@matlough wrote:
I was just having a quick search for potential replacements if and when my retailer agrees to a refund.
Previously I was thinking the LGb7 or Sony xe93 are the only candidates BUT having found this,
https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/bbc-iplayer-blue-planet-2-uhd-hdr/td-p/2401647/page/7
it looks like even the SONY has been having problems!
Guessing LG may be the only safe route for future support?
It does seem that LG are by far the best supported HDR TV's currently. If you look at the models from 2016, the same year as the KS rather than the 2017 models for a 'fairer' comparison, the LG still comes out on top as it offers full HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG support. Obviously LG are not going down the HDR10+ route but they do have the 'full' Dolby Vision support. Sony's X1 Extreme TV's that are getting DV, don't support it fully and require the devices to support the version of DV that the Sony's will play - Something about needing the device to handle the processing which I assume is handled by 'silicone' in the LG.
The 2017 LG's though offer a HDR Pro mode that takes standard HDR10 and analyses it to generate its own 'dynamic metadata' to better optimise the HDR. The issue with 'static' metadata is that it gives the TV an overall look at the content - for example will state that the highest Peak brightness is 3000 and that sets the tone mapping for the content. Some scenes may only reach 1000nits and instead of setting that as the 'limit' for that scene like Dynamic Metadaa does, its scaled down in the same way. In other words, in the scene that hits 3000nits, 1000nit parts of the image will be displayed at the same brightness as a 1000nit scene later on but with Dynamic Metadata, that 1000nits in that scene would be brighter than the 1000nit parts of a scene that has much higher Peak brightness.
If you have a 'low' colour volume by comparison to the 'HDR content', Dynamic Metadata helps those 'darker' scenes have more 'impact' and better optimised. It helps use more of the limited colour volume in those darker scenes. If you have a 700nit OLED for example but playing HDR mastered at 4000nits with the highest peak brightness at 3000 nits, HDR10 static metadata may follow the curve up to 150nits 1:1 but then fall away so that the 3000nit scene is now compressed down to 700nits. If the next scene drops to 1000nits peak, with Static Metadata, that scene may only hit 400nits and still display up to 150nits at 1:1. With Dynamic Metadata, it may decide that upto 300nits can be 1:1 now and 1000nits is now displayed at the 700nit limit. This why Dynamic Metadata is more important now with 'low' colour volume TV's.
A 3000nit TV though, without HDR10+ or a pseudo HDR Pro mode would be able to show that film at 1:1. 1000nits will be displayed at 1000nits. It will be much better optimised than a 700nit TV with DV/HDR10+ support. Even if the cpntent peaks at 4000nits, the tone mapping curve may decide that in can follow the curve up to 2000nits and then fit the 2000-4000nits in to the 2000-3000nits of the TV. A 1000nit scene would still be 1:1 whist the 700nit TV would still need to tone map and therefore still better optimised.
Anyway, that's digressing a bit. The 2017 LG's though do fully support DV, HDR10 and HLG. The added HDR Pro mode does give the OLED a way to simulate HDR10+ with ALL HDR10 content (apart from games in game mode) - whether its HDR10 or HDR10+. In essence, that should give LG an advantage because it works with all HDR10 content and as HDR10+ will default to HDR10, they can use HDR Pro to get a similar optimised HDR image. HDR10+ TV's will not optimise standard HDR10 or DV (which defaults to HDR10 on these TV's) - at least not on 2017 models - so the only enhanced HDR will be HDR10+. Whilst the LG OLEDs are 'simulating' HDR10+, its still able to better optimise HDR10 as well as full support for HLG and DV making it the 'best' TV for covering all HDR content.
Until we get a fully supported HDR10+, DV, HLG, THX (if/when that arrives) and an equivalent to HDR Pro mode option to enhance HDR10 (unless we get full colour volume TV's which would make HDR10+ and HDR Pro modes obsolete and pointless), LG certainly has the most complete and fully supported HDR TV on the market right now. With Samsungs reluctance to look at Dolby Vision, unless we get HDR12 (12bit colour depth), then even if we do get 10000nit, full rec2020 TV's, DV still has some benefit when Dynamic metadata is adding nothing.
