Samsung 4K UHD Blu-ray Player UBD-K8500

[rowlettlee]

Originally Posted by scottmcasey

After many hours trying to get output from this player looking just right, I had a breakthrough last night and wanted to share, in the event it may help other users enjoy a better picture.

I purchased the LG 60UF8500 last year. While I had attempted to calibrate it at the time, the Samsung UBD-K8500 gave me the opportunity to reassess my settings. I used the Disney WOW Blu-ray for the calibration. As it turns out, I basically used the APS picture mode default with a few minor tweaks.

This is the setting I use when playing back DVD and Blu-ray:

HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color: On

APS (User)

• Backlight: 90

• Contract: 100

• Brightness: 50

• Sharpness: 25 (which is the mid-point)

• Color: 50

• Tint: 0

• Color Temperature: C20

Advanced Controls

• Dynamic Contrast: Low

• Dynamic Color: Off

• Color Gamut: Wide

• Super Resolution: Off

• Gamma: High 2

Picture Options

• Noise Reduction: Off

• MPEG Noise Reduction: Off

• Black Level: Low

• Real Cinema: On

• Motion Eye Care: Off

• LED Local Dimming: High

• TruMotion: Off

Since my TV is not HDR, UHD Blu-rays looked dark. After reading some of the posts on here, I learned that the HDR signal to the TV basically pushes the contrast to 100 (which mine was already set at) and increases the Brightness by 20. So, I used the Cinema picture mode on my TV to reflect these changes. I copied all of the setting from above with the following changes:

Cinema (User)

• Brightness: 70

• Color: 53

This is the picture mode for watching UHD Blu-rays.

I also tried various settings on the Samsung UHD-K8500 player to try to improve my perception of the overall picture. Here is what I decided on:

Picture

• HDMI Color Format: YCbCr(4:4:4)

• HDMI Deep Color: Off

Picture Mode - User

• Sharpness: 0

• Noise Reduction: 0

• Contrast: 0

• Brightness: -2

• Color: +3

• Tint (G/R): G10/R10

Thus far, a quick scan of the 18 UHD Blu-rays that I have nearly all look outstanding (Expendables 3 and Ender's Game being the mild disappointments). I just need to toggle between picture modes on my TV depending on the type of disc I am playing.

The key scene that helped calibrate my settings is at the 30:23 mark in San Andreas. In the restaurant at the top of the hotel, when the window is behind the two ladies sitting at the table, you should be able to see an airplane in the sky.

Hope this has been helpful.

How do you access user mode on the UHD PLAYER? Your information was very helpful with my LG 65uf8500. The picture is now outstanding. Thanks

[Derb]

Originally Posted by psicon

From your haul I see you have Kingsman. Put that in and go to 9:55. With your settings how does the white curtain look? For me at +3 on the contrast it's almost solid white. -4 or -5 seems to be the best setting on that for my tv. With that, the contrast still seems slightly off but much better. I think these HDR are not playing well with my Sony 850b. Chappie looks marvelous with my settings.

Edit: played around a little more, 444 color -2 or 3 contrast, - 1 or 2 brightness, -1 color and g9/r11 give me best results where blown out hilights are concerned (the window in Kingsman, the window in the restaurant before the earthquake in San Andreas and the water flowing in Mad Max all had terribly clipped hilights in enhanced unless the contrast was taken down to -5 or -6)
Have to test shadows with these settings later.

Will check later.

I watched Kingsman (funny crazy movie) last night, then "Salt"

No issues with either but am getting concerned over Sony Picture releases. Pineapple Express doesn't prove any more detail then a BD upconvert. Salt is almost in the same ballpark. Maybe 3 scenes which are visible as 4K'ish. The rest.. meh..

When lowering the contrast that much, (-5) I noticed most of all the fine object detail is lost. Kinda like what's the point in 4K if your gonna strip all its assets away type look, but I have my tv calibrated so picture isn't near anything like like a default full blown dynamic preset from Sony lol but also not so low on Contrast that ejects fine detail out of the image *cough* Joe Cane type crap calibration.

[bruceames]

Pineapple Express was finished in 2K, so you're not supposed to see any more resolution detail. Salt was finished in 4K, but remember any scene with even a tiny bit of CGI in one spot automatically means the whole scene is 2K. There is a lot of hidden CGI in these movies, apart from the obvious.

