HDR content too dark

[nikhm]

I have a Samsung UE75TU7000KXXU TV and when watching HDR content the dark scenes are unwatchable.

I have gone through the expert picture settings to see if anything can get this working but to no avail.

I use both built in apps and an external Apple TV, as this allows the viewing of extras that the app does not.

I have the issue with everything that I watch that has HDR content. 

If I cannot get this resolved then I may need to return the TV and purchase a competitors as this is a big issue to me.

I look forward to you getting back to me as soon as you can.

[klumper]

As I've got a roku I can set the TV type to 4k rather than 4k HDR. This certainly solves the problem I see with the Apple TV app. Am I missing out on some amazing experience losing the HDR feature?

[katonanorbert]

Yep, it's never totally perfect, and I think Samsung expert should notice that as well, and they should know why it's technically  happenning. I believe they just try to avoid spending too much time on answering these pretty complicated questions... in world where probably every other call is about "how to pair my remote" or "where do I connect my Playstation".

In theory FILMMAKER mode (if you have it) should set all the paramters in a way that the picture represents the authors' original intent. In practice I don't even know if that changes the parameters in the background or not, since if I change some settings in the menu it just saves them and keeps the values even if I play different videos. Anyway, FILMMAKER also looks too dark and weird to me, and I don't care if "this is what HDR is" as long as SDR looks much better.

There are a lot of videos about "Why HDR is a scam", and it's possible that some conversions, standard specific representations and SW related tone mapping are just not there yet... maybe this is still an HDR MVP...

[katonanorbert]

Seeing the tremendous amount of struggle around HDR on the internet... I don't think so. On the other hand, it would be great to see the intended SDR/HDR difference in some great materials + on a reference monitor + where the calibration and representation is perfect + in real life; not in youtube test videos or fake promo materials.

[klumper]

Hello katonanorbert, I'm very interested to know what you find with the different formats. Will you use  Plex to feed the three formats into the TV?

[klumper]

The TU8000 is only a budget TV. Am I likely to find a budget TV where the HDR is worth having? I'm still within the return window of my TV.

[katonanorbert]

The usefulness of HDR is very controversial. Some people say it's awesome, some others really hate it.  Even with updated settings I see better materials and worse as well. I believe it makes sense to have a TV that brings you the experience you are expecting and you also can afford it. To see if other products are better according to your preferences it makes sense to use RTINGS' tool https://www.rtings.com/tv/tools/table 

My gut feeling is that HDR is as better on more expensive TVs as picture quality is better in general. So if you buy a pricier TV you can expect more modern features, better color accuracy, some xtra marketing bull***** etc... you are the only one who knows how picture-sensitive you are, what you can afford and which additional features you would utilize.

[RussN]

I just put in a complaint with the CEO's Desk asking for their help and providing a link to this thread.  I would probably be a good idea for everyone to do the same.  Maybe we will get somewhere if more people put in complaints.  Here's a link to do that.

http://contactus.samsung.com/customer/contactus/formmail/mail/MailQuestionGeneralNew.jsp?PROD_ID=G30...

[OzascoMD]

Hi guys!

Same issue with my Q60T. It is not happening so badly for all the contents, but for example, Captain Marvel in Disney+ App is terrible.

I`ll try MotiY settings and share the results from my perspective.

It is sad that all these expensive stuff don`t work as we would like, every single time I need to watch something I need to spend minutes tweaking the TV.

To make it worse, Samsung doesn`t make it easier, not even an OTA update we can get, you need to use your pen-drive, what about all the regular users that don`t even know what is a firmware update? Last year had problem with my Samsung Home Theater J5500 (endless loop), now with dark HDR images in the TV, not mention the bad match it has with the Home Theater. Lot of frustration.

[MotiY]

Hi QzascoMD,

Now I believe that the source of the problem is the mismatch between the HDR formats.
I think that most Netflix HDR titles were filmed with Dolby vision, format not supported with Samsung TVs.
In the case of Dolby Vision, Samsung TV recognize that an HDR content is being played but the TV fail to translate this format to the rich color space so the picture looks very dim and dark.
To make things worse, both Samsung and Netflix do not provide information about the HDR exact format of the played title. 
When you see real HDR10(+), like the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcRxx3F-So&list=PLIEYDsl3WGOe7FNajbW1-4qZgaV_Ugp-t&index=4&t=15s
the picture looks very realistic with the Automatic Intelligent mode TV picture setting.
I totally understand your frustration from the need for tweaking the TV settings between played titles.
Lets all hope that Samsung will fix their Netflix app and TV settings so when "Dolby Vision" title is recognize by the TV, then the picture settings will automatically switched to the best settings that Samsung engineers can develop for that.
Did the HDR settings I suggested in previous post (for dark and dim titles) work for you?

[surajit09]

Hi All. 

a bit late to reply on this. Have been testing different setups with my TU8000. Guys try this out. 

Play any 4k hdr content in ps4 pro and check. The HDR looks way more better than the in built tv apps. i played Snyder's justice league and a couple of others. Tried with netflix, appleTv and other apps. The sharpness and the black reproduction in low dim areas was way more better. 

i found that when we play it from ps4, it activated game mode hdr. This mode can only be activated when a gaming console is the source. The picture quality without increasing the gama is just superb. I believe that its the problem of the settings in tv that samsung is not looking into. The tv just performs superb when a gaming console is attached. The HDR reproduction is just flawless kind off. 

i have stopped using the tv apps, and use ps4 for watching any ott apps mostly.