Samsung Q90T Xbox Series X VRR Issues

[jdp117]

Hello everyone.

So I've had the Series X for a few days now and have managed to play around with settings in various games. Some of the games I've "tested" are Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, AC Valhalla, FIFA 21... So some quite varied content. 

The issues I'm having are related to VRR. I have noticed that when VRR is enabled, blacks are crushed to death and contrast is incredibly off the scale that all details in dark scenes are lost and bright scenes are really over blown. One of the biggest issues I've noticed is that with Gears 5 in dark scenes (opening mission tunnel sequences for example) there seems to be horizontal patches crawling vertically up the screen from bottom to top. Disabling VRR in the Series X settings menu completely fixes all VRR related issues. I guess the point of this post is to establish whether or not others are having the same issues. It seems as though the only fix is to disable VRR completely. I still leave my general video settings on 4K and 120hz, just without VRR. I have to say I have not noticed any screen tearing in 120fps game play such as Gears 5 Versus or Ori, both of which run at 120fps, so for now disabling it it isn't an issue for me. 

One aside is that OLED owners seem to be having a similar issue with VRR. Seems as though the technology in tangent with these new consoles / TVs is failing to work as intended. 

Anyone got any ideas or experiences of this themselves?

[jdp117]

Looks good. How easily were you able to send your TV back? I've had the Q90T for like 3 months now, so only way I'll be able to send it back for a refund is if Samsung agree that it's faulty beyond repair. Only thing is that they won't get back to me now, regardless of how many times I call / email. 

Feel really let down by them, £1300 basically down the toilet because they refuse to acknowledge this issue. I bought this TV for its HDMI 2.1 features and the fact that it is one of the superior LED TVs on the market. But the way they completely destroy the picture quality in Game Mode to achieve low latency is unacceptable. Coupled with the VRR issues... It's just one giant mess. 

[daparky]

It really is a big difference, no messing around now sending faulty TVs back. First Sony and it's a keeper straight away.

Who is your retailer? I bought my Q90T from Currys and from the start I had issues and sent multiple Q90Ts back due to all the known issues. In the end they actually recommended I change brands so that's what I went with. 2 months later i finally have a TV i enjoy watching/gaming on.

Yeah, it's a really bad mess indeed and i have no confidence they will sort it via firmware update, not to mention the 2021 TVs are just round the corner now.

I am happy I can get 4K upscaled at 120fps on the Sony even though it's not HDMI 2.1.

[jdp117]

The funny thing is that I had three Samsung Q80R's at the beginning of the year from Currys. Ended up with an LG C9 at the end of February which also broke on me around 6 months later with a complete panel failure. After a lot of back and forth with Currys, they eventually agreed to refund me because of the bad experiences I've had with their products. 

I decided to switch retailers and I got the Q90T from Box in September. I've already been in touch with Box and they said they would be happy to refund me if Samsung approve it. My issue now is with Samsung. I haven't gone back to Box as I've been waiting to hear from Samsung for the past month even after they asked me to send evidence for their technicians to look at, which I obviously did provide. I keep being told they will be in touch with a verdict but I have not had anything from them. 

I think I will try Box again and see if they can help. Apparently, you can get a refund if your product cannot be repaired up to 6 months after purchase, but last time I tried they said they don't deal with any Samsung TV repairs, and specialist technicians will have to carry out the assessment as Box staff do not do it themselves. So yeah, going around in circles really. 

If I manage to get this refund though, I'm thinking of going for the 65 inch Sony XH90. I'll have change leftover as well! 

[daparky]

I can't complain about Currys, they've understood my issues and promptly resolved them through exchanges etc. They even offered my a refund.

I would keep trying, maybe say to Box you've tried Samsung but they aren't responding and get Box to give Samsung a try so they can see what's going on.

That's the thing, I got a £500 refund and the quality of the Sony is far superior especially in game mode.

I went on Destiny 2 last night and was in a dark scene and the difference was WOW, deep blacks, no blooming, local dimming fully working. When you change the local dimming on the Sony you can actually see the dark areas change, it's brilliant.

[Ryle]

Got the same issue as you guys, have you heard back from Samsung? As X-Box Series X numbers increase, also the complaints about scan lines increases. After holidays I‘ll contact Samsung/ my retailer. I bought the Q90T for almost 3000€ to have HDMI 2.1 features and they‘re not working as advertised.

[Rocketopunch]

Same here. Some people say they don’t have these problems with their Xbox Series X. So I guess we just got unlucky with our Q90t‘s?

[Jstn]

I've noticed that my Q80T starts to Flicker when the Refresh Rate changes rapidly (FPS drops from 119 to 79 for example)

[MatthewKing]

Samsung has been silent on this TVs limited capabilities within VRR as it’s clearly a system-wide issue worthy of a class-action lawsuit.

My set too results in significant horizontal banding that is only eliminated when disabling VRR within my console settings. Additionally, the overall brightness and thus dynamic range of the TV drops when VRR is enabled, something that was not disclosed to any consumers prior to purchase.

For a set labeled as their Flagship, this a sunk cruise.

[jdp117]

My last correspondence with Samsung was two months ago. I've given up. No matter how hard I try to get an answer from the technical team who are supposed to be reviewing my case, it doesn't matter. Like you said, complete silence. They're actively ignoring this issue.

I will never buy a Samsung product again. 

[CaptainFastcat]

I contacted Samsung Support about this today since I'm also experiencing the issue with a very dark display when VRR is enabled (it seems fine when it's disabled).

They told me that it's a known issue and will be fixed in the next firmware, although they don't yet have a release date for that.

Also, they'll send an engineer to my house next week to apply a software update to correct the issue. I don't know if this means they'll apply an early release version of the next firmware, or if it'll be some tweaks through the service menus.