DVDBrowser,
I agree about the 256/1024 shades issue.. Before I bought my Series 5, I only managed to see a few Series 4s in the flash.
My biggest concern was what I described as 'patches of shimmering' when there were gentle shades.
A particular demo I saw of JP3 almost put me off getting one.. The entire background of one of the dark sequences I watched had this effect.
Once I noticed it, I couldn't not notice it no matter what I was watching.
In the end, I chose the Series 5 because of its 10bit colour depth.
Whilst the Series 5 has the same phenominon, it happen much less than the Series 4.
Instead of this, it seems that we have inherited this flicker, but as you say, you can watch an entire film and not see it once.. Its just VERY bright white which shows it most.
I still firmly belive that the flicker is caused by the process which generates the extra colour depth.. Almost like it overlays two colours very quicky to generate one colour. Of course, this is just my opinion and should not be taken as fact.
If my theory was is right, wouldly it be nice if the new software Joe talked about gave an option for "8bit-no flicker" or "10bit-flicker' modes. Dream on!!!