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

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by algu01

Both the 10 and 15 percent bias light pluges seem brighter on the old disc compared to the sole rec709 PLUGE on the new disc.

My imagination or?

I am a bit confused on your post. Are you asking about the PLUGE pattern vs. the bias light or the levels of the background on the bias light pattern on both?

Which brand display do you have? Someone commented that on some displays HD vs. UHD patterns show different levels, so I am curious which display you have.

The window on the SDR 709 bias light should be 10% APL while the HDR version is 4.5 nits.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by SexySamSosa67

I've been wanting to calibrate my TCL 55R617 for a while. Is this a good choice for a beginner or should I stick with a professional?

The review is up, btw.

Best advice I can give is read the articles and see how comfortable you feel. I don't have any experience with TCL, so I don't know what can and cannot be done with one.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Wow. This is 40 at amazon.co.uk. Hoping the price will drop.

The price will go up to $47.95 next year, once the companion disc is finished because it will become a 2-disc set. Existing customers will get the update for around $10. I don't consider $40 cheap at all either. It is cheaper than the other UHD Test Disc(s). We keep getting told by CE companies and studios that it is too cheap at $40. At the ASC MITC presentation we did last week, a color scientist joked the disc is free but the instructions are $10,000.

Its difficult to put a price on something where much of the cost is your own time. There are psychical costs paid such as authoring, B.O.M. and the camera used to shoot the montage. It usually takes the first year of sales just to recoup the costs to produce the disc.

To work on the companion disc, we have to invest in a ProTools system for Atmos and DTS:X. We also just got an AJA HDR Image Analyzer to use for one of the montage versions and the re-grading. Most of the money made on the disc goes into making the next disc. We are going to redo the montage from scratch. (re-process, re-grade, etc...) This will involve Dolby's time again. We want to include some other unique versions that video enthusiast might like such as graded vs. ungraded and HD vs. UHD as well as a true 709 HDR version and an HD HDR version.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by rexcrk

This looks like something I’ve been wanting for a while, but a lot of the Amazon reviews mention how there are no instructions.

How would a novice like me get the most out of this disc?

I would read the articles on our website and see how comfortable you feel. When the disc launched, these articles were not present. They came a couple of weeks later, so the comments were fair. (Some of them) The comment about the disc being only Dolby Vision is confusing since there are no Dolby Vision patterns on the disc.

[rexcrk]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

I would read the articles on our website and see how comfortable you feel. When the disc launched, these articles were not present. They came a couple of weeks later, so the comments were fair. (Some of them) The comment about the disc being only Dolby Vision is confusing since there are no Dolby Vision patterns on the disc.

Ok thank you!

Yeah like my TV looks fine, but I really don’t know if I’m getting the absolute best out of it that I can. Funnily enough, 4K discs are always what I seem to have the most trouble with, so I’m hoping this calibration disc can help with that.

[HDTV1080P]

quotes:


"The Spears & Munsil (S&M) UHD HDR Benchmark is a video test disc developed with a wide range of users in mind. It has basic video setup and evaluation patterns aimed at the general consumer, but also patterns and features designed for use by professional calibrators, reviewers, and even manufacturers."

Read more at https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...jV5v2899dvg.99

[algu01]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

I am a bit confused on your post. Are you asking about the PLUGE pattern vs. the bias light or the levels of the background on the bias light pattern on both?

Which brand display do you have? Someone commented that on some displays HD vs. UHD patterns show different levels, so I am curious which display you have.

The window on the SDR 709 bias light should be 10% APL while the HDR version is 4.5 nits.

Sorry, I’m talking about the bias light patterns only. I’ve got a Sony A9F and an Oppo203.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by rexcrk

Ok thank you!

4K discs are always what I seem to have the most trouble with, so I’m hoping this calibration disc can help with that.

What kind of problem are you having with them?

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

The price will go up to $47.95 next year, once the companion disc is finished because it will become a 2-disc set. Existing customers will get the update for around $10. I don't consider $40 cheap at all either. It is cheaper than the other UHD Test Disc(s). We keep getting told by CE companies and studios that it is too cheap at $40. At the ASC MITC presentation we did last week, a color scientist joked the disc is free but the instructions are $10,000.

Its difficult to put a price on something where much of the cost is your own time. There are psychical costs paid such as authoring, B.O.M. and the camera used to shoot the montage. It usually takes the first year of sales just to recoup the costs to produce the disc.

