4K HDR 60Hz or 4K SDR 60Hz

[Rocafella]

Hi everyone,

As the title says which is better 4K HDR 60Hz or 4K SDR 60Hz ?

And if anyone would like to post some pictures from thier ATV4K to show the deffirance that eould be cool.

I will post a picture as soon as i get home with both setting.

 

[geesus]

If you watch HDR material HDR if you watch SDR then SDR. Just keep changing display settings.

 

[Rocafella]

If you watch HDR material HDR if you watch SDR then SDR. Just keep changing display settings.

How about when watching Dolby Vision ?

 

[MalooNZ]

I prefer the punchy colour of SDR - HDR is great but have to change tv brightness and contrast etc to get right.

 

[Rocafella]

First picture is with SDR and second picture is with HDR.

 

[umzyi]

SDR for me - I dont like washed up colours. See what comforts your eyes.

 

[cardsdoc]

There is not much debate about what is better. HDR sources look better. Period. Larger color gamut and contrast. The issue with the ATV is when SDR content is forced to be converted by ATV to HDR it often doesn't look as good so switching back to SDR mode is necessary unless Apple implements auto mode switching. Right now most content is SDR. So it just depends on what content are watching. Many people like myself will keep it in 4K/SDR mode and then when watching an HDR/DV movie switch to 4K HDR or Dolby Vision. Also you can choose 24Hz which is better for movies as that is the native frame rate but it makes the ATV GUI look bad.

 

[Rocafella]

There is not much debate about what is better. HDR sources look better. Period. Larger color gamut and contrast. The issue with the ATV is when SDR content is forced to be converted by ATV to HDR it often doesn't look as good so switching back to SDR mode is necessary unless Apple implements auto mode switching. Right now most content is SDR. So it just depends on what content are watching. Many people like myself will keep it in 4K/SDR mode and then when watching an HDR/DV movie switch to 4K HDR or Dolby Vision. Also you can choose 24Hz which is better for movies as that is the native frame rate but it makes the ATV GUI look bad.

These pictures were taken from 4K HDR Movies except the last one was taken from full HD movie.

 

[geesus]

Your HDR images look 'wrong' to me. What TV is that?

 

[cardsdoc]

These pictures were taken from 4K HDR Movies except the last one was taken from full HD movie.

Just to clarify I was commenting on HDR in general not your specific pictures. Capturing photos of a display and then displaying that photo on various types of screens is problematic and very difficult to judge.

 

[Rocafella]

L

Your HDR images look 'wrong' to me. What TV is that?

LG 65UF9500
[doublepost=1507296448][/doublepost]

Just to clarify I was commenting on HDR in general not your specific pictures. Capturing photos of a display and then displaying that photo on various types of screens is problematic and very difficult to judge.

True, but the complete interface changes when selecting HDR it looks really dull but when selecting SDR it looks more normal.

 

[cardsdoc]

L


LG 65UF9500
[doublepost=1507296448][/doublepost]

True, but the complete interface changes when selecting HDR it looks really dull but when selecting SDR it looks more normal.

Agree the UI looks different in HDR modes but in the end it's the video that matters most. Watched Lucy via iTunes in Dolby Vision last night on an LG OLED65C7P and it looked stunning.

 

[Rocafella]

Agree the UI looks different in HDR modes but in the end it's the video that matters most. Watched Lucy via iTunes in Dolby Vision last night on an LG OLED65C7P and it looked stunning.

I think anything will look good on that tv lol

 

[cardsdoc]

I think anything will look good on that tv lol

That's true. 1080p SDR content looks great with the crazy contrast/absolute blacks this TV has. HDR and DV clearly take it up a big notch though and makes everything pop with a 3d quality. However I will say broadcast TV (OTA 720p or 1080i) definitely looks soft compared to the TV I just replaced - a 2011 Samsung 1080p plasma which had been pro calibrated. There are limitations to up-scaling. Same thing happened when we went from SD to 1080p. SD had a tendency to look worse especially if it was lower quality.

 

[vince22]

I think anything will look good on that tv lol

well not exactly, i have 65C7P and i have to use 4k SDR 60hz with HD 1080p movies to get the right colors, using 4k HDR 60hz dolby vision with HD 1080p will display wrong colors, its got some weird green tint on peoples faces if you look closely ( tested with The Fate of the Furious)

 

[JamesPDX]

Depends on the file's gamut and the calibration of your device. It can even depend on anti-glare screen coatings.
Here are a couple of interesting sites that can give you some answers about why things look one way or another:

http://www.oscars.org/science-technology/sci-tech-projects/aces

http://www.arri.com/camera/alexa_mini/learn/hdr_faq/

 

[Rocafella]

well not exactly, i have 65C7P and i have to use 4k SDR 60hz with HD 1080p movies to get the right colors, using 4k HDR 60hz dolby vision with HD 1080p will display wrong colors, its got some weird green tint on peoples faces if you look closely ( tested with The Fate of the Furious)

I think most people agree that 4K SDR is better than 4K HDR when watching 1080p movies because of the ATV4k sending 4K HDR signal all the time, but what i find weird is why the UI looks dull and dim ?

