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

[DisplayCalNoob]

Originally Posted by ROSS.T.G.

For some bizarre reason VIZIO clips whiter than whites. Even in SDR. I had to dial contrast down to 45 to avoid clipping.

I read this, then decided to check it out with a Sony disc, my 2016 Vizio P Series P55-C1, clipped white above 1000 nits. What shocked me, is, I was then able to increase the backlight setting without it using inverse voltage and reducing peak brightness, after lowering contrast to 47. Now highlights actually get to those 600 nits.

When I get Stacey disc, I can check color clipping and chroma.

[Bill C]

Me want

[eddievanhalen]

When playing HDR material my Samsung set by default sets backlight to 20 (the maximum level) and contrast to 100, also the maximum value. Is this right? Of course, both can be toned down while playing HDR video.

[Geoff D]

Backlight should always be at max for pretty much any LCD HDR TV.

[Scenic Labs]

At launch there is distribution in USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium and Japan, and China.

I hope that one of these serves your area. If not, please let me know.

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

Yes look forward to seeing it. And I hope available widely, not just US!

[dublinbluray108]

Originally Posted by Scenic Labs

At launch there is distribution in USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium and Japan, and China.

I hope that one of these serves your area. If not, please let me know.

If you are including the UK for releasing this disc; I would recommend that you have to include Ireland as a country to release it as well. We have the UK DVD & Blu-ray releases sold here in Ireland because of dual classification labels being present from those two countries.

The red label for the UK is from the British Board of Film Classification.

The blue label for Ireland is for the Irish Film Censor's Office.

I hope you are OK with that.

[Blu Cider]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

When playing HDR material my Samsung set by default sets backlight to 20 (the maximum level) and contrast to 100, also the maximum value. Is this right? Of course, both can be toned down while playing HDR video.

Yes absolutely - do not mess with these settings ever on a Samsung while viewing HDR content.

[DisplayCalNoob]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

When playing HDR material my Samsung set by default sets backlight to 20 (the maximum level) and contrast to 100, also the maximum value. Is this right? Of course, both can be toned down while playing HDR video.

What you want to check, is if the contrast setting is clipping white below 4000 nits, if not you're fine.

[Robert Zohn]

We use Spears & Munsil new Hand Forged UHD HDR Benchmark Test Disc for our 10bit 4K HDR patterns and some of the beautiful video content on the disc in our 2019 TV Shootout. Thank you Stacy for giving us an early pressing of the disc!

I also signed on as a reseller for the USA and look forward to our first shipment next week.

[Scenic Labs]

Initially, this will be out of England but we will also look for someone in ROI.

Previous versions of S&M and other test discs have been unrated. When the Disney Wow disc sold years ago it was also unrated.

Originally Posted by dublinbluray108

If you are including the UK for releasing this disc; I would recommend that you have to include Ireland as a country to release it as well. We have the UK DVD & Blu-ray releases sold here in Ireland because of dual classification labels being present from those two countries.

The red label for the UK is from the British Board of Film Classification.

The blue label for Ireland is for the Irish Film Censor's Office.

I hope you are OK with that.

[David M]

The British and Irish censors will need to rate this 10,000, as in 10,000 nits.

[Geoff D]

Warning: Extremely Graphic Nittage

Tone mapping discretion is advised

[monroef]

Will there be a downloadable version of this? I would like to run this through my Apple TV.

[Scorsese]

What's the RRP of this gonna be? And can I buy it on Amazon in the UK etc?

[Scenic Labs]

The US retail price is $39.95 excluding sales tax. The price in the UK will be roughly the same at current exchange rates. That's about £32 before or £38 after 20% VAT is applied. It will be priced in £ and shipped from the UK.

No customs duties need to be added as we manufacture in the EU.

It will be available soon after release on Amazon.co.uk, BiasLighting.co.uk and I've also worked with a major UK retailer selling calibration discs for the last 5-6 years and I'm hoping that they will stock this on their website as well, but I expect them to move more slowly.

Originally Posted by Scorsese

What's the RRP of this gonna be? And can I buy it on Amazon in the UK etc?

[Scenic Labs]

There is no downloadable version at this time.

However, this doesn't mean never. We have discussed other release formats -- some of which would allow playback over devices like Apple TV.

One challenge is that the BD menu interactivity is so vital with this disc. Another challenge is how many of the patterns are played back from the disc.

However, having some subset of content that you could run through other inputs sounds like a pretty good idea.

Originally Posted by monroef

Will there be a downloadable version of this? I would like to run this through my Apple TV.

[koberulz]

How would one get this in Australia?

[Scenic Labs]

At launch, this will be available in Australia from https://www.biaslighting.com.au/. It will also be on Amazon shortly thereafter. It just takes a bit longer for them to process and receive new listings.

Originally Posted by koberulz

How would one get this in Australia?

[David M]

Originally Posted by ROSS.T.G.

For some bizarre reason VIZIO clips whiter than whites. Even in SDR. I had to dial contrast down to 45 to avoid clipping.

That's actually not so bizarre. Usually if I calibrate LCD displays I clip whiter than white in order to enhance black level. Let's say you're trying to hit an SDR light output of, say, 120 cd/m2 in SDR. If you keep whiter than white, the backlight will have to be set that little bit higher to reach the 120 nit target, because the panel will be drawing slightly dimmer pixels.

If you clip whiter than white (and why not - content rarely has meaningful info above 235 anyway), you can dial the backlight control down a little more and get slightly better blacks.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by David M

That's actually not so bizarre. Usually if I calibrate LCD displays I clip whiter than white in order to enhance black level. Let's say you're trying to hit an SDR light output of, say, 120 cd/m2 in SDR. If you keep whiter than white, the backlight will have to be set that little bit higher to reach the 120 nit target, because the panel will be drawing slightly dimmer pixels.

If you clip whiter than white (and why not - content rarely has meaningful info above 235 anyway), you can dial the backlight control down a little more and get slightly better blacks.

Interesting.

I was always under the impression you would like to have as many bars on the contrast pattern as possible. So basically you're saying it would be alright to lower contrast for SDR until it hits 235 and slightly lowering the backlight as well then?