The PS3 Review Thread

[Zen Slug]

does anybody else notice sudden black level shifts during dark scenes and end credit rolls? i notice it anytime there's a white credit roll against a black background and also during dark scenes in films (e.g. during the train robbery in "the assassination of jesse james...") basically the blacks will look one way and then suddenly jump to a darker or lighter setting. it seems like the ps3 or my tv is doing black level correction but i have all that automated signal correction and noise reduction crap turned off. maybe there's some hidden "feature" in the ps3 menus that i missed?

i still have 30 days to return my sony bravia 1080p set to costco so i wanted to figure out if it's the ps3 or the set that is causing the problem before then.


anyone having the same problem or have any ideas how to solve the problem?

[Cinemaddict]

Originally Posted by JimboTHX1138

Then you need to change the PS3 output from RGB to YCbCr with superwhite on.

Thanks for the suggestion, but it still looks just as dark.

I went to "Display Settings."
"Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr Super-White (HDMI" is now set at "On."
"RGB Full Range (HDMI) is set at "Limited."

[landry_p2000]

If you tv has a gamma setting, play with that and see what happens. Last night, my tv brightened up when I turned the gamma to "on". Hope u get it figured out.

[savage1984]

Originally Posted by Zen Slug

does anybody else notice sudden black level shifts during dark scenes and end credit rolls? i notice it anytime there's a white credit roll against a black background and also during dark scenes in films (e.g. during the train robbery in "the assassination of jesse james...") basically the blacks will look one way and then suddenly jump to a darker or lighter setting. it seems like the ps3 or my tv is doing black level correction but i have all that automated signal correction and noise reduction crap turned off. maybe there's some hidden "feature" in the ps3 menus that i missed?

i still have 30 days to return my sony bravia 1080p set to costco so i wanted to figure out if it's the ps3 or the set that is causing the problem before then.


anyone having the same problem or have any ideas how to solve the problem?

could also be the source material as in the blu-ray could have a defect.

[Entertainment72]

Originally Posted by Cinemaddict

Already set to "Limited."

I have my RGB on the PS3 set to full and it's MUCH better than "limited" much much better.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by Zen Slug

does anybody else notice sudden black level shifts during dark scenes and end credit rolls? i notice it anytime there's a white credit roll against a black background and also during dark scenes in films (e.g. during the train robbery in "the assassination of jesse james...") basically the blacks will look one way and then suddenly jump to a darker or lighter setting. it seems like the ps3 or my tv is doing black level correction but i have all that automated signal correction and noise reduction crap turned off. maybe there's some hidden "feature" in the ps3 menus that i missed?

The PS3 has video adjustment feature but it applies it across the board and not based per minute per scene. So I don't think it's the PS3.

Some Philips TV (I don't know about your Sony) has a feature that detects the amount of light that's in the room and then adjust the video to match. So when the scene is dark, the room is dark and one second later the video will be brightened up by the TV. Simply a disaster of a feature. Turning it off will do the trick.


fuad

[Cinemaddict]

Originally Posted by Entertainment72

I have my RGB on the PS3 set to full and it's MUCH better than "limited" much much better.

I tried Full and I think it made it a little darker. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Any other ideas, anyone?

Originally Posted by landry_p2000

If you tv has a gamma setting, play with that and see what happens. Last night, my tv brightened up when I turned the gamma to "on". Hope u get it figured out.

What's a gamma setting?

[landry_p2000]

Originally Posted by Cinemaddict

I tried Full and I think it made it a little darker. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Any other ideas, anyone?



What's a gamma setting?

I have a gamma setting on my HDTV. It has something to do with the contrast of the PQ. When I turn it to on, the picture changes. I turn it off on certain movies.

[Zen Slug]

Originally Posted by WriteSimply

Some Philips TV (I don't know about your Sony) has a feature that detects the amount of light that's in the room and then adjust the video to match. So when the scene is dark, the room is dark and one second later the video will be brightened up by the TV. Simply a disaster of a feature. Turning it off will do the trick.

yep, sony tv's have that feature as well, called "light sensor" but it's currently turned off. i'm thinking that the dynamic contrast or black level correction on my set could be stuck on even though i have it set in the off position.

i was watching the end credits roll for hidalgo last night and noticed a pattern. seems like the black background (behind the white credit lettering) got brighter when there were few words on the screen (looked true black) and got brighter (more gray than black) when there were a lot of words (hence a lot of white) on the screen. it wasn't a smooth transition, either... it just pops into the other setting abruptly when the on-screen image gets above a certain level.

i'd be curious to hear if other sony tv owners see this when they watch white credits rolling across a black background. my set is the 42 inch 1080p sony bravia model from costco.


thanks for the suggestions!



edit (update): while watching the end credits for "becoming jane" I noticed that the black level shifts did not affect the letterbox bars. that would seem to indicate that the shift is not coming from my lcd monitor or the hdmi cable (which i would expect to affect the entire picture, including the letterbox bars) but rather the ps3 or perhaps is encoded into the blu-ray picture as suggested earlier.

