What utter clown decided that HDR was a good idea on TV?

[Kermit power]

More accurately, what clown decided it was a good idea to regale us with HDR content on streaming services such as Netflix and Prime without the ability to turn the bloody thing off???

It's fine if I'm watching in complete darkness, but I don't actually want to watch TV in darkness all the time, and if there's any ambient light, I find HDR content to be so dark that it's unwatchable!

[dudleybloke]

It always looks dark when streaming but looks fine from direct sources.

[Kermit power]

dudleybloke said:

It always looks dark when streaming but looks fine from direct sources.

Who even has direct sources any more though?

[TEKNOPUG]

Sounds like your TV is the issue. Mine has half a dozen HDR imagine presets from "Director's Dark" to retina burning bright. And also an HDR Personal where I can adjust all the settings to exactly how I want it.

Still not as good as Dolby Vision.

[Timothy Bucktu]

Just to add balance...HDR10 on my 65" Sony OLED looks absolutely incredible!

[Kermit power]

TEKNOPUG said:

Sounds like your TV is the issue. Mine has half a dozen HDR imagine presets from "Director's Dark" to retina burning bright. And also an HDR Personal where I can adjust all the settings to exactly how I want it.

Still not as good as Dolby Vision.

It seems that the clownery is on the part of Virgin Media. If I watch stuff directly on the Philips OLED TV it works fine, but through the Virgin box the HDR controls on the TV menu are greyed out.

[Gary Woodland]

I really like it for movies and stuff that’s been thoughtfully graded for HDR but I’m absolutely baffled when I’m watching a night match of football. The boards are crazy bright and the action somewhat dingy, sure that’s more “accurate” but I don’t care, it looks rubbish.

[TEKNOPUG]

Kermit power said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Sounds like your TV is the issue. Mine has half a dozen HDR imagine presets from "Director's Dark" to retina burning bright. And also an HDR Personal where I can adjust all the settings to exactly how I want it.

Still not as good as Dolby Vision.

It seems that the clownery is on the part of Virgin Media. If I watch stuff directly on the Philips OLED TV it works fine, but through the Virgin box the HDR controls on the TV menu are greyed out.

Get an Amazon Firestick and use that for apps streaming. HDR10 and DV compliant.

[Defcon5]

There will likely be a master control to turn HDR off for that particular HDMI input in the TV settings

[donkmeister]

Kermit power said:

dudleybloke said:

It always looks dark when streaming but looks fine from direct sources.

Who even has direct sources any more though?

Ooh, me sir, me!

I rarely use it but I have a standalone (i.e. not a games console) UHD Blu-ray player. The sound of both HD and UHD Blu-ray is objectively (but not necessarily subjectively!) better compared to the streaming services, as none of the latter provide TrueHD. The picture is definitely better also.

Now, I'm not suggesting you cancel your streaming services and go back to buying everything on spinning discs, but if you want to see what your equipment is truly capable of that's what you need.

The annoying thing is of course that there is no technical reason why streaming services couldn't offer the same level of quality to those with suitable hardware and internet connections, but when I last checked only the Shield Pro could do TrueHD+Atmos... I seem to recall the Apple TV hardware was capable but the software was crippled because of reasons that only make sense if you wear a lumberjack shirt ironically. However, most people are streaming using their TVs in built-in smart stuff, so it's not a concern... TBH I'm surprised they all do DV/4k/HDR/Atmos as the market of people actually keen to use it is probably not that large Vs the people who don't know/don't care/don't have the equipment.

[N4LLY]

TEKNOPUG said:

Get an Amazon Firestick and use that for apps streaming. HDR10 and DV compliant.

^^^^ This. A 4K Max.

[Kermit power]

N4LLY said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Get an Amazon Firestick and use that for apps streaming. HDR10 and DV compliant.

^^^^ This. A 4K Max.

I can get all my HDR streaming stuff on the TV itself with the exception of any Sky stuff through Virgin, so it's not really the issue I thought it was until I found out it was a virgjn app issue not a TV one.