topic Re: Amazon prime streams very dark in TV

Amazon prime streams very dark

Garyc123 — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 11:00:37 GMT

TV ue50ru7020

Tried streaming some of Amazon uhd content on this tv and it's very dark, not looking like it's in hdr and occasionally flickers to a much clearer brighter picture (for maybe half to 1 second at a time) then goes back dark again.

You can still see the picture but it looks kind of like how a non HDR screen would show hdr content (grey looking whites).

Brand new TV, any idea what's wrong?

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

CarloL — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 17:27:35 GMT

Hey @Garyc123! Are you still experiencing issues with this? If so, can you confirm if it happens only when streaming from Amazon or with every other channel/app?

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Skove1234 — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 04:37:45 GMT

I am experiencing the same problem. It is only with Amazon Prime Video, all my other services are fine. It's only really noticable in darker scenes, they become astronomically dark. My brightness settings and backlight settings are at the max, and still you can barely makeout some shapes.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

WiseOwl43 — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 08:26:46 GMT

Hey all,

When we got our QE75Q90R last year, I noticed this darkness issue too across various programs. It did really bug me as the TV was rated for a lot higher brightness than our old Samsung LCD.

On Amazon Prime it was very noticeable for the Goliath series (4k), as most of the shots were in a very sunny environment yet I could barely see what was going on as everything was so dark.

Also noticed this on Netflix when watching the new Bladerunner. It become very noticeable when running the credits where the TV was constantly adjusting the brightness for the scrolling text, making most of it illegible as it was all flickering in/out.

All of the above indicated the TV is trying to auto adjust brightness & dimming levels so after playing about I found changing the following settings made a huge improvement.

General > Intelligent Mode > Adaptive Brightness = Off

General > Eco > Eco Solution > Ambient Light Detection = Off

Picture > Expert Settings > Local Dimming = Low

Picture > Expert Settings > Brightness = 20 (this is a good minimum value for me)

Tried watching Goliath again with those new settings and the difference was incredible! The image was finally looking like what I expected for a big/new QLED!

Hope that helps guys.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Garyc123 — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 18:43:08 GMT

For anyone wondering, I spent hours talking to Samsung and Amazon support about this and none could resolve the matter.

Samsung did say I could return the TV but in the end I couldn't be bothered, but more disappointing was that Amazon seemed to know more about the TV settings and adjustments than Samsung support did.

I did go to the engineer menu and disable the local dimming (what a stupid feature) and that did help out with Netflix which would darken the screen slightly when a dark scene was shown however this did nothing for Amazon. I'm basically stuck watching non hdr non uhd shows with Amazon as they unfortunately look much better than in 4k hdr- it's a pretty huge brightness difference.

So basically if you have this problem in this TV, suck it up because you can't fix it.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

mrmar23 — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 11:14:30 GMT

I have the same things happening. Amazon Prime 4k streaming is very dark, occasionally it blinks to a good bright picture and then reverts back to dark again quickly. Is there a fix for this?

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

JAMES4578 — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 11:52:57 GMT

@mrmar23 You do not mention your model however have you experimented with the settings? If does not solve your issue do any resets make a difference? Obviously may need to contact Samsung for further investigation.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Garyc123 — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 15:01:43 GMT

No fix months later sorry, I gave up trying and gave up buying Samsung.

If you complain to support enough they should authorise a replacement but i have no idea if this applies to all the TV's in the range.