[kurtlingle]

Hi everyone.

Is there a thread (or in this thread) detailing how to burn HD video (from my camcorder) to a DVD (as HD) and play on the PS3?

I thought I had heard that was possible - Can anyone point me to a thread that details that?

Thanks.

[Blu Jacket]

Originally Posted by Zen Slug

does anybody else notice sudden black level shifts during dark scenes and end credit rolls? i notice it anytime there's a white credit roll against a black background and also during dark scenes in films (e.g. during the train robbery in "the assassination of jesse james...") basically the blacks will look one way and then suddenly jump to a darker or lighter setting. it seems like the ps3 or my tv is doing black level correction but i have all that automated signal correction and noise reduction crap turned off. maybe there's some hidden "feature" in the ps3 menus that i missed?

i still have 30 days to return my sony bravia 1080p set to costco so i wanted to figure out if it's the ps3 or the set that is causing the problem before then.


anyone having the same problem or have any ideas how to solve the problem?

I've noticed this on several of my Blu-rays but I only see it during the credits, at which point I don't really care.

[kingofgrills]

Originally Posted by Blu Jacket

I've noticed this on several of my Blu-rays but I only see it during the credits, at which point I don't really care.

Make sure you have you have RGB set to Limited, and not Full for BD playback via HDMI. Otherwise you may encounter black crush, which sometimes exhibits itself as you've described. Hopefully, this is the issue you're dealing with.

[kingofgrills]

I don't know if you've seen this article yet, but Home Theater Magazine just revisited their review of the PS3 as a Blu-ray player. Needless to say, they're very impressed with the improvements we've received via firmware upgrades, and they thing the future bodes well for the PS3.

It's still top taco. Enjoy.

http://www.hometheatermag.com/discplayers/508sonyps3/

[newblu33]

^^ Good read, especially for someone like me who hasn't taken the dive into Bluray yet. From what I've read, I'm definitely leaning towards the PS3. However, I'm still holding off until I see an official announcement about DTS-HD (yes I know "its coming," but I'm not ready to drop $500 until I know exactly when)

[savage1984]

Originally Posted by kingofgrills

Make sure you have you have RGB set to Limited, and not Full for BD playback via HDMI. Otherwise you may encounter black crush, which sometimes exhibits itself as you've described. Hopefully, this is the issue you're dealing with.

actually you may want to take a look at this thread.

Click Me

[kingofgrills]

Correct. That's the thread I read earlier on the subject that was really enlightening. Follow the test there to see what RGB setting your TV can handle. Once you figure that one out make sure to calibrate your set again.

[savage1984]

Originally Posted by kingofgrills

Correct. That's the thread I read earlier on the subject that was really enlightening. Follow the test there to see what RGB setting your TV can handle. Once you figure that one out make sure to calibrate your set again.

I'm gonna do that as soon as I go home. hehehe

[boss]

When watching Blu-Ray discs or regular HD Cable on my new Samsung, sometimes the picture seems to get grainy.

Usually during dark scenes, but sometimes during lighter scenes.

Does anyone know why this is?

[Zen Slug]

Originally Posted by boss

When watching Blu-Ray discs or regular HD Cable on my new Samsung, sometimes the picture seems to get grainy.

during dark scenes it could just be the film stock used. high iso film stock used to film low-light scenes naturally has more grain.

if it happens also during light scenes it's probably some setting on your samsung that you need to change. look for something called "dynamic contrast" (or similar) in your picture settings menu and also be sure to turn off all the settings that say things like "correction," "dynamic," and "noise reduction."

those settings are for crappy signal inputs and just make matters worse when you feed the tv a good quality signal such as the one from the ps3 or (to a lesser extent) your hd cable box.


good luck!

[Cinemaddict]

I'm starting to think there really is a problem with my new PS3. All movies just look too dark. I think I've tried everything. Messed with the RGB, "Y Pb," and superwhite settings and turned up the brightness on my TV all the way, but movies still look too dark. My DVD player looks great, but the PS3 is too dark.

I'm thinking about trying to return the PS3. Which is pretty surprising after reading such good things about it.