2020 Frame TV light sensor adjustment not working in Art mode

[Bbourgeo]

Recently purchased the 2020 65" Frame TV, and very happy so far with one exception:

I understood that the light sensor helped adjust the lighted art display level to match surrounding light levels.  So far this doesn't seem to be working for us, giving the art an unnatural "glow" in the evenings or even midday when the lights are off in the living room in favor of sunlight.  The only partial solution seems to be manually changing the brightness within the Art mode settings, which I refuse to do multiple times a day.  Am I missing something here?  Please help.

[Steku]

I experimented with the approach you proposed and I can't confirm your findings with The Frame 32 inch. The granularity in the app is exactly the same like in the TV menu, it just looks like continuous scale but the setting bug can be only moved in big steps. Also it is not learning, by moving the slider you just move the centre point around which the TV applies the very limited adjustments (only about 1/2 EV as I measured with my DSLR camera). If it works for you - you are lucky, but I'm afraid you are observing placebo effect. In my case setting the brightness centre point in the Smart things app and in the TV menu works the same (bad, not enough adaptation to the changing ambient light, that adaptation should be at least 2 EV).

The adaptation range was much better in the older Frame TV models, they dumbed it down. This is a very common and very sad trend by the manufacturers to treat users like half wits and removing any advanced mode settings. They probably do it to save on support cost, to avoid users changing something without understanding the given function. Instead of making it simple for ordinary users and offering advanced menu to the users who know what they are doing, the manufacturers treat everybody the same and dumb down their products.

[Frame43]

For me there are about 11 brightness steps in the smart things app and only three on the TV. 

The setting you see attached is how I’ve trained it with just a couple of lamps on at night time. When I turn the lamps off it usually goes down to the bottom setting — it didn’t tonight so I opened the app and set it to minimum whilst the lights were off. Then it obediently changed to brighter when I put the lamps on, and then went to minimum brightness when I turn the lamps off.

During the daytime, especially when the Sun is out, I’ve trained it in a similar way to be around the middle (6) or a couple higher. Then when the Sun goes in, it will become dimmer light down to maybe step 4 or 5, and it will return to 7 or eight as the Sun comes out. Then in the evening, it will dim to 2 or three as appropriate. 

However, where it gets it wrong is that sometimes it doesn’t do it right and misses by miles. I’ve not spotted what triggers this, however retraining it for the current ambient light fixes it for a while. 

For me it’s close but no cigar… however, it is way better than when I just had the three steps that you can do within the TV menu itself. When, as you have noticed, the adjustment was way too subtle for huge changes in ambient lighting. 

[Steku]

 

In my 2022 Frame TV 32 inch menu I have 11 steps of brightness in the Art Mode (I'm not talking here about the main TV menu, but about Art Mode menu, accessible by pressing middle circle button on the Remote, while TV is displaying a piece of art).

[Frame43]

That’s handy! I never discovered that. I’ll try using that instead of the awkward app and see if it behaves differently in terms of learning

[Frame43]

I used that quick/handy technique to adjust (teach) the brightness setting yesterday as by chance the TV kept setting minimum brightness even during sunny/bright lighting conditions. It settled down and then in the evening, it self-dimmed the brightness ok.

However, this morning it was way too bright (≈8 out of 11), so I used the app to turn the brightness down to about 4. 

Whether this was just its usual periodic brightness mistake, or due to using the remote rather than the app yesterday, I don't know. But (unlike your experience) my TV definitely significantly changes the brightness itself, much more than by default or after a brightness reset.

[Steku]

My TV also changes the brightness but the problem is how to define "significantly". If you have some photography knowledge and a camera with Manual mode you can measure how much it's changing the brightness automatically. In my case it is 1/2 EV (stop in photography terms) only. To properly adapt to a room in which no direct sunlight is shining on the wall with the TV, you would need at least 2EV of automatic change. If you have direct sunlight in this wall - even more.

Direct the lens of the camera on the wall on which the TV is changing (small representative spot, just the wall). Measure the max (midday, curtains open) and min (night or evening, maybe small lamp on) brightness of the reflected ambient light (you will probably have at least 2 stop/2 EV difference - eg. exposure time will change from 1/60 to 1/15s). Then do the same by pointing the lens just on the TV in the art mode - in my case it adapts automatically only by 1/2 stop - like 1/60 to 1/45. You can even try to do it with your phone camera - advanced mode.

[Frame43]

I'm not with the TV now, but my feeling is that the room brightness range is way over 2 stops (±2EV) from day near a bright south-facing window (e.g. +6EV) to evening (e.g. +2EV). I have taught the TV to auto-adjust from 1/11 to at least 8/11 depending on ambient light. I guess that is also more than 2 stops.

Maybe you could confirm the TV capability by metering it on a static picture and altering the Art Brightness setting and see what range of EV values you get? I assume it will be way more than the 1/2 EV of auto-adjustment you are seeing.

I might play some more another time (but I'm reluctant to do that as it might impact the learning/teaching I've done so far). For me the issue isn't limited range of adjustment, it's occasional periodic stupid adjustment choices...