Spears & Munsil 4K UHD HDR Benchmark (Test Discs) May 15, 2023

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

Kris this is very interesting. Thanks.

Chad B calibrated my RS440 and for whatever reason, my grey uniformity is virtually perfect with Super White (better than it being off for some reason - we both noted this before the cal as at 80 IRE and above there is a yellowish tint on the very bottom 1/4 of image but is gone with Super White even at a higher IRE). I am very sensitive to uniformity issues so I preferred Super White. I'm also using the 820 with SDR 2020. The small light output loss I think it worth it here. I really, really like the image I'm getting with a calibrated 2.4 gamma. I have yet to see any kind of odd, strange, or obvious clipping as I would encounter with Arve curves at times depending on the disc. Never any darkness issues either.

You’re not losing any light with Super White when doing HDR (SDR2020) because the tone map is using all of it. You are losing a bit with regular content though, and a bit of contrast. So depending on your usage case you just weigh the pros and cons.

[mrtickleuk]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

Thank you for the feedback.

Are you looking for a PDF version of the getting started guide? If so, we have not made one. There will be a PDF coming for a novice guide in a couple of weeks.

If you are looking for a PDF of the color space checklist, we have not created a new one yet that includes the changes on the color space eval pattern. That will come once we get the new choosing a color space article done. Aiming to create the images this weekend and then it will be posted. We will create the new checklist after that. Here is the one from the 2nd edition.

Marvellous, thanks! Yes, I meant the colour space checklist. There are several mentions of it. I did eventually find the v2.3 one. But that nice big download entry is just the thing, many thanks.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

You’re not losing any light with Super White when doing HDR (SDR2020) because the tone map is using all of it. You are losing a bit with regular content though, and a bit of contrast. So depending on your usage case you just weigh the pros and cons.

Awesome to know, thanks!

[Stacey Spears]

All of our articles from have now been updated.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

The workflow of the montage

4. It was graded / finished at full resolution in Resolve 14. Again, in and out was EXR.

Thanks for the workflow outline, a good read. Just curious, was DaVinci running on a Mac or Windows or other? Is the AJA analyzer your personal equipment? If so, color me envious .

I for one, appreciate the distinction between UHD and 4K. Not sure how many know there is true 4k display devices available.

[Geoff D]

People probably know, they just don't care unless they have a personal or professional interest in handling 4096x2160 content because what use is a "true 4K" 17:9 monitor for exclusively playing 16:9 consumer content?

[DJR662]

From the 3rd edition articles:

"Important Note: We do not recommend changing the Contrast controls for HDR mode on any UHD TV, but we do recommend setting Contrast in SDR mode. In HDR mode, the TV inherently is designed to clip high-brightness picture data, with the specific clipping points and range compression varying as the content brightness varies (this process of resetting the curves as the picture changes is called “tone mapping”). A simple Contrast control can’t really change that adequately, with the result that the tone mapping algorithms for HDR only really work at the standard Contrast level. If you move Contrast, the results can look OK on some content and bad on others. For SDR content, however, the Contrast control is properly defined and we recommend adjusting it according to this guide."

So the Z9D is the only TV to which this does not apply or other Sony HDR TVs as well then?

[Geoff D]

I can't speak for other Sonys, but the way that the HDR works on the ZD9 is to basically ignore metadata, right, and offer up the same tone curve to every source (this preserves APL but can clip highlights past the native level of brightness of the TV, and so the less of a light cannon of a TV you have the more this can become damaging to the highlights).

Because it's not doing a dynamic jig then changing the contrast doesn't majorly change the way that the PQ curve is operating, it's just reducing the luminance on a global level (unlike the Panny Optimiser which flattens out the curve into its own thing). That in itself isn't always desirable, if you do it on something with a very low APL then it will only look darker but as most low APL transfers can be handled "1:1" on the ZD9 then contrast doesn't need to be touched there anyway. And, as I think I've said to you before, some UHD movies have been mastered with such stupidly high peak brightness and APL - particularly early Sony joints - that I'm only too happy to reduce the brightness for personal viewing. Even on that reduced brightness "4000 nit" mode it can still hit brightness peaks of ~1500 nits so in a darkened room it's fine.

[DJR662]

I wonder if this is reserved for the Z9D only or if other Sony HDR TVs act the same way as well?

[Gillietalls]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I can't speak for other Sonys, but the way that the HDR works on the ZD9 is to basically ignore metadata, right, and offer up the same tone curve to every source (this preserves APL but can clip highlights past the native level of brightness of the TV, and so the less of a light cannon of a TV you have the more this can become damaging to the highlights).

