Possible Fix for Too-Dark Netflix Videos on Samsung TVs - Page 7

100pat · ‎10-07-2019

Sadly, the answer is to switch your device to SDR. You can sit in a pitch black room and mess with settings all you want - that won’t fix it.

This means that you have to notice, or know, that the video you want to watch will be streamed in Dolby Vision HDR and change a setting every time (then change it back - what a pain!) to accommodate this.

a) *EDIT* THE INFORMATION IN a) BELOW IS WRONG. I HAVE LEFT IT IN PLACE SO AS NOT TO CONFUSE PEOPLE WHO SUBSEQUENTLY RE-READ IT. IT APPEARS THAT, FOR MORE MODERN TELLYS AT LEAST, THE OPTION ("INPUT SIGNAL PLUS" IN SETTINGS/ GENERAL/ EXTERNAL DEVICE MANAGER) FOR TOGGLING BETWEEN HDR AND SDR ONLY FUNCTIONS IF YOU ARE WATCHING VIA AN EXTERNAL DEVICE SUCH AS AN APPLE-TV OR A FIRESTICK. IF YOU ARE USING THE TELLY'S OWN SMART NETFLIX APP THERE APPEARS TO BE NO OPTION TO TOGGLE BETWEEN HDR AND SDR.

a) If watching via the Netflix smart app on the Samsung HDR telly itself, turn off the HDR settings in the telly’s General/ External Device Manager settings which set the input ports for HDR. Usually called HDMI UHD Colour or Input Signal Plus. (EDIT: NO, THAT WON'T WORK. )

Now the Netflix Dolby Vision HDR video will still play in 4k/UHD but only in SDR. (And only in 8-bit) But, at least, you can see it without having to sit in the coal cellar.

(May cause unwanted changes to other devices connected to the TV)

Remember to turn those settings back on again for non-HDR Netflix videos and for all Amazon etc. videos.

b) If watching via an AppleTV 4k connected to a Samsung HDR TV the following are usually the best Video settings in the AppeTV for everything except Netflix HDR videos. I recommend using them all the time:

- 4K SDR (Yes, SDR!) in 50Hz (UK) or 60Hz

- Chroma 420 (To enable 10-bit on most, not-super-expensive, Samsung tellys)

- Match Content > Range and Frame Rate both turned on.

Now, to watch a Netflix Dolby Vision HDR video in SDR on a Samsung HDR TV, simply turn off Match Dynamic Range (only) in the Match Content setting referred to above. EDIT :SO LONG AS YOU HAVE SET YOUR APPLE-TV TO SDR AS I HAVE RECOMMENDED ABOVE.

Now the Netflix Dolby Vision HDR video which you want to watch will still play in 4k/UHD but only in SDR. (And only in 8-bit)

Remember to turn that Range setting back on again for non-HDR Netflix videos and for all Amazon etc. videos.

EDIT: NOTE THAT, IF YOU ALTERNATIVELY ELECT TO TURN OFF HDR WHEN USING AN APPLE-TV BY USING THE "INPUT SIGNAL PLUS" SETTING IN YOUR SAMSUNG TV SETTINGS, THAT WILL WORK BUT THEN YOUR APPLE TV WILL SENSE THAT IT IS NO LONGER CONNECTED TO AN HDR TV AND WILL PROBABLY ALTER SEVERAL OF IT'S OWN SETTINGS.

EXPLANATIONS:

Firstly, the “best” AppleTV settings shown above will allow SDR Videos and the Home Screen to display correctly and then, when you start to play any HDR video, the AppleTV automatically switches itself to output HDR ( and automatically back to SDR again, when done.) EDIT: UNLESS, OF COURSE, YOU HAVE TURNED OFF THE "MATCH RANGE" OPTION IN ORDER TO WATCH A NETFLIX DOLBY VISION VIDEO.

Netflix outputs it’s HDR videos in Dolby Vision HDR format. Many brands of telly display this OK but Samsung tellys are designed to use the rival HDR10+ format. Dolby Vision formatted videos display badly on Samsung TVs. Full stop!

Amazon Prime output their HDR videos in HDR10+ format so they display nicely on Samsung tellys.

Netflix claim to output HDR in both Dolby Vision format and in vanilla HDR10 (without a +) format. Presumably, if we could get them to send HRD10 (without a +) format videos to our Samsung TVs that would fix the problem. But, I rang Netflix, and it seems (in a very vague conversation) that this is not possible unless our AppleTVs could somehow request it.

Dolby Vision vs HDR10+. Who will win the battle to become the industry standard?

Note that this correct AFAIK on 08/10/2019 and may change in future. Those of us who just bought new Samsung TV sets will be keeping our fingers crossed!

EDIT: MY APOLOGIES FOR THE EDITS!

TessM · ‎28-10-2019

I understand your frustration and I would be happy to share the resolution for this. However, every issue may differ from the other and I would suggest contacting support in your region to have a closer look at this with you. You can find your region contact number by following this link: https://www.samsung.com/uk/function/ipredirection/ipredirectionLocalList/ so our colleagues can advise you further.

ikramkhasim · ‎28-10-2019

@TessM wrote:
I understand your frustration and I would be happy to share the resolution for this. However, every issue may differ from the other and I would suggest contacting support in your region to have a closer look at this with you. You can find your region contact number by following this link: https://www.samsung.com/uk/function/ipredirection/ipredirectionLocalList/ so our colleagues can advise you further.

