S9 Plus Mobile HDR not enabled & Black crush

[Riyaz]

I've purchased the S9+ and received it on Friday (09/10/2018) as I've pre-ordered. I've noticed that HDR videos that I have on either the Micro SD card or copied to internal storage DO NOT playback the videos in HDR via the native video player. I have the S8 too and it is able to do so.

Obviously 3rd party apps like Youtube may need to release an update before HDR works there so that's understandable, but for the S9+ not to have this out of the box for the native video player is disappointing.

 
These clips are short 30 seconds recording on the Xbox One X and are full 4K HDR (Tomb Raider, Horizon 3 or Destinty 2 clips), and they play as they should on the S8 with 'HDR' showing when playing. However, on the S9+ it shows 'HDR' in bold near the title when the video plays, without the actual HDR enabled.

I've contacted Samsung, they've taken my details, serial number and IMEI number. They said they'll get back to me this week.

Just a heads up to everyone. I have the UK version, Exynos.

Riyaz

[Edit: 27/03/2018 - I do have colour grading issues, I was watching a HDR video at 1440p by Digital Foundry on YouTube and I can definitely see a sort of grainy presentation of dark and black areas of the screen. Black Crush is definitely present. Plenty of stuff on reddit and android central]

[Edit: I have chased Samsung and they called me back today (14/03/2018). They have escalated to their Product Support team as their Chat Team was unable to help and their other frontline support. They mentioned that they don't know when that team will get back to me as it's the first time anyone has raised it. I guess many people can't tell the difference and think HDR is working or it's actually working for them out of the box.]

[HarryAli]

Wow I just tried it with a hdr video I have and your actually 100% right...I don't get why Samsung have done this :s let's just hope they sort this out on next update.

[Riyaz]

Indeed. I just hope it'll be a simple update to fix it.
I know the phone isn't released yet, and I have it because I pre-ordered. Hopefully soon after their official release date and update can be released to fix it if that is the case. I have also sent off another feedback via Samsung Members app because Samsung have not yet gotten back to me.

[くりぼー]

I have the same problem, screen is flickering when watching HDR videos on youtube. As if HDR gets on and off... I have the German Exynos 9+ bought from Samsung online. hope they fix it soon

[Riyaz]

---

@くりぼーwrote:

I have the same problem, screen is flickering when watching HDR videos on youtube. As if HDR gets on and off... I have the German Exynos 9+ bought from Samsung online. hope they fix it soon

---

Hey, 

Have you installed the March OTA update via Settings>Software Update? Is it available where you are? Once I installed that, the YouTube flickering stopped. There wasn't a YouTube app update at that time although an YT update has been released since then, but that hasn't made any difference to HDR itself.

Have you also tried the native video player? I would recommend you raise this too via the Samsung Members app. So they know its affecting us exynos users. 

KR

Riyaz 

[CarlH]

Thanks for sharing your feedback about your experience with Mobile HDR. We’re keen to understand what’s going on with you and would really appreciate your support to do this. Could you make sure your phone is on the latest software and send us an Error log through Samsung Members App within 15 mins of replicating the behaviour? Then head to Samsung Members App > Support > Send Feedback > Error Report. 

[Riyaz]

---

@CarlHwrote:

Thanks for sharing your feedback about your experience with Mobile HDR. We’re keen to understand what’s going on with you and would really appreciate your support to do this. Could you make sure your phone is on the latest software and send us an Error log through Samsung Members App within 15 mins of replicating the behaviour? Then head to Samsung Members App > Support > Send Feedback > Error Report. 

---

Hi,

I've got the latest version OS (March update). It's not whether or not I can replicate the issue, the issue is persistent whenever a HDR video is played. I've already included photos of comparison between my S8 and S9+ within this thread. Your colleagues over the phone have supposedly escalated this, since your first line support were unable to help even when remoting into my phone. I've sent the error report with the same photos comparing the two devices.

Thanks,

Riyaz

[trenzterra]

I have the March OTA and still experiencing the flickering issue in YouTube. It seems to be related to the auto brightness sensor. It is slightly mitigated when enabling video enhancer but is still there.

[trenzterra]

I have the March OTA and still experiencing flickering in YouTube. Seems to be related to auto brightness and more prominent when video enhancer is off.

[Riyaz]

More links to the issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS9/comments/86jbwz/s9_black_crush/

https://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s9-s9-plus/875471-galaxy-s9-plus-black-crush-gradie...

http://piunikaweb.com/2018/03/19/galaxy-s9-camera-and-display-have-major-issues/

As you can see, I'm not the only one and there's plenty of evidence that there's something wrong with the screen or a software issue.

[ibuckyi]

I've been searching around the same issue with the flickering and HDR content and I found this forum. I just bought the unlocked snapdragon 845 s9 plus 2 days ago and I get similar issues. Also at night when I remove auto brightness and lower it manually to 0, and then open the youtube app, it goes max brightness beyond ridiculousness. Never had a phone like that. My s7 edge doesn't even do that. Please fix!