Samsung basically wash their hands of it under the explanation that they are not responsible for the apps on the TV.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Charlied — Mon, 04 May 2020 05:03:46 GMT

fixed. use a difference source for prime on a HDMI input. internally the Samsung loses part of the signal

when used as a smart tv. Maybe samsung can send a update to fix it. They need to admit the problem first. https://twitter.com/cdaubitz/status/1257162471871307776

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

davrr — Mon, 04 May 2020 08:48:08 GMT

I have Samsung 65QE85R tv. I find whilst watching HDR content from Amazon and Netflix it helps to set Contrast Enhancer to 'low'. Could even turn it up to 'High'. If picture is still too dark then you can also increase the Brightness setting. However I find the picture quality is generally better if you keep the Brightness at 0 for most content.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Charlied — Mon, 04 May 2020 14:10:06 GMT

UN65RU7200FXZA is what I have, the exact same tv settings using the internal TV streaming settings versis a HDMI input from Amazon is like a different tv. I'm going to call it the GAIN signal. Internally, with the TV processing the stream signal using the smart tv, the picture is dull dark and faded. The same settings on the TV using the same stream from Amazon, only from my Sony smart DVD player plugged into the HDMI port, the picture is brighter and clearer. The TV is less than a year old. I took 2 pictures of the same scene from Goliath, the first was with the Samsung's internal streaming Amazon, the second was from a hdmi input from my dvd player, the same stream. TV streaming internallySony smart dvd, same stream hdmi input

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Garyc123 — Mon, 04 May 2020 14:46:30 GMT

Interesting. I lack a second source for prime unfortunately so was not able to test further.

Seems like the app really is broken - and Samsung have already said to me that the problem is the app and my solution is to 'email Amazon, thx bye'.

Amazon did provide me much more extensive troubleshooting than Samsung ever did and tried everything they could think of over several hours however their own conclusion was that the app works fine and it must be the TV....

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

ZafiroStar — Thu, 07 May 2020 21:11:17 GMT

I am having the dark issue on a brand new Samsung 8 Series TU8000

I am not using the native TV apps - instead I am using the latest Roku 4K Ultra device, and also an Xbox One X

Watching dvd / blu ray - screen is perfect and bright

When I stream Netflix 4k - I get the flicker where it does black for a second or 2, then comes back

When I stream Amazon it does not flicker, but I get a super dark screen

Interesting thing is that the behavior is exactly the same whehter I use the Xbox One X or the Roku

Network is fiber to AC router, speedtest is about 189MB /sec up and 80 MB / sec up * so I dont think this is a bandwidth isue on my side.

What the heck?? Anyone have any suggestions? I am thinking about returing the TV.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Ermax89 — Thu, 21 May 2020 20:11:54 GMT

I only just bought the ru7470 and I was thinking of giving it back to get the tu8000 because I am having the same problems you have! When streaming hdr videos on Amazon prime app the scene is very dark. It looks a bit better when I set the contrast enhancer to low (high is too much and it looks rubbish) and increase the gamma to 1. My main problem is that, during very dark scenes, the screen just goes black until a change of scene. I can only see a bit the brightest part of the scene, like a lamp. It is absolutely ridiculous at the point that I prefer watching non HDR content. Unfortunately I don't have any other use source that I can try so I don't understand if it's the TV or the app. But I understand you have the same problem with black screen? In which case it would probably be the app.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

olc — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 07:46:26 GMT

I can confirm the problem with my QE55Q8F2018. Experience with Amazon Prime is very bad using the build-in app but is just perfect with my Amazon stick. Hope that Samsung and Amazon developer teams will work together in order to get this fixed.

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Ermax89 — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 09:50:28 GMT

Thank you for sharing your experience. So you confirm that 4K HDR content from the Amazon prime built in app is dark and unwatchable but the same content from the Amazon fire TV stick 4K is good? Would you mind attaching a picture comparison for reference? Thank you

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Charlied — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 13:09:58 GMT

just post it here too: https://twitter.com/Samsung

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Garyc123 — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:56:09 GMT

It would be interesting to know if this is some kind of fault and we should be returning our TVs or if they all do it, therefore being a problem with the apps or TV software.

Does anyone have one of these TV models that doesn't have such issues?

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Gocubsgo — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 15:39:39 GMT

Did this affect the other TV stations or the picture on Netflix streaming shows ?

Re: Amazon prime streams very dark

Gocubsgo — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 15:46:21 GMT

Did this do anything to the Netflix picture or channels like HBO ESPN etc?