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Q9FN not displaying HDR correctly

(Topic created on: 13-11-2018 06:55 PM)
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Usursar
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Hello 🙂


My TV is a QE75Q9FNATXXC. I'm using an Oppo UDP-203 and a Playstation 4 Pro with it. HDR is activated on both with all settings on Auto. The TV recognizes the HDR input.


With UHD discs vs Blu-ray UHD has richer, more natural colors. But the thing is, Blu-ray always matches or sometimes even exceeds the UHD highlights in terms of brightness.


With my PS4 I took screenshots in multiple games with HDR turned on and off and they're virtually identical. But I did spot one difference in the first chapter of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Looking directly into a car's headlight with HDR the area of bright light is smaller and I could make out details inside the headlight. With SDR I get a bigger glare which appears brighter. So it seems like the TV is displaying the HDR image without actually applying the extra brighness.


Samsung support asked me to check if HDR was working with the Youtube app to determine if the problem was limited to external units but it's hard to make a definitive call as it is my first and only HDR screen. What really trips me up is that the TV makes all material look bright and vivid.


I was wondering if anyone had any idea what could be wrong? Is there something else I should be trying? Is there a Youtube video that makes it easy to determine if HDR is working correctly?

 

 

I have already tried: Plugging everything directly into the TV, tried multiple HDMI cables, activated UHD for all inputs on the One Connect box, made sure Eco mode is off.

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paul1277
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Try the movie mode.
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Usursar
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It already is in movie mode.

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paul1277
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@Usursar wrote:

It already is in movie mode.

 

Could be a faulty panel. I always suggest reporting it to your retailer as a fault,  because a TV that costs so much should WOW you.  I do know that some of the YouTube HDR samples are  stunning and there a considerably difference between SDR and HDR sources and if you can not see any difference then that could be a fault. When you play a HDR source best doing a search on YouTube for HDR,  in the TV picture expert settings does it show the back light set to maximum,  which it should? 


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Usursar
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Backlight is at maximum. The TV does wow me, but as I mentioned earlier it does mess with me that the image is so bright to begin with - one reviewer measured almost 700 nits in SDR mode. I will look at something bright in HDR then discover that the SDR version can keep up with it. I have looked at dozens of impressive HDR clips in youtube without seeing a definite difference. Just now I ended up looking at this one in the the Q9FN's youtube app vs the PS4's youtube app (HDR off):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlAsAuBtmps


In SDR I can see two brightness changes while I can see all four in HDR. It gets a little uncomfortable but I don't have to look away. Should it have melted my eyeballs at 2000 nits? 🙂

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paul1277
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If you set the back light to max on SDR then that could be far to bright overall but in HDR it should make bright areas brighter,  and dark darker,  but keeping the details. The picture show look more true to life,  and not hard but pleasant on the eyes. 

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Usursar
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Small update:


Samsung said they were going to have a thorough look at the information I had given them and get back to me. Now it's been three weeks and I haven't heard a peep. I asked them for an update a week ago but haven't gotten a reply to that either. The website said they were in a busy period but eeugh.


As for the backlight, yeah I walked into that one. I use all sources primarily for HDR and did quick comparisons with SDR without realizing I had to manually change the settings. But...


Turning the backlight way down, the blu-ray image is very similar to the UHD one. UHD discs have slightly richer colors but light sources still doesn't stand out more - In The Revenant the sun and torches aren't brighter in HDR with backlight 50 than they are in SDR with backlight 6. And I have never been able to make out more detail in darker areas of the image with any material. I got my Xbox One X back from repairs so the issue now persists across three HDR sources.

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Parmageddom
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Hi - Did you get any further with this?

I've bought a Q9FN last week and come to the same conclusion. I've been doing a side by side comparison between that and a LG B8 OLED. I noticed when I play God Of War on SDR or HDR, it looks virtually identical on the Q9FN. I even took photos to compare.


However, on the LG Oled its HUGELY different, the TV even tells you the screen has gone into HDR mode, and even gives you different calibration profiles that are seperate to SDR ones. 

Whereas the Samsung, no acknowledgemen that its in HDR at all. Just stays in whatever mode you had it on i.e "Dynamic".....I'm not even sure it IS in HDR mode? So close to just taking this TV back and going with another Oled.

 

 

Interested in seeing where you got upto Usursar?

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Usursar
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Hi! Unlike you I didn't have another screen to compare with.  But the 9QFN should be just about the best HDR display you can buy right now. With the right material it should get significantly brighter than an LG oled. You can tell if HDR/UHD is received by the TV by pushing the ok/enter button on the remote.

 

I've read that you may have to uninstall and reinstall God of War for HDR to work, but I haven't tried this myself. Have you had more success with other games/movies? You've been through the usual troubleshooting?  Setting backlight to 50 for HDR, trying different HDMI cables, activated UHD for all inputs on the One Connect box, made sure Eco mode is off?

 

As for my own TV, Samsung Support turned out to be completely useless. Every time I contacted them or answered one of their questions I got a reply from a different person who would then ask me the same questions I'd already answered several times. The expert opinion I was told to wait for? Never heard anything more about it. More recently I finally managed to convince one guy at support something might actually be wrong with my TV and he sent me a contact form so they could send a technician to have a look at it. I filled out the form and sent it in and it was received by a different person who didn't contact a technician but instead sent me a mail to inform me that there wasn't really a visible difference betweeen HDR and SDR anyway.

 

After vowing to never, ever, not in a million years buy another Samsung product I contacted the retailer. Within two minutes they had agreed to send me a new TV and I felt immensely foolish for not having contacted them sooner. The new TV should be here by the end of next week. And that's all I have to say about that!

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Parmageddom
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Huh! Wasn't aware of the requirement to uninstall/reinstall Gow for it to function correctly. Though that doesnt sound consistent with what im seeing.

 

I can see clearly when I set the signal to HDR, the LG picks it up and informs me that the TV has gone into HDR mode, you even see the impact of the bright content lift  as that occurs....on the Samsung I see nothing. Below is the comparison I took.

 

SDR :- https://ibb.co/YZXTZVL
HDR :- https://ibb.co/M7CXqqT


The difference is so subtle, however, look at the next comparison, in that the Q9FN is in the top left, LG B8 is bottom right,

SDR:- https://ibb.co/5kpd1D2
HDR:- https://ibb.co/JrCdg6J

 

 

I'll try more games later, a friend has given me Horizon to try out, and i'll be trying some UHD blurays too.