(Nearly) undefeatable detail killing on Sony BDP-S6500 (pictures) - Blu-ray Forum

David M · 10-24-2017, 01:38 AM

A few days ago in the UK subforum, I mentioned to avoid this player due to undefeatable spatial filtering that kills detail. I returned this, the top-end 4K upscaling player, for the cheaper Sony BDP-S3600, which is free of any noise reduction controls - and is free of this problem.

It's not visible all the time, but the player kills detail in darker regions of the picture, even when all of the video processing controls (Smoothing, Dark Filter or whatever it's called, IP NR Pro, etc) are turned off. It kills detail seemingly on a block-by-block basis, making even well compressed discs look like shoddy YouTube videos.

It turns out that the player does NOT do this is the video output is 4K - when operating in this mode, the video controls menu disappears entirely, which suggests that the chipset in the player is not capable of running the extra NR features when the output is 3840x2160p (thank goodness). My theory is that the detail reduction was not deliberate and that some kind of noise reduction feature was inadvertently left running. I tried to speak to Sony engineers about this at CES, but wasn't able to, so I had to give up trying to reach them and bought the cheaper model instead.

Anyway, the pictures: I would rather grab frames digitally from the video output of the player instead of take photos of a TV, but that involves bypassing HDCP which is neither easy or legal. So, I used a Sony A6000 camera on a locked-off tripod with the same manual picture settings for each photo.

The BD used is THE TERMINAL, chapter 16. I used this because it's a mostly very well encoded title with an extremely well resolved film grain texture.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121572

Bottom line:

* if you have a 1080p (or 720p) display, it's best to avoid the 4K upscaling Sonys. I don't know which players have this problem, and don't feel like buying them all to find out!
* if you have a 2160p display, the detail reduction filter won't be activated. Just make sure the player is outputting in 2160p ("4K") mode.

10-24-2017, 01:38 AM	#1
David M Power Member Member since:Aug 2007 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:1	(Nearly) undefeatable detail killing on Sony BDP-S6500 (pictures) A few days ago in the UK subforum, I mentioned to avoid this player due to undefeatable spatial filtering that kills detail. I returned this, the top-end 4K upscaling player, for the cheaper Sony BDP-S3600, which is free of any noise reduction controls - and is free of this problem. It's not visible all the time, but the player kills detail in darker regions of the picture, even when all of the video processing controls (Smoothing, Dark Filter or whatever it's called, IP NR Pro, etc) are turned off. It kills detail seemingly on a block-by-block basis, making even well compressed discs look like shoddy YouTube videos. It turns out that the player does NOT do this is the video output is 4K - when operating in this mode, the video controls menu disappears entirely, which suggests that the chipset in the player is not capable of running the extra NR features when the output is 3840x2160p (thank goodness). My theory is that the detail reduction was not deliberate and that some kind of noise reduction feature was inadvertently left running. I tried to speak to Sony engineers about this at CES, but wasn't able to, so I had to give up trying to reach them and bought the cheaper model instead. Anyway, the pictures: I would rather grab frames digitally from the video output of the player instead of take photos of a TV, but that involves bypassing HDCP which is neither easy or legal. So, I used a Sony A6000 camera on a locked-off tripod with the same manual picture settings for each photo. The BD used is THE TERMINAL, chapter 16. I used this because it's a mostly very well encoded title with an extremely well resolved film grain texture. http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/121572 Bottom line: * if you have a 1080p (or 720p) display, it's best to avoid the 4K upscaling Sonys. I don't know which players have this problem, and don't feel like buying them all to find out! * if you have a 2160p display, the detail reduction filter won't be activated. Just make sure the player is outputting in 2160p ("4K") mode. Last edited by David M; 10-24-2017 at 01:43 AM.

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