 2017 on Reddit. “Can you imagine tens of thousands of people watching The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones together? I think that would be pretty damn amazing!” Having people host Game of Thrones content could land Twitch in serious trouble, and the company’s attempts to take down pirated streams lead to a less-than-perfect viewing experience. During the season 8 premiere, chat messages from Twitch users suggested that they were watching streams get taken down in real time, sending them back to the “Just Chatting” section to search for another option. Plenty of options remained, but many people were streaming the show in Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, or other languages. There were streams with commentary from people hosting the episode and streams without anyone talking at all. There were streams with active chats and in-house jokes, but there were also streams where people were mostly silent. There was something for everyone. And for every stream Twitch took down, another three or four seemed to populate. Moderators were acting quickly, but it seemed like they couldn’t keep up. Some streamers put considerable effort into not being caught. One streamer on the night of the season 8 premiere paused his stream and minimized the channel every once in a while and swapped VPN locations to mask his connection. He would also switch back and forth from the Game of Thrones stream to a random Reddit page from time to time. He changed the name of the stream to something Fortnite-related after viewers started leaving helpful strategy tips in his chat. ‘Game of Thrones’ is the perfect example of a show where illicit Twitch streams are popular All of these things combined seemed to keep his channel off the radar of Twitch moderators, but it’s unclear why. It could be that his “Fortnite” stream wasn’t popular enough to surface on the main Fortnite category page. It could be that his constant VPN changes made it difficult for moderators to pin down his pirated stream. Or it could just be that by 9:30PM ET on Sunday night, there were too many Game of Thrones streams popping up for Twitch moderators to handle. Game of Thrones is the perfect example of a show where illicit Twitch streams are popular. It’s a show that has to be experienced in real time. In order for people to join in on the conversation on Twitter and Reddit — or simply feel free to use the internet without worrying about coming across spoilers — they have to watch it as soon as it airs. This is different from your average Netflix show; finding a way to watch Game of Thrones immediately is crucial to living online. Part of the enjoyment that comes with being a Game of Thrones fan is that ongoing online experience. This is where Twitch comes in handy. Live-streaming poses different moderation challenges than standard on-demand video. Platforms likely aren’t able to automatically recognize brand-new material since it’s unlikely to have been cataloged in a copyright check database yet, especially when it’s actively being masked by streamers. That means it’s on human moderators to identify the streams as they see them. It wasn’t like they were ignoring the issue — there were just too many people streaming the show over the course of an hour for moderators to take down. Still, Twitch has developed a reputation as the go-to place to stream copyrighted entertainment. The company has struggled to deal with this issue, and being able to find a Game of Thrones stream every week proves that people are still using Twitch as a first resort for getting around paying for content. The Verge has reached out to the company for comment. Although it was slightly more difficult to find streams this week compared to the premiere, it wasn’t a tedious affair. There are only a few episodes left before Game of Thrones comes to an end, but the issue of people using the platform to stream copyrighted content is likely to continue. As more networks begin pushing their own paid streaming services that leave people without access to popular shows, it could become even more of a problem for platforms like Twitch.<doc-sep>
Welp. This is it. In case you weren’t already aware, the Game of Thrones season 8, episode 3 trailer is about to put you on notice. The Battle of Winterfell is here, and the new Game of Thrones season 8 episode preview has earmarked several people for death, highlighting just about every favourite character in a series of ominous shots during the 30-second clip. You can watch it above, but let’s dive into the calm before Sunday’s storm in a bit more detail below. Last week was, relatively speaking, pretty laid-back. Sure, everyone was getting ready for their last day on Westeros, but there were some laughs, anointments, and even a particularly milky tale. This is a different story. The sheer scale of the battleground, for starters, is immense. Peter Dinklage already hinted that it’d make the Battle of the Bastards look like a theme park but, from the looks of things, it’s instead about to make the Battle of Helm’s Deep look like a leisurely ride on the Mad Hatter’s teacups. We can expect deaths, too. HBO has put the spotlight on several who got their own happy endings or potentially optimistic character beats last week: Grey Worm, Brienne, Jorah, Sam, Sansa, and even Tyrion could all be on the chopping block come the end of the longest Thrones episode in history. But it’s not all swords and mayhem. The Game of Thrones season 8 episode 3 trailer also leans on the now-tense relationship between Dany and Jon. “The dead are already here,” snaps the Mother of Dragons. Is that just Khaleesi pointing out the bleedin’ obvious or the fact that the White Walkers have done the unthinkable and breached Winterfell’s walls? Either way, we’ve got five excruciating days to wait. By my count, you can watch the entire preview about 10,000 times before Sunday. There’s probably no better way to spend the long nights (and even longer days) before all hell breaks loose. Image: HBO Check out some of the best new TV shows heading your way in 2019!