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Apple tv 4k Dolby Vision Raised blacks

L

ledzep1

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 24, 2016
283
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Hi

I see the Dolby Vision raised blacks via the ATV4K talked about a lot and I experience it as well on my LG CX oled, how comes its never been fixed by Apple, could it be a hardware issue.
I really hope this issue is fixed on the new Apple 4k box out this month.

Are Apple even aware of the issue?, I would be quite surprised if they wasn't considering its talked about fairly often on forums like this.

I have sent some product feedback to apple about the issue.

Anyway I just hope its fixed one day, it really is an annoying problem, I watched episode 1 of the new apple tv series The Mosquito Coast on apple tv + last night in a pitch dark room and the beginning of the episode the picture is black (raised black) with talking for a good 10 seconds and it looks horrible.
 
Sadly, its been a problem with LG OLED (I have an OLED C8) and the atv4k since Apple launched the device, back in 2017. It has never been fixed. It seems that the problem happens because of the implementation/encoding of the DV content on the ATV, and they implementation of LG. They differs and issues arise. At this point, I am not sure its fixable through software updates

Hoping, like you, that the new Apple TV box have it fixed.
 
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It not just dark scenes that look awful. Because the black "floor" is raised the entire gamma and colours are lifted in DV, and some daylight scenes appear washed out and overbrighten as well. It´s awful, completely awful. Disney+ dolby vision content in particular is terrible with the apple tv. Murky, lifted, washed kinda like grey filter.. horrible.
 
B/D said:
It not just dark scenes that look awful. Because the black "floor" is raised the entire gamma and colours are lifted in DV, and some daylight scenes appear washed out and overbrighten as well. It´s awful, completely awful. Disney+ dolby vision content in particular is terrible with the apple tv. Murky, lifted, washed kinda like grey filter.. horrible.
Click to expand...

Am I the only one seeing this behavior with DV content on the Apple TV?. @ledzep1

Interestingly enough, If I try some purchased movies in DV from the native Apple TV app of the TV, they exhibit the raised blacks as well. Other people have reported this. Netflix and Disney+ content have raised blacks in the Apple TV apps but not in the internal apps of the TV.


Perhaps Apple DV encoding differs with LG DV library and implementation which causes issues.
 
Audit13 said:
All I can say is the blacks are black rather than dark grey. DV images look fantastic off Disney+, Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, etc.
Click to expand...


Lucky you. What are your picture settings for DV content?
 
B/D said:
Lucky you. What are your picture settings for DV content?
Click to expand...
I use Cinema user with 2 point settings, 20 point settings, contrast 100, brightness 50, sharpness 10, colour 50, tint 0, dynamic contrast off, super Resolution off, edge on, colour filter off.

My settings would not apply to your TV since I have a C7.
 
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Audit13 said:
I use Cinema user with 2 point settings, 20 point settings, contrast 100, brightness 50, sharpness 10, colour 50, tint 0, dynamic contrast off, super Resolution off, edge on, colour filter off.

My settings would not apply to your TV since I have a C7.
Click to expand...

Not the white balance settings, no, but the general ones yes. I have it in cinema mode as well is the most accurate picture preset for DV. Same settings as you except sharpness at 0. All the post processing is off of course. Do you have your display calibrated?. I guess you do, seeing that you use 2 point and 20point specific settings. I have read reports about how having your display professionally calibrated somehow fixes the raised blacks issue with DV and the ATV4K.
 
B/D said:
Not the white balance settings, no, but the general ones yes. I have it in cinema mode as well is the most accurate picture preset for DV. Same settings as you except sharpness at 0. All the post processing is off of course. Do you have your display calibrated?. I guess you do, seeing that you use 2 point and 20point specific settings. I have read reports about how having your display professionally calibrated somehow fixes the raised blacks issue with DV and the ATV4K.
Click to expand...
Yes, the display has been calibrated with a custom DV file too.
 
Yes, I didn´t know that you can calibrate dolby vision. Very interesting.
 
The point settings must be set and the text file uploaded to replace the TV's stock DV settings. Here is the stock text file for the C7:

# Dolby Vision User Display Configuration File
# Generated by 5.8.1.37 on 10/19/2018
# Display: Unspecified
# DM Version:
PictureMode = 2
Tmax = 734.47548848495
Tmin = 0.00187693222599254
Tgamma = 2.2
ColorPrimaries = 0.6776 0.3224 0.2628 0.6639 0.1413 0.0561 0.3127 0.3290
TLMS2RGBmat = 4.2199884099998 -3.35980743337429 0.139819023374487 -0.930336785265436 2.08952911879253 -0.159192333527094 0.0701312366916633 -0.157514207247527 1.08738297055586
 
What happens if you use Apple's dobly vision on a TV that doesn't support dobly vision (due to license agreements rather than technical limitations)?
 
UBS28 said:
What happens if you use Apple's dobly vision on a TV that doesn't support dobly vision (due to license agreements rather than technical limitations)?
Click to expand...



If you play DV content on a TV that does not support the content will play in plain HDR10 (if the screen support HDR), or in SDR if the screen is not HDR.
 
B/D said:
Am I the only one seeing this behavior with DV content on the Apple TV?. @ledzep1

Interestingly enough, If I try some purchased movies in DV from the native Apple TV app of the TV, they exhibit the raised blacks as well. Other people have reported this. Netflix and Disney+ content have raised blacks in the Apple TV apps but not in the internal apps of the TV.


Perhaps Apple DV encoding differs with LG DV library and implementation which causes issues.
Click to expand...

Not noticed that, just slight raised blacks on a complete black screen in pitch dark room.
 
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ledzep1 said:
Not noticed that, just slight raised blacks on a complete black screen in pitch dark room.
Click to expand...

I see. Sometimes is difficult to determine the issue, since some content has raised blacks "by design" (ie the queen gambit in Netflix).
 
B/D said:
I see. Sometimes is difficult to determine the issue, since some content has raised blacks "by design" (ie the queen gambit in Netflix).
Click to expand...

Yeah exactly, that show has raised blacks in all scenes if i remember and is the content and not an issue, the only other time I see raised blacks that should be perfect black is complete black screens.
 
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Anyone with new ATV4K, can they test to see if dolby vision raised blacks is still an issue please.

I will be testing myself when I get the new box but be great to get everyones feedback on the issue. I must admit to me I see it only occasionally on the current one, but still be nice if its fixed on new box or one day Apple acknowledge the issue and fix it.

I also heard that the new ATV4K has a different Dolby Vision profile (profile 5) which is apparently player led.

Not sure what the current box DV processing has but I thought it was some botched tv led profile that caused the raised blacks.
I might be wrong here and both use profile 5 DV, maybe a slim chance Apple has fixed how its sent to TV though, as I think thats where the issues lies causing the raised blacks.
 
Last edited:
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I'm interested in this also, mine will be here around lunch time but need total darkness really to test.
 
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ledzep1 said:
I see the Dolby Vision raised blacks via the ATV4K talked about a lot and I experience it as well on my LG CX oled, how comes its never been fixed by Apple, could it be a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Not sure this needs to be fixed by Apple since LG CX TVs have that problem with other devices as well including their own UHD players. If Apple did anything about it, it would be a workaround at best but still not fix other source devices for LG.
 
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