4K discs and how my TV confused me!

[Corpus_Chain]

I feel a bit silly, and a bit annoyed at LG, because I have finally worked out why 4K discs were looking poor on my TV.
I have an LG TV and a Panasonic 4K blu ray player.
Like most TVs, the LG has various picture presets that can be customised. These can also be set differently for different inputs. When I set up the 4K player, I customised the "standard" preset for the relevant input, and it was looking good... for HD blu rays and DVDs. But 4k discs didn't look right. I was starting to wonder if 4k discs were worth the investment. I think the worst crime was that the picture looked washed out and the famed contrast available with HDR just wasn't evident.

Then I discovered that when you insert an HDR disc, the TV switches to a "standard HDR" preset, which is separate from the "standard" preset. Basically, there is a separate preset that activates when you insert a 4k disc. The TV also has a setting that automatically switches to filmmaker mode when movie content is detected, so even if I set up "standard" and "HDR standard" correctly, they wouldn't even be used because the TV was switching to another preset! AHHHHHH

So I had a preset set to my own tastes and room, but 4k discs were not using it and this is why they looked worse than other discs.

So, obviously I have now set up the HDR standard preset, using a variety of 4k discs, and bang! 4k discs look great now. Lots of lovely contrast and colours. I now realise that having this separate HDR preset was really helpful because my 4k discs tend to be the films that I watch in the dark, whereas DVDs tend be more sitcoms and comedies that will watch with the lights on (HD Blu rays tend to be a mix of the two). Therefore I can set up the HDR standard preset in the dark, but set up the standard preset in the light, and then I'll get a preset that is better suited to the most commonly used light situation for those discs (my TV doesn't have the tech to adapt to ambient light).

The moral of the tale is never assume you've exhausted all possibilties and never assume you understand your equipment fully!

Have a great day!

 

[R2D2]

I feel a bit silly, and a bit annoyed at LG, because I have finally worked out why 4K discs were looking poor on my TV.
I have an LG TV and a Panasonic 4K blu ray player.
Like most TVs, the LG has various picture presets that can be customised. These can also be set differently for different inputs. When I set up the 4K player, I customised the "standard" preset for the relevant input, and it was looking good... for HD blu rays and DVDs. But 4k discs didn't look right. I was starting to wonder if 4k discs were worth the investment. I think the worst crime was that the picture looked washed out and the famed contrast available with HDR just wasn't evident.

Then I discovered that when you insert an HDR disc, the TV switches to a "standard HDR" preset, which is separate from the "standard" preset. Basically, there is a separate preset that activates when you insert a 4k disc. The TV also has a setting that automatically switches to filmmaker mode when movie content is detected, so even if I set up "standard" and "HDR standard" correctly, they wouldn't even be used because the TV was switching to another preset! AHHHHHH

So I had a preset set to my own tastes and room, but 4k discs were not using it and this is why they looked worse than other discs.

So, obviously I have now set up the HDR standard preset, using a variety of 4k discs, and bang! 4k discs look great now. Lots of lovely contrast and colours. I now realise that having this separate HDR preset was really helpful because my 4k discs tend to be the films that I watch in the dark, whereas DVDs tend be more sitcoms and comedies that will watch with the lights on (HD Blu rays tend to be a mix of the two). Therefore I can set up the HDR standard preset in the dark, but set up the standard preset in the light, and then I'll get a preset that is better suited to the most commonly used light situation for those discs (my TV doesn't have the tech to adapt to ambient light).

The moral of the tale is never assume you've exhausted all possibilties and never assume you understand your equipment fully!

Have a great day!

I always use standard mode too, and I can’t stand filmmaker mode it makes the picture look so dull.

 

[Corpus_Chain]

I always use standard mode too, and I can’t stand filmmaker mode it makes the picture look so dull.

I found that too. I think it's designed for watching in absolute darkness, which I rarely do, and I daresy it works better on very expensive TVs, which mine isn't!

 

[R2D2]

I found that too. I think it's designed for watching in absolute darkness, which I rarely do, and I daresy it works better on very expensive TVs, which mine isn't!

Yes, the expensive TVs do work better in a dark room but it gives me personally headaches and I hate watching TVs in dark rooms. Plasma was only ever good in a dark room which is why I preferred LCD TVs. I have a Mini LED TV now and did away with my QD-OLED because I wanted a brighter picture for SDR content and HD, to be honest I don’t play much HDR content only on Apple TV and that’s if I am watching a movie which is hardly ever.