Sony UBP-X800 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Originally Posted by HeatEquation

I have a Samsung TV which is set up using the rtings settings. For the heck of it, I just tried putting my SDR settings in torch mode and comparing the picture to the default HDR settings. HDR still didn't look too dim or washed out, so I doubt that's movielover1069's issue.

I've seen several people with Sony TV's claim their picture looks washed out in HDR mode (using various video sources.) The lower end models I could understand, but his is a pretty good model. Seems strange. I wonder if it's a defective set.

If It is the TV it is his specific TV cause I have the same model 930D and My brother has the same model and my Girlfriends dad and none of them have issues with the HDR looking washed out.

[movielover1069]

Originally Posted by xxBachelor1981xx

If It is the TV it is his specific TV cause I have the same model 930D and My brother has the same model and my Girlfriends dad and none of them have issues with the HDR looking washed out.

What setting do you have the HDR on the X800 set to, Auto or Off?

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

What setting do you have the HDR on the X800 set to, Auto or Off?

Auto I have everything on Auto on the player except for Deep Color which I turned off.

[movielover1069]

Originally Posted by xxBachelor1981xx

Auto I have everything on Auto on the player except for Deep Color which I turned off.

Do you use a receiver?

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

Do you use a receiver?

Well I guess you could say my Soundbar acts a receiver. I have One HDMI Monster Cable going from the x800 to the Soundbar as my sound bar passes HDR and then One Monster HDMI Cable going into Input 4 HDMI ARC From the Sound Bar to The TV.

[movielover1069]

Originally Posted by xxBachelor1981xx

Well I guess you could say my Soundbar acts a receiver. I have One HDMI Monster Cable going from the x800 to the Soundbar as my sound bar passes HDR and then One Monster HDMI Cable going into Input 4 HDMI ARC From the Sound Bar to The TV.

That could be my problem right there! I use an old Yamaha soundbar but it's way too old to have a 4K HDR pass-thru. Maybe I should invest in one of the new Sony ones. So you have the X800 connected directly to the soundbar and then from the soundbar into the TV? Does it need to go into HDMI input 4(ARC)?

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

That could be my problem right there! I use an old Yamaha soundbar but it's way too old to have a 4K HDR pass-thru. Maybe I should invest in one of the new Sony ones. So you have the X800 connected directly to the soundbar and then from the soundbar into the TV? Does it need to go into HDMI input 4(ARC)?

I use HDMI Input 4 (ARC) However you can use any HDMI input on the TV as long as it is set to enhance. If your sound bar is way to old to have HDMI Pass through then I take it your running two HDMI Cables one for Video and then One for Audio?

[movielover1069]

Originally Posted by xxBachelor1981xx

I use HDMI Input 4 (ARC) However you can use any HDMI input on the TV as long as it is set to enhance. If your sound bar is way to old to have HDMI Pass through then I take it your running two HDMI Cables one for Video and then One for Audio?

No, just one. I'm using an optical cable for the Audio from the soundbar to the TV as the Yamaha doesn't have any HDMI connections.

[movielover1069]

I don't understand though. Why would a soundbar support HDR Video?

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

I don't understand though. Why would a soundbar support HDR Video?

Well you can do it that way to I didn't think about Optical. It would support HDR Video so that way you don't have to use 2 different HDMI Cables to get HD Surround Sound. How you have yours hooked up though has nothing to do with why your having Picture Quality issues or HDR issues with how the picture looks.

[movielover1069]

Originally Posted by xxBachelor1981xx

Well you can do it that way to I didn't think about Optical. It would support HDR Video so that way you don't have to use 2 different HDMI Cables to get HD Surround Sound. How you have yours hooked up though has nothing to do with why your having Picture Quality issues or HDR issues with how the picture looks.

So you're saying that the soundbar with the HDR pass-thru wouldn't make any difference to the picture quality? That's exactly what I thought because it's just a soundbar. Then I don't have a clue what's causing the problem. I appreciate your help though.

[apw2607]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

No. Sony's standalone players have never done this AFAIK.

The Sony Bdp-s6700 has a dolby D compatibilty mode whereby it will convert dts and truehd audio to a regular 5.1 DD stream.

The x800 doesnt have this feature but will convert all trueHd, or Dts-MA streams into multi-channel pcm.

[xxBachelor1981xx]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

So you're saying that the soundbar with the HDR pass-thru wouldn't make any difference to the picture quality? That's exactly what I thought because it's just a soundbar. Then I don't have a clue what's causing the problem. I appreciate your help though.

Correct. No problem

[goldenarm84]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

I'm beginning to think it might be a handshake issue between the Sony 4K player and the Sony TV. I've contacted Sony about the problem and all they tell me is to put the HDMI input on Enhanced, which it already is. In other words, they have no clue.

