Brand new 65" 2018 Q9FN and issues with HDR

[Pon11]

I have now been using my brand new 65" 2018 Q9FN for couple of weeks and only couple of days ago started to watch HDR content using the built in apps in the device. Almost immediately (especially when watching dark scenes of Ozark in Netflix) I noticed that there is something weird going on with every HDR content when the subtitles are enabled.

The problem is the following. Every time a subtitle appears on the screen, the device brightens up the details in the screen automatically as if it would try to automatically correct the brightness and contrast in the screen to match the bright light produced by the appearing subtitles. This is really annoying and makes watching of HDR content almost unwatchable. Non-HDR content does not have the same problem when subtitles are enabled and also if I turn off the subtitles completely the problem is gone also with HDR content. It should not however be the "fix" to just watch without subtitles as people including me do watch non-native content with subtitles.

Something I also tried to do was to set the colour of the subtitles to something else than white (currently yellow with black boxes around it) but the dynamic brightness / contrast adjustment is still there every time subtitles appear in the screen. Oh and just to be clear the latest firmware 1153 updated on 8 November.

I think there is also a similar kind of problem described in the topic linked below but I saw that discussion going nowhere so decided to open a new topic just for this problem: 

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/TV-Audio-Video/Brand-new-55-Q9FN-terrible-panel-quality/td-p/577...

"...if there's some white/bright element either from the scene, or even external (volume display, subtitles, etc.) it seems to brighten that corner of the screen and suddenly you see all this detail in the scene"

Am I alone with this issue and is Samsung doing anything to correct this? I feel like I should be returning the device because I don't feel like a satisfied customer at the moment.

[JDawg]

Allright. I know what's happening.

Run plex with burned in subtitles and you'll see with standard and low dimming it looks mostly fine (I use HDR+ with auto colors).

BUT if you use plex with subtitles not burned in it looks far too bright.

So samsung simply needs to programs its subtitles to NOT be an overlay, but be burned in with the rest of the movie.

Because they are an overlay they always get FULL brightness from dimming. If they are burned in they are not treated this way. 

Don't use high dimming tho, that's always *****.

TLDR: subtitles that are burned in look far better than subtitles that are added as an overlay in the menu!!! Samsung take note *****

[JDawg]

Also several employees have guaranteed me that a solution is coming and that the subtitles are unacceptable at this price range. So Samsung has to fix it. But this silence about this issue on these boards is very peculiar.

[Schwimmbo]

Which employees have guaranteed that to you? Samsung employees? Or employees from technology shops?

I think we can all agree that (1) this 'quality' is unacceptable in this price range and (2) Samsung ignoring us is how you lose customers (I, for one, am never buying a Samsung TV again and it is fully due to this lack of respect for their customers).

As for your other reply: yes, that is exactly the issue. And it is thus a software issue that needs to be fixed with a firmware update. We have had 3 or 4 of those and not even once has it improved imo...

[JDawg]

Customer service from Samsung on facebook. Three employees have said a fix is coming, and the slight improvements now are temporary fixes. It's all in Dutch so I cant really screenshot it for you..

[lonegunner_]

Hi, 

I believe that Samsung has the technology to fix this, but won't because new models have been launched, with same problem, the only difference is that the new models have less nits than the previous ones, and if the issue wasn't fixed on the new models what makes you say that the old ones will be? 

[JDawg]

"tijdelijke fix" means temporary fix is on movie mode now. 

"volledige fix" line means full fix is coming.

Kevin, Davey and Sammy have all 3 said a full fix is coming. All of them samsung employees. 

[lonegunner_]

P. S. Mine is in the garage waiting for that "fix", until then my C8 is stunning, I loved the q9fn, the remote, the simple layout of the TV, the software, except that freakin subtitles.... 

[lonegunner_]

I'm not arguing with you, I want to believe that it's true, if I wasn't, I wouldn't have started the petition, let's hope to be soon. 

[JDawg]

Oh don't worry I'm very sceptical, but seeing I have three separate employees promising a fix.. I at least have great cause to cause a scene and demand a refund one if a fix isn't here in say a few months. Cause if they hadn't guaranteed I would have returned the TV. I mean I can imagine high dimming to be troublesome, but standard and low dimming have no right to be as bad as they are.

[Schwimmbo]

Thanks for the screenshots. Being a Dutch native speaker myself, I am highly skeptical. All 3 of them hardly seem to believe what they answered to you. One even confirms "it is definitely coming, we only don't know when". Another stated that it will "eventually" be solved.

Edit: I would actually be quite surprised if Dutch customer service employees would be genuinely aware whether or not a fix is on its way for this annoying thing...