To work on the companion disc, we have to invest in a ProTools system for Atmos and DTS:X. We also just got an AJA HDR Image Analyzer to use for one of the montage versions and the re-grading. Most of the money made on the disc goes into making the next disc. We are going to redo the montage from scratch. (re-process, re-grade, etc...) This will involve Dolby's time again. We want to include some other unique versions that video enthusiast might like such as graded vs. ungraded and HD vs. UHD as well as a true 709 HDR version and an HD HDR version.

So the companion disc will mostly contain object based audio tests and more montage videos or more test patterns as well?

Also I take it we can expect more things to be added to the 3rd edition articles, like what specifically to look for regarding the viewing angle pattern for example? I really appreciate those articles.

[rexcrk]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

What kind of problem are you having with them?

I’m not quite sure. I always feel like the picture just isn’t as good as it should be, and I also see a really bad dirty screen effect whenever I watch certain discs (which isn't present if I watch the same movie on a regular Blu-ray Disc or even streaming services).

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by DJR662

Also I take it we can expect more things to be added to the 3rd edition articles, like what specifically to look for regarding the viewing angle pattern for example? I really appreciate those articles.

First up is a novice guide and then a more advanced guide. We also have some foreign language versions we will be posting links to.

The viewing angle patterns.
1. Viewing Angle: As you move off axis, the concentric boxes will collapse on top of each other the further off axis you go. Then it will eventually just see two solid colors (same as the four boxes in the center). The four boxes are so you can measure with a meter and an angle adapter like Klein offers.
2. Viewing Angle Numbers is similar but in the color blind test style. Off axis, if you can't read the numbers, its not doing well off axis.

From our testing of displays, it seems blue is the channel that drops fastest, which is what we end up testing for. Samsung and Sony have done a lot in the recent generations to deal with off axis on a VA style panel. LG has always done well off axis with their IPS panels.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by DJR662

So the companion disc will mostly contain object based audio tests and more montage videos or more test patterns as well?

As of right now we would like to include:
1. Dolby Vision 4.0 patterns
2. Atmos audio
3. DTS:X audio
4. SDR 2020 patterns
5. Dolby 4.0 montage
6. Other flavors of the montage (analyzer, graded vs. ungraded, SDR vs. HDR, HD vs. UHD, and a new 4.0 SDR trim pass grade, 709 in 709 HDR montage and HD montage) I think this time we will just do a 100 SDR and 1000 trim pass and skip 600 and 2000 trim pass.
7. Update the scaling HD pattern to include something to show off an artifact from the edge feature of the Panasonic player.
8. HD versions of chroma alignment numeric and color space eval patterns.

If there are patterns you feel are missing from the current discs, now is the time to mention them.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

If there are patterns you feel are missing from the current discs, now is the time to mention them.

The current disc has V multiburst patterns (vertical black and white bars) that go to 3840. The step for the V pattern goes from 1980 to 3840. I would think the Nyquist filter would remove the 3840 multiburst from most displays, on my Sony VW600 projector there is nothing but some moire in the place of the 3840 multiburst.

Would it be possible to add 3500, 3600 and 3700 multiburst patterns?

for the planed audio and patterns.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

The current disc has V multiburst patterns (vertical black and white bars) that go to 3840. The step for the V pattern goes from 1980 to 3840. I would think the Nyquist filter would remove the 3840 multiburst from most displays, on my Sony VW600 projector there is nothing but some moire in the place of the 3840 multiburst.

Would it be possible to add 3500, 3600 and 3700 multiburst patterns?

for the planed audio and patterns.

It has only taken 10 years for someone to ask about this. First, the Nqyuist burst can and should be clean on any digital display. The luma burst is nice and bright on the LG B7 for example.

The reason there is such a jump from the Nyquist burst and the next burst is because we only have multibursts that are based on Nyquist. e.g. Nyquist, Nyquist / 2, Nyquist / 3, etc... This is to avoid aliasing in the burst itself. We wanted the bursts to be super clean on a scope.

If you look at the wedge and zone plates, they cover the frequencies in between and you can see the visible aliasing in them. We can add more markers to the wedge to point out in between frequencies.

[Stacey Spears]

We have uploaded the first version of the UltraHD Color Space Evaluation form.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

We have uploaded the first version of the UltraHD Color Space Evaluation form.

Hi Stacey,

A bit off track but hoping you can answer a question. I have a 65” B7, I’ve read you have experience with that display. From your experience did the greyscale have a green or red push.

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by ROSS.T.G.

Hi Stacey,

A bit off track but hoping you can answer a question. I have a 65” B7, I’ve read you have experience with that display. From your experience did the greyscale have a green or red push.