Can you post up snapshots of the way your tv looks playing HDR content in automatic HDR mode from the player and another comparison shot of your tv playing the same movie in SDR mode from the player?

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by goldenarm84

Can you post up snapshots of the way your tv looks playing HDR content in automatic HDR mode from the player and another comparison shot of your tv playing the same movie in SDR mode from the player?

He should try different HDMI cables. I noticed that with 4K HDR, there's been lots of connection issues reported and it all comes down to the HDMI cables. Technically, any HDMI should work fine but for whatever reasons, HDR is not playing friendly with some existing HDMI cables. I had audio issues with my Sony Soundbar, which by the way, it can pass 4K HDR and I thought I had a defective Soundbar or TV but once i changed the HDMI cable, problem was solved. Funny thing is, It wouldn't work with my Sony Slim HDMI cable that are fairly new, but when I swap them out with some very old Sony sturdy HDMI cables that are like 6 years old, it worked perfect.

[movielover1069]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

He should try different HDMI cables. I noticed that with 4K HDR, there's been lots of connection issues reported and it all comes down to the HDMI cables. Technically, any HDMI should work fine but for whatever reasons, HDR is not playing friendly with some existing HDMI cables. I had audio issues with my Sony Soundbar, which by the way, it can pass 4K HDR and I thought I had a defective Soundbar or TV but once i changed the HDMI cable, problem was solved. Funny thing is, It wouldn't work with my Sony Slim HDMI cable that are fairly new, but when I swap them out with some very old Sony sturdy HDMI cables that are like 6 years old, it worked perfect.

I already use the latest 4K HDR HDMI cable 2.0a which I got at Best Buy. It's the Rocketfish brand.

[StingingVelvet]

Tax return came in this morning and I stopped at Best Buy on my way home from an early class to get this sucker. Figured if I didn't like it I could return it and order the Panny. Wife had a last-minute nonsense freakout about $300 anyway, so would be nice not to bump it to $500 or whatever.

Early impressions... so much more solid and responsive than the Samsung. Feel like real equipment, all the menus and disc loading is super snappy. Moving around in the movie using both chapter skip and rewind/fast-forward are very responsive, just like a BD. I remember the Samsung being a lot more sluggish. Also zero noise coming from the player during playback, which is nice. I remember the Samsung being more noisy. Remote is ten times better as well, though still no numbers, which is annoying. Only negative on the hardware front so far is a green light that's always on during operation, which I hate. Will cover it with electrical tape.

I don't want to comment too much on picture quality yet because all I did was flip through X-Men Apocalypse in HDR, SDR and then on BD. Here are three very early impressions from that though:

1) The HDR mode looks a LOT better than the Samsung. More bright and colorful than the Samsung's default setting and not in an ugly or artificial way like that player's "dynamic" setting. It looks like the BD only more refined and brighter during appropriate scenes. I don't know if the Samsung is just a piece of crap or if this is modifying HDR output to look better on a lower brightness TV, but something is different. I feel like maybe the HDR effect itself was less obvious, so maybe the Sony is handing 500 nits differently? In any event the HDR picture looks much better off the bat. More testing required.

2) The SDR conversion looks a little iffy. Color looks washed out at times and boosted other times. Notices some weirdness in gamma perhaps, or just color transition. Really early to say but not immediately blown away. Again more testing required.

3) BDs seem to look better upscaled on this player than upscaled by my TV. When I tested X-Men Apoc before on the Samsung there was a pretty obvious difference in detail and crispness between the BD and UHD. This time the BD looked much closer to the HDR UHD picture. Gonna have to test more titles to really know though. Refinement in Labyrinth's grain will be a good test.

Optimistic so far, maybe I can use HDR mode.

[HeatEquation]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

1) The HDR mode looks a LOT better than the Samsung. More bright and colorful than the Samsung's default setting and not in an ugly or artificial way like that player's "dynamic" setting.

Looks exactly like Samsung's dynamic mode. Nothing artificial or boosted about it.

This is what I've been saying for a while. The default modes on other players all look like dynamic mode on the Samsung.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by HeatEquation

Looks exactly like Samsung's dynamic mode. Nothing artificial or boosted about it.

This is what I've been saying for a while. The default modes on other players all look like dynamic mode on the Samsung.

Not in my opinion, the dynamic mode on the Samsung looked terrible. But I don't want to get into that argument again.

This definitely looks better either way though, I think the Samsung might be a P.O.S. as my sister would say.

[HeatEquation]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Not in my opinion, the dynamic mode on the Samsung looked terrible. But I don't want to get into that argument again.

This definitely looks better either way though, I think the Samsung might be a P.O.S. as my sister would say.

Nah, I think I know what your issue with the Samsung was. I believe the Sony does a better job of "downconverting" from rec2020 to rec709, so it better matches the color space supported by your TV. On my TV, the Sony default settings and Samsung dynamic mode look indistinguishable.