[SHOCKWAVE6464]

I'm honestly having second thoughts on buying this player now. Do I really need it right now? Is it worth $400? It has everything my current Samsung player has except for the capability to play 4K discs.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by bruceames.

Pineapple Express was finished in 2K, so you're not supposed to see any more resolution detail. Salt was finished in 4K, but remember any scene with even a tiny bit of CGI in one spot automatically means the whole scene is 2K. There is a lot of hidden CGI in these movies, apart from the obvious.

You'd be surprised at the amount of digital trickery that can be done in the DI suite separate from VFX these days, so unless a shot has a huge CG set-piece I wouldn't automatically assume that you're seeing upscaled 2K just because it's had some digital manipulation.

[ray0414]

1st impression over at avs of the peanuts movie is very positive. He says it's probably the best quality he's seen, and rivals Smurfs 2.

[scottmcasey]

Originally Posted by rowlettlee

How do you access user mode on the UHD PLAYER? Your information was very helpful with my LG 65uf8500. The picture is now outstanding. Thanks

Glad you found the information helpful. In order to access the User settings screen for Picture Mode, you must be playing a disc. With any disc playing, hit the Tools button and select Picture Mode. Next, select User and make your changes on that screen. With my TV settings, it looked best to set the Brightness -2 and the Color +3, leaving all else at their default values.

[rowlettlee]

Originally Posted by scottmcasey

Glad you found the information helpful. In order to access the User settings screen for Picture Mode, you must be playing a disc. With any disc playing, hit the Tools button and select Picture Mode. Next, select User and make your changes on that screen. With my TV settings, it looked best to set the Brightness -2 and the Color +3, leaving all else at their default values.

Thank you for your assistance

[jaaguir]

Originally Posted by bruceames.

Pineapple Express was finished in 2K, so you're not supposed to see any more resolution detail. Salt was finished in 4K, but remember any scene with even a tiny bit of CGI in one spot automatically means the whole scene is 2K. There is a lot of hidden CGI in these movies, apart from the obvious.

Pineapple is supposed to be remastered in 4k.
It's starting to look like for some movies (because of their visual style or shooting conditions) HDR cannot bring much to the table (or the filmmakers are holding it back too much, damn them) and you need a really big screen, not 65" like most UHD owners seem to have, for the difference with BD to be very noticeable.
I'm fine with this you know, I always thought that without HDR, UHD would only make improvements that most people call "subtle". But this will disappoint the masses.

[volcomsd615]

Have anyone have their 2014 samsung 4k tv hook up with samsung sek-3500 evolution kit with the 4k uhd player, does it really update the tv with hdr? and how is it?

[montyb]

Originally Posted by Derb

Will check later.

I watched Kingsman (funny crazy movie) last night, then "Salt"

No issues with either but am getting concerned over Sony Picture releases. Pineapple Express doesn't prove any more detail then a BD upconvert. Salt is almost in the same ballpark. Maybe 3 scenes which are visible as 4K'ish. The rest.. meh..

When lowering the contrast that much, (-5) I noticed most of all the fine object detail is lost. Kinda like what's the point in 4K if your gonna strip all its assets away type look, but I have my tv calibrated so picture isn't near anything like like a default full blown dynamic preset from Sony lol but also not so low on Contrast that ejects fine detail out of the image *cough* Joe Cane type crap calibration.

I like how the Samsung UHD blu ray player automatically adjusts the Backlight (20) and the Contrast (100) on my Samsung UHD TV using HDR. At first I was toning down the Backlight to 9 and Contrast back to 80 but Samsung states the case that if you turn down the contrast you lose finer detail and mess with shadow detail as well in the HDR mode (which I guess is automatic) and that's why the player adjusts the fine controls when a 4K disc is played (it automatically goes back to original setting once the 4K disc is stopped). Until we get help in the future with REAL calibration tips on using our sets in the HDR mode we will just have to play it by sight.

[montyb]

Originally Posted by volcomsd615

Have anyone have their 2014 samsung 4k tv hook up with samsung sek-3500 evolution kit with the 4k uhd player, does it really update the tv with hdr? and how is it?

