Sorry, this will be long. I hope people find it useful.
A few quick points. This post isn’t about Dolby Vision IQ, which should be avoided due to undefeatable processing. This is about Panasonic’s wider DV implementation. I have a 55HZ1500 and Panasonic 820 BDP. All firmware is up to date. I’d imagine the below applies to earlier Panasonic OLED models, based on what I’ve read. With those observations out of the way…
After a good amount of viewing (and toggling Dolby Vision on and off on my BDP), I’ve concluded that Dolby Vision is best avoided on my HZ1500.
To start with, the frame drop issue mentioned in reviews only seems to happen with Dolby Vision content. I’ve seen frame drops in every DV film I’ve watched on this TV (some films more than others). I’ve never seen frame drops with any other kind of content. As far as I can tell, frame drops are strictly an issue with Dolby Vison playback.
Frame drops with DV aren’t as rare as reviews suggest, either. For instance, I saw about 20 frame drops watching The Fellowship of the Ring (extended). There are five frame drops in the opening sequence of The Shining. Watching UHD discs with Dolby Vision off, there isn’t a single frame drop. The issue goes away completely.
I think there’s another argument for avoiding Dolby Vision on Panasonic OLEDs, at least if you own a Panasonic 820 or 9000 BDP. There’s no adjustable tone mapping option for Dolby Vision content. Settings are fixed. Specular highlights are somewhat blown out with DV material. You only realise this after doing the following:
- On your BDP (820 and 9000 only), switch Dolby Vision off and tone mapping on. Make sure the TV type selected in the BDP settings menu is OLED.
- On your Panasonic OLED, switch tone mapping off, so the BDP is doing all the work.
Doing this reveals more detail in brighter areas and reduces banding around specular highlights. I feel the image is more natural and nuanced. It’s not just very bright highlight detail that’s improved, but detail in faces, clothing and scenery.
One last point on tone mapping. You can check what the BDP is outputting by pressing “playback info” twice on the remote. Peak brightness and average brightness numbers are identical with DV both on and off. This means you’re not losing brightness by switching DV off. Instead, disengaging Dolby Vision gives you greater balance across the contrast range.
Is there any disadvantage to switching DV off? I can think of an obvious one, which is that DV offers 12 bit colour, while HDR10 and HDR10+ offer only 10 bit. Can you tell the difference? Well, yes, but that difference is less pronounced than you’d think and, in my humble opinion, is outweighed by the gains I’ve described.
All things considered, then, I think it’s better to switch Dolby Vision off if you own both a Panasonic OLED and 820 or 9000 BDP. It’d be great if Panasonic fixed these Dolby Vision issues on their OLED TVs. Unless or until that happens, I think this is the best way for Panasonic OLED TV owners to view UHD material.
If you’ve read all of that, thanks for sticking with me. It’d be good to know what other people think, especially if they can experiment as I’ve done.
My argument wasn't that DV content looks bad on HZ OLEDs, but that frame skips are more prevalent than blink and you'll miss it, not really an issue comments in reviews suggest.
I'm not criticising reviewers, who have a limited amount of time to test across a range of content. Inevitably they can only pick up so much. Only by living with equipment do you really get to know it.
I was arguing that, for me at least, frame skips are more distracting than the alternative described in my original post. I think the Mode 2 workaround is probably the best way forward.
We're probably too tribal when it comes to manufacturers. I've owned several Panasonic plasmas, including a VT65. The VT65 was fantastic. I had a Sony A8, which handled motion and upscaling better than my HZ1500, but suffered from near black flashing with all content types. That was the deal breaker from my perspective.
I think Panasonic's DV implementation has some problems. That's not to rubbish the television. I raised the question because I thought it was worth discussing and getting other people's views.
Hi did you ever solve this problem, I have the ub9000 and I find exactly the same issue with Dolby Vision 4K disc's, I get the top and bottom black bars continued flashing and it drives me crazy, If I switch Dolby Vision off I get Hdr10 and the problem goes away, I've installed the latest firmware update and still the problem persists, I'd expect for this price of player that it wouldn't be a problem. Any help greatly appreciated thanks