And does it really make a difference when watching HDR Movies on ATV4K in HDR Format rather than SDR format ?

I was watching Furious 7 an 4K HDR movie in 4K HDR 60Hz and to be honest 4K SDR 60Hz looked better.

 

[JamesPDX]

Hey Rocafella,

Does every program or disc [4K HDR] look as different as what you describe in comparison to the [4K SDR]? You may have to tweak-to-taste and write to one of those color/contrast menu presets in the TV or monitor's setup menu. Then you could switch over to whenever something looks too flat or tinty. Unless there's something else going on.

If you haven't yet tried, turn off any motion-smoothing and toggle the dynamic contrast on/off and see if that helps. Try to "force" the monitor not to "autoswitch" any settings whether it's receiving HDR, SDR, Dolby Vision, 709, 2020, sRGB, etc. –It's remotely possible that there's some signal-handling DSP that's being overwhelmed or is helping too much.

It's times like this that I really wish all media players had a calibration "card" image that could be pushed to the TV or monitor simply by pushing a physical Test button on the device. And I do miss analog knobs for color calibration. Keep us posted. The screen shots do help. I really thought the ITU was going to eliminate these issues.

 

[Rocafella]

Hey Rocafella,

Does every program or disc [4K HDR] look as different as what you describe in comparison to the [4K SDR]? You may have to tweak-to-taste and write to one of those color/contrast menu presets in the TV or monitor's setup menu. Then you could switch over to whenever something looks too flat or tinty. Unless there's something else going on.

If you haven't yet tried, turn off any motion-smoothing and toggle the dynamic contrast on/off and see if that helps. Try to "force" the monitor not to "autoswitch" any settings whether it's receiving HDR, SDR, Dolby Vision, 709, 2020, sRGB, etc. –It's remotely possible that there's some signal-handling DSP that's being overwhelmed or is helping too much.

It's times like this that I really wish all media players had a calibration "card" image that could be pushed to the TV or monitor simply by pushing a physical Test button on the device. And I do miss analog knobs for color calibration. Keep us posted. The screen shots do help. I really thought the ITU was going to eliminate these issues.

Thanks for the recommendations, i did a little tweaking and the UI is almost the same but the video is better, i think the best thing for now is to switch to HDR 60Hz only when watching HDR content and leave everything at 4K SDR 60Hz

 

[vince22]

I think most people agree that 4K SDR is better than 4K HDR when watching 1080p movies because of the ATV4k sending 4K HDR signal all the time, but what i find weird is why the UI looks dull and dim ?

And does it really make a difference when watching HDR Movies on ATV4K in HDR Format rather than SDR format ?

I was watching Furious 7 an 4K HDR movie in 4K HDR 60Hz and to be honest 4K SDR 60Hz looked better.

watching HDR DV or HDR10 movies on ATV4k in HDR does makes a difference, but i don't know if its better than Vudu HDR DV streaming quality. I took some screen shot below taken from iPhone 6s between ATV 4k , Vudu , xbox S .

 

[Rocafella]

watching HDR DV or HDR10 movies on ATV4k in HDR does makes a difference, but i don't know if its better than Vudu HDR DV streaming quality. I took some screen shot below taken from iPhone 6s between ATV 4k , Vudu , xbox S .

I have watched 4K HDR Movies on Netflix and some 4K videos on Youtube and honestly they look better than ATV4K

 

[priitv8]

If I read the tvOS content mastering requirements correctly, then aTV does not support 60fps HDR media.
In my own experience, my aTV 4K refuses to play both SDR and HDR renderings of the same 4K Clip with a "unsupported format" message.

 

[bryanck]

It isn't just the conversion of 1080p to HDR that looks bad from the Apple TV. 4K SDR and 4K Dolby Vision converted to HDR also look bad on my setup (LG 4K OLED) - the picture is much too dark and no setting resolves it. For now I have my Apple TV set to 4K SDR as the best option, with this setting I don't get the darkening of the image with non-native HDR content, so the picture is consistent (SDR, HDR, DV, 1080p etc.). Of course I'm losing HDR. Apple needs to release a fix...

 

[Donfor39]

I find auto selected sdr via Sony 4k non hdr t.v.
Movies are reasonable -though only 1 or 2 rentals.
Star trek discovery t.v. Show is my recent favorite pic quality -though that’s from netflix-via ipad pro or ap tv 4k.
Does 2:2;2 or 4:4:4 matter? -my new high speed cable supports both.

 

[elwaylite]

If you watch HDR material HDR if you watch SDR then SDR. Just keep changing display settings.

Doesn't get much simpler to explain. If it is HDR/DV, HDR, if it is something in SDR, use SDR.