According to Samsung the firmware update issued by them will activate HDR. I have a 2015 JU7500 that is now equipped with HDR thanks to a firmware update on the TV sent from Samsung. Contact Samsung Support (Facebook or Twitter) and let them know your model, serial and firmware numbers and they will help you.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by volcomsd615

Have anyone have their 2014 samsung 4k tv hook up with samsung sek-3500 evolution kit with the 4k uhd player, does it really update the tv with hdr? and how is it?

Yes. I had an hu9000 with the sek3500 and you do get hdr decoding. How well it looks depends on your panels capabilities.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by psicon

From your haul I see you have Kingsman. Put that in and go to 9:55. With your settings how does the white curtain look? For me at +3 on the contrast it's almost solid white. -4 or -5 seems to be the best setting on that for my tv. With that, the contrast still seems slightly off but much better. I think these HDR are not playing well with my Sony 850b. Chappie looks marvelous with my settings.

Edit: played around a little more, 444 color -2 or 3 contrast, - 1 or 2 brightness, -1 color and g9/r11 give me best results where blown out hilights are concerned (the window in Kingsman, the window in the restaurant before the earthquake in San Andreas and the water flowing in Mad Max all had terribly clipped hilights in enhanced unless the contrast was taken down to -5 or -6)
Have to test shadows with these settings later.

For .7771222289 of 1 second, yes the detail on the curtain is almost faded out by white entirely. The scene is shot with focus on the actor, not background though.

[psicon]

Originally Posted by Derb

For .7771222289 of 1 second, yes the detail on the curtain is almost faded out by white entirely. The scene is shot with focus on the actor, not background though.

That's not the only scene with the issue of clipped whites obscuring detail in several movies on certain settings I've used, just one that's in your face obvious.
Confirms its not (entirely?) my tv that's causing issues

For my set up, 444 and user mode with -2 contrast and -1 brightness seems to give best results. Brights aren't excessively clipped and darks aren't noticeably crushed. Think I'm done tinkering.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by psicon

That's not the only scene with the issue of clipped whites obscuring detail in several movies on certain settings I've used, just one that's in your face obvious.
Confirms its not (entirely?) my tv that's causing issues

For my set up, 444 and user mode with -2 contrast and -1 brightness seems to give best results. Brights aren't excessively clipped and darks aren't noticeably crushed. Think I'm done tinkering.

I killed the contrast entirely from the Samsung but still using RGB Enhanced & lowered Color to -7



Hancock looks 100% natural skin tones now. lol

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by jaaguir

Pineapple is supposed to be remastered in 4k.
It's starting to look like for some movies (because of their visual style or shooting conditions) HDR cannot bring much to the table (or the filmmakers are holding it back too much, damn them) and you need a really big screen, not 65" like most UHD owners seem to have, for the difference with BD to be very noticeable.
I'm fine with this you know, I always thought that without HDR, UHD would only make improvements that most people call "subtle". But this will disappoint the masses.

You're right, was going off IMDb but noticed that the movie is available on Sony's 4K download store (and they only have movies with true 4K resolution there).

I know there's a lot of TV that don't have HDR and for them YMMV regarding UHD BD. I thought it looked quite a bit better, but I was playing a reference movie (Kingsmen). I tried Wild but it didn't look better at all on my non-HDR. But it did on my HDR TV that I got last week. So it will depend on the movie. The ones with the most pop will show the most noticeable improvement on a non-HDR TV. For example San Andreas probably wouldn't look much better because the HDR they used was very mild in comparison to Kingsmen.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by psicon

For my set up, 444 and user mode with -2 contrast and -1 brightness seems to give best results. Brights aren't excessively clipped and darks aren't noticeably crushed. Think I'm done tinkering.

Switched to 444. Only change I needed was less Color so am at -5

So enhanced RGB really doesn't agree with Sony UHD films. Anyway, thanks for sharing!

Edit

K am back at RGB Enhanced now. lol
Think I'm done tinkering.

[movielover1069]

Why does my Sony XBR55X850C TV keep going to the green "No Signal" screen? Is anyone else who has this same TV having the same problem?

[Derb]

Originally Posted by movielover1069

Why does my Sony XBR55X850C TV keep going to the green "No Signal" screen? Is anyone else who has this same TV having the same problem?

Maybe an extra handshake with HDR is needed.

Could maybe be the cable your using.
I switched to 28gb/s monster cable to see if I'd get better PQ results on my non-HDR set. Nope.