Because it's not doing a dynamic jig then changing the contrast doesn't majorly change the way that the PQ curve is operating, it's just reducing the luminance on a global level (unlike the Panny Optimiser which flattens out the curve into its own thing). That in itself isn't always desirable, if you do it on something with a very low APL then it will only look darker but as most low APL transfers can be handled "1:1" on the ZD9 then contrast doesn't need to be touched there anyway. And, as I think I've said to you before, some UHD movies have been mastered with such stupidly high peak brightness and APL - particularly early Sony joints - that I'm only too happy to reduce the brightness for personal viewing. Even on that reduced brightness "4000 nit" mode it can still hit brightness peaks of ~1500 nits so in a darkened room it's fine.

This is a good read. Thanks for the info. I don't own the Z9D, but have the 940E. Which preset is best for regular HDR content (cinema pro, cinema home, custom)? And I should leave contrast at its default, right?

[Geoff D]

I don't know the exact ins and outs of that model, it will do its own thing compared to mine so I really can't say for sure.

[sapiendut]

Cinema Pro is the closer one to calibrated on the 940.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I don't know the exact ins and outs of that model, it will do its own thing compared to mine so I really can't say for sure.

My sister has the X900E.

Is there a relative simple way of checking by eye how it does its thing regarding HDR, perhaps by using the S&M UHD? Or does one really need calibration tools and software in order to do this?

[Geoff D]

By using S&M you can see how much each mode is clipping, and if you know the peak brightness output (from reviews or wherever) then you can set the contrast so that the clipping tops out at where the TV's brightness tops out, e.g. 1000, 1200, 1400 or whatever. This should get you a reasonably accurate PQ curve according to what the TV can do. If you want to see more highlights in certain content than what the native clip of the TV can do then, as we know, you'd need to bump the contrast down further (sacrificing luminance) or use DV or the Panny Optimiser.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Thanks for the workflow outline, a good read. Just curious, was DaVinci running on a Mac or Windows or other? Is the AJA analyzer your personal equipment? If so, color me envious .

I for one, appreciate the distinction between UHD and 4K. Not sure how many know there is true 4k display devices available.

Resolve was running on Linux.

I will have my own AJA analyzer in the near future.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by DJR662

My sister has the X900E.

Is there a relative simple way of checking by eye how it does its thing regarding HDR, perhaps by using the S&M UHD? Or does one really need calibration tools and software in order to do this?

I had the E (and now the F) Cinema Pro is a tad too warm and Cinema Home is a tad too cool. I used to use the Cinema Home as I watched it in a brighter room. You can almost treat Cinema Pro as dark-room mode and Cinema Home as day mode. HDR is more than good enough on these TVs out of the box.

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by DJR662

From the 3rd edition articles:

"Important Note: We do not recommend changing the Contrast controls for HDR mode on any UHD TV, but we do recommend setting Contrast in SDR mode. In HDR mode, the TV inherently is designed to clip high-brightness picture data, with the specific clipping points and range compression varying as the content brightness varies (this process of resetting the curves as the picture changes is called “tone mapping”). A simple Contrast control can’t really change that adequately, with the result that the tone mapping algorithms for HDR only really work at the standard Contrast level. If you move Contrast, the results can look OK on some content and bad on others. For SDR content, however, the Contrast control is properly defined and we recommend adjusting it according to this guide."

So the Z9D is the only TV to which this does not apply or other Sony HDR TVs as well then?

I know you have to adjust contrast with all the Sony projectors. They are what determine the clipping point for the tone map and adjust the tone map itself.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

I know you have to adjust contrast with all the Sony projectors. They are what determine the clipping point for the tone map and adjust the tone map itself.

I remember you said that a while ago, when you told me it was wrong to set HDR contrast on my 385ES to the max setting (basically setting the clipping point to its lowest value) in conjunction with using the Panna's Optimizer (I'm running it in SDR2020 now though so contrast is at the same value as SDR709).

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

I had the E (and now the F) Cinema Pro is a tad too warm and Cinema Home is a tad too cool. I used to use the Cinema Home as I watched it in a brighter room. You can almost treat Cinema Pro as dark-room mode and Cinema Home as day mode. HDR is more than good enough on these TVs out of the box.

This review brings up some interesting points I think, would you say that was your experience also by any chance?

"One thing that is noticeable with the Sony X900E is that the tone mapping varies a lot between Cinema Pro, Custom, and Standard modes. We measured Calibrated Pro initially, since it should track the standards like we want it to, but watching Pan I found that Custom did a better job with tone mapping the extremely bright highlights. More detail was present compared to Cinema Pro, while Standard just blew them out. We will have to go back and perform a full set of measurements on Custom to see how it compared to Cinema Pro, but I prefer how it does the tone mapping."

https://referencehometheater.com/rev...00e-tv-review/

[sapiendut]

To do a proper calibration, I use the Custom Mode. Standard is unuseable for anything at all and Cinema Pro is good if you don't want to do a full calibration (read: just minor tweaks here and there right out of the box).