No, but I have done a full calibration with CalMAN to fix any white balance issues.

[IntelliVolume]

Forgive my lack of understanding on this matter (and I do own and previously used the S&M setup disc for Blu-ray when it came in the box with Oppo's BDP-83...though much of it was over my head), but with regard to calibrating for 4K...

Is this disc supposed to be a general setup disc just for 2160p resolution in terms of basic color, contrast, etc.? Or is it supposed to address HDR?

The reason I ask is because we have always been told that a display should just be left in the default positions for HDR playback -- and so backlight (for LCDs) and contrast would be maxed out, local dimming systems would be put on "high" and other parameters would be left alone...

If "calibrating" for HDR, are all these suggestions then moot? Shouldn't the display still remain on maxed-out contrast and backlight, for example? Or is the disc supposed to address color saturation during HDR playback and elements like that?

[Stacey Spears]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

Forgive my lack of understanding on this matter (and I do own and previously used the S&M setup disc for Blu-ray when it came in the box with Oppo's BDP-83...though much of it was over my head), but with regard to calibrating for 4K...

Is this disc supposed to be a general setup disc just for 2160p resolution in terms of basic color, contrast, etc.? Or is it supposed to address HDR?

The reason I ask is because we have always been told that a display should just be left in the default positions for HDR playback -- and so backlight (for LCDs) and contrast would be maxed out, local dimming systems would be put on "high" and other parameters would be left alone...

If "calibrating" for HDR, are all these suggestions then moot? Shouldn't the display still remain on maxed-out contrast and backlight, for example? Or is the disc supposed to address color saturation during HDR playback and elements like that?

Yes and Yes. Also useful when you are in the market for a new display. Help you figure out the strengths and weaknesses in a display, which is what reviewers do most of the time.

For LG, yes, contrast should not be touched as pulling it down won't bring back any detail and only lower the light output. For Sony, pulling down contrast may bring back some clipped highlights in HDR. Of course, pulling it down will also lower the light output.

If the 1st edition was over your head, I would not recommend the UHD HDR edition as its a lot more technical.

Since the first build of the disc, issues have been found in Samsung, Sony, LG, OPPO, Panasonic, Dolby Vision and Xbox. One of the Xbox bugs was fixed a week before the disc went on sale. Several had early access to the disc or patterns on the disc. Having content to identify deficiencies was on of our goals and so far that has gone better than expected.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by Stacey Spears

Yes and Yes. Also useful when you are in the market for a new display. Help you figure out the strengths and weaknesses in a display, which is what reviewers do most of the time.

For LG, yes, contrast should not be touched as pulling it down won't bring back any detail and only lower the light output. For Sony, pulling down contrast may bring back some clipped highlights in HDR. Of course, pulling it down will also lower the light output.

If the 1st edition was over your head, I would not recommend the UHD HDR edition as its a lot more technical.

Since the first build of the disc, issues have been found in Samsung, Sony, LG, OPPO, Panasonic, Dolby Vision and Xbox. One of the Xbox bugs was fixed a week before the disc went on sale. Several had early access to the disc or patterns on the disc. Having content to identify deficiencies was on of our goals and so far that has gone better than expected.

Mr. Spears,

Thank you for answering this for me...

I actually own a Samsung NU8000, which only has HDR10 (and HDR10+) onboard, but are you basically saying that most displays can just have their HDR picture modes "left alone"? If so, what would be the point of the calibration disc...is it mainly for reviewers of panels and projectors?

When I view an HDR-encoded 4K Blu-ray, my Samsung automatically goes into MOVIE-HDR MODE and sets the following:

- Backlight: 50 (max)
- Brightness: 0 (middle on new Samsungs)
- Contrast: 50 (max)
- Sharpness: 0 (default in all Movie modes)
- Color: 25 (middle on new Samsungs)
- Tint: 0/0 (default)
- Digital Clean View (comes by default on AUTO, I turn it OFF for 4K playback)
- Auto Motion Plus: Custom, Blur Reduction: 10 / Judder Reduction: 5 (personal preferences)
- Local Dimming: High (default in HDR mode)
- Contrast Enhancer: Off
- Color Tone: Warm2
- White Balance: Don't touch
- Gamma ST.2084: 0 (default)
- RGB Mode: Off
- Color Space: Auto

Do these look right for "general" HDR playback without any kind of calibration?

I have been told that for HDR, you should just leave your display alone and let all tonemapping and everything else occur at a default level...but now that there are setup discs such as yours hitting the market, it seems like HDR can and should indeed be "calibrated"...

Do you have any insight here?