Sony introduces high-end ZD9 TV series with HDR

[vincentric]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah, you really don't need to have any of those picture processing things on at all. Smooth gradation in particular has its uses for 1080p BDs that have heavy banding (so pretty much anything from Lionsgate) but it's largely unnecessary for 4K.

Had a look and smooth gradation is indeed useful for those heavily banded SDR BDs. It worked nicely at smoothing away the notoriously band riddled Lionsgate logo. I would recommend disabling the SG setting though for those discs that don't need it for example the SDR BD for CE3K during chapter 3 at around the 20:00 mark. With smooth gradation enabled at low some very obvious and fugly artifacting can be seen in the black bars, turning off SG makes it go away.

Which leads me into some testing I did for Close's HDR10 UHD disc at the same time frame, even with smooth gradation disabled I could still see some slight pixelation in the black bars, I had to turn the gamma down to -3/min to get rid of it. I prefer a 2.4 - 2.5 gamma so I didn't mind having to do that but was interesting nonetheless.

I then went back and checked the BD and as long as SG was turned off the black bars looked fine (the gamma setting here had no effect).

For now, these are the settings am using for HDR10 -

[Show spoiler]Cinema Pro
Brightness 50/max
Contrast 90
Gamma -3/min
Black Level 50
Black Adjust Off
Contrast Enhancer Off
Local Dimming Medium
XDR High
Color 50
Hue 0
Color Temp Expert 1
Advanced Color Temp Default Settings
Live Color Off
Sharpness 50 (Sony equivalent to 0 or no sharpening applied)
All PP Effects (reality creation, noise reduction and smooth gradation) Off
Motionflow True Cinema / CineMotion High (though must say that a combination of Motionflow Smooth and Cinemotion Low works really well here to my eyes)

[elwaylite]

If you are seeing that in your black bars, I think your black level setting is too high or something is up in your chain. When black level is set properly, there should be nothing in the letterbox bar but black.

[vincentric]

Ya don't say, no worries I've got mine set properly, hopefully it isn't an issue with the TV. It's only really noticeable when I have my face pressed up a few centimeters away from the screen in a completely darkened room though it looks fine otherwise. Have to test more discs but it seems to only affect some titles more than others. Also, am really nitpicky with video.

[elwaylite]

LOL, I am nitpicky, been calibrating for years. If you see macroblocking in the letterbox bars there is a PROBLEM.

[Geoff D]

I could be wrong but the X930E is edge lit, not FALD so you may still get some light leakage and whatnot into the black bars, especially if it's lit along top and bottom rather than side to side.

Those settings look okay to me vinny, although the gamma's a touch too low.

[vincentric]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

LOL, I am nitpicky, been calibrating for years. If you see macroblocking in the letterbox bars there is a PROBLEM.

Have all postprocessing disabled and black level's at 50 on the TV, X800's on direct. Not sure if am missing something here.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I could be wrong but the X930E is edge lit, not FALD so you may still get some light leakage and whatnot into the black bars, especially if it's lit along top and bottom rather than side to side.

Those settings look okay to me vinny, although the gamma's a touch too low.

That's probably it, the 930e is lit top and bottom. I'll probably end up going back to -2 gamma (during night,) [-1 or 0 during day], -3 was mostly to just try and darken those black bars a bit more.

quote edit

[elwaylite]

Well, Chad B finished up today with an SDR, HDR and audio cal. Took about 5.5 hours. Will post charts for HDR and SDR.



Some bits:

• The SDR cal I did in Cinema Pro with my Calman setup was pretty dang good and about what I expected. Chad has better stuff and used 10pt and dialed SDR home in Cinema Pro. As I found, if you flip over to HDR and use the SDR white balance settings, it maps over pretty good but he did a separate pic mode for HDR to really dial it in.
• Put up a pattern with a small zero black box in middle and white everywhere else, MLL was 0.001 fL (better than a VT60) and contrast ratio was 48k to 1, the thing is a beast.
• Got her dialed in for HDR mode, taught me a few tricks for settings to get the most out of the mode, stuff I never would have thought of. As always great service.
• SDR info below. He sacrificed a little on the gamut to get better color checker results, mainly for fleshtones. Keep in mind the before White Balance is pretty good because that is after I used my meter, when I did it, it was real blue.