I think it's quite clear what the issues are here from the entire discussion in this thread. I won't describe them again as they have been documented by everyone participating here. What we are waiting for is an acknowledgement from Samsung that the issues exist and some sort of resolution to them. So far we've received neither.

jez_0 · ‎28-10-2019

Hi, sorry the ambient light detection has not worked for everyone. I appreciate there are other issues at play here. Before I got the Q9 75 I had the Q9 55 and certainly experienced greater issues with darkness in HDR, both with Netflix content and some 4k Blu rays. In fact the 4k Blu Ray of Unforgiven gets so dark that you literally can't see the picture due to an extremely over aggressive local dimming which even when set to low makes no difference and cannot be deactivated.

The work around for this which helped me significantly by almost eradicating the issue altogether was to make sure that movie mode was activated rather than say Standard or Dynamic. In Movie mode the local dimming is far less aggressive and was a night and day difference for me regarding dark scenes in HDR.

Just a quick search of the Forums and i see this has been suggested before so apologies if this is a known workaround to some already.

ikramkhasim · ‎28-10-2019

@jez_0 Did you change any settings on Movie mode or left it at default? I know it doesn't have motion smoothing and the colour balance is different, so it's not a setting I particularly like to use. But if it works to resolve the dark image problems, I may try it out next time I come across a dark HDR title.

jez_0 · ‎28-10-2019

I changed as much as i could try and get it as close to the setup i had for standard mode. To be honest they look pretty identical now when i switch between them. I think the default colour tone for Movie is "warm" which isnt really something that appeals to me as it gives the screen a yellowish tint so i set that to standard. Once you start up something in HDR just have a play around adjusting things. To be honest I havent really noticed any issues with motion smoothing. I have to say that sometimes i can get away with using the other modes with HDR content and it will be fine but i do try and stick to movie mode when watching movies etc. I Just switch it back to standard for gaming etc.

ikramkhasim · ‎29-10-2019

@jez_0 wrote:
I changed as much as i could try and get it as close to the setup i had for standard mode. To be honest they look pretty identical now when i switch between them. I think the default colour tone for Movie is "warm" which isnt really something that appeals to me as it gives the screen a yellowish tint so i set that to standard. Once you start up something in HDR just have a play around adjusting things. To be honest I havent really noticed any issues with motion smoothing. I have to say that sometimes i can get away with using the other modes with HDR content and it will be fine but i do try and stick to movie mode when watching movies etc. I Just switch it back to standard for gaming etc.

@jez_0 So I tried Movie mode and duplicated the Standard adjustments and played "In The Tall Grass" to compare. Didn't do much for me because the dark scenes were still really awful. Sigh...

100pat · ‎30-10-2019

I had this pointed out to me - it’s a bit irrelevant to this discussion but I’ll mention it for completeness:
There is another flavour of HDR called HLG - Hybrid Log Gamma. The BBC seems to use it as it will display well on old SDR-only TV sets as well as on HDR-enabled ones. HLG HDR shouldn’t cause problems with Samsung TVs.

ikramkhasim · ‎30-10-2019

@100pat wrote:
I had this pointed out to me - it’s a bit irrelevant to this discussion but I’ll mention it for completeness:
There is another flavour of HDR called HLG - Hybrid Log Gamma. The BBC seems to use it as it will display well on old SDR-only TV sets as well as on HDR-enabled ones. HLG HDR shouldn’t cause problems with Samsung TVs.

@100pat I think I read that somewhere too. Perhaps Netflix should consider using this version? Wrong forum though.

Magpie90 · ‎01-11-2019

@ikramkhasim wrote:
@TessM wrote:
I understand your frustration and I would be happy to share the resolution for this. However, every issue may differ from the other and I would suggest contacting support in your region to have a closer look at this with you. You can find your region contact number by following this link: https://www.samsung.com/uk/function/ipredirection/ipredirectionLocalList/ so our colleagues can advise you further.
I think it's quite clear what the issues are here from the entire discussion in this thread. I won't describe them again as they have been documented by everyone participating here. What we are waiting for is an acknowledgement from Samsung that the issues exist and some sort of resolution to them. So far we've received neither.

Whilst I'd like to thank @TessM for her following input; "You can find your region contact number by following this link: https://www.samsung.com/uk/function/ipredirection/ipredirectionLocalList/ so our colleagues can advise you further. "

I would like to point out in no uncertain terms to @TessM that in NO circumstances has Samsung been able to help. Not by phone support, remote access or online help. It appears that Samsung needs to do a mea culpa, acknowledge and investigate the "too dark" 4K Ultra HD flaw and issue a software update to fix the ongoing problem. We are simply not getting what we've paid for and this , at least, needs to be recognized by Samsung. People reading this blog and others should be made aware of this issue and inform others by posting elsewhere.

TessM · ‎01-11-2019

Hi @Magpie90 ,

thanks for that! What did our colleagues advised you? Have you had the TV inspected at any point?