[elwaylite]

SDR Charts

[pbz06]

Can you post your settings also?

[Geoff D]

Heh, I was thinking the same thing...but folks who pay for their calibrations are usually very reticent to give them out.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Heh, I was thinking the same thing...but folks who pay for their calibrations are usually very reticent to give them out.

Yea I bet, but we are all family here he can rest assured his settings are only specific to his set so his money is well spent.

I just like to see what everyone (that calibrates) comes up with. It gives me idea of trends. I have your settings, 10k's, 1 or 2 others, and my own (with my eyes).

I would pay too but not sure who to go to in southern California (Anaheim Hills area).

[Geoff D]

I'll settle for learning what these "tricks" for HDR comprise of.

[clemdog]

I have a question for you more knowledgeable folks...

I’m using an external receiver and Atmos speaker set up with my Sony. On occasion I’ll get a tv generated pop up message saying something like “ An external speaker has been connected. If there is no sound please hook up thru input 3.”

This will randomly pop up in the middle of a movie or whenever it feels like it. It doesn’t make any changes or difference when this happens. Just pops up for a few seconds and then goes away...

I’ve been thru the Sony set up to attempt to turn off such messages but haven’t been able to do it.

Any thoughts from anyone?

[cochon]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I'll settle for learning what these "tricks" for HDR comprise of.

You need to paint with a green marker the edge of the TV, that will improve the general image.

[cochon]

Originally Posted by clemdog

I have a question for you more knowledgeable folks...

I’m using an external receiver and Atmos speaker set up with my Sony. On occasion I’ll get a tv generated pop up message saying something like “ An external speaker has been connected. If there is no sound please hook up thru input 3.”

This will randomly pop up in the middle of a movie or whenever it feels like it. It doesn’t make any changes or difference when this happens. Just pops up for a few seconds and then goes away...

I’ve been thru the Sony set up to attempt to turn off such messages but haven’t been able to do it.

Any thoughts from anyone?

I am wondering whether you might have a Bluetooth speaker nearby that's getting connected and disconnected because is right on the distance limit. ARC could be giving you trouble too. You probably need to give more details as TV model and how is it connected to the receiver. Is the receiver and TV connected to the ARC connectors on both units?

[clemdog]

The actual message reads “Audio system has been connected. If there is no sound, connect the system to HDMI3 ARC.”

I’ve got the 75” ZD9 from Sony. No Bluetooth speaker in range... all HDMI thru a Denon 4300 to the Sony...

[cochon]

Originally Posted by clemdog

The actual message reads “Audio system has been connected. If there is no sound, connect the system to HDMI3 ARC.”

I’ve got the 75” ZD9 from Sony. No Bluetooth speaker in range... all HDMI thru a Denon 4300 to the Sony...

Ok but what do you have connected on HDMI3/ARC of the TV, is it the DENON or is it something else?

It could be a problem with a bad HDMI cable, that is something you should try first.

Alternatively I would try to leave HDMI3 disconnected and use another input to send video to the TV. See if the message stops appearing that way. If it does then the problem is related to the ARC which would be much harder to pin point that just replacing the cable.

I am having my own problems with the ARC but I think it is caused by the way my Yamaha receiver is interacting with the TV as a few day ago an Onkyo receiver was connected and caused me no problems.

[clemdog]

The Denon goes into HDMI 2. The Sony UHD player is in 3.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by clemdog

The Denon goes into HDMI 2. The Sony UHD player is in 3.

It should go the other way around.

[clemdog]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

It should go the other way around.

I’ll switch it and see if that helps. May I ask why it matters?