Michael7877
Established Member
Edit: I added a quick way to optimize your TV in 5 minutes without making and viewing any of the many images I created. It starts in paragraph 3. Plus a configuration trick to try for people who watch their SDR content down below ~150 nits.
The method is not perfect (no tools required) but you'll be between 0 and +5% of the minimum brightness required for optimal shadow detail at your preferred gamma. If the brightness is too high for you, you can lower it further using the trick. If you like it and it's dim enough, great! If it's still too bright, you can use the second trick. If you don't like the first trick you can just use the second (you can't not like the second, it's perfect). If, after the second trick, your TV's still too bright for you, you can lower the brightness the normal way, choosing your preferred balance between picture brightness and shadow detail
Ok: (from post 15)
The easy way to find your TV's minimum required brightness for optimal shadow detail is:
Put your TV to Maximum OLED/Peak Brightness and put the OLED light/Brightness slider to 100% of maximum. Get some somewhat dim SDR content playing - not something dark, but a TV show, not a news channel or cable commercials. They are too bright. Adjust the Gamma setting from center down to -1, then -2, and down to -3 (2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5)
Notice how much the overall brightness decreases each time.
Lower brightness with the brightness slider by 10% and repeat.
At some point (it won't take long), the last decrease will not subtract the amount of brightness that it should. Usually people don't use the lowest setting, so lower the brightness by 10% and continue. Once you find the point where the setting you use (probably 2.4) doesn't dim the image as much as it should, note the brightness (Too Dark #1, write it's configuration down) and then change Peak Brightness/OLED light to medium. Set the brightness slider in medium to make you image 10% brighter than "Too Dark #1". If the TV can't get bright enough in medium to even match Too Dark #1, you are finished searching: you've found your minimum brightness. If you can match or surpass Too Dark #1, go to the highest of the two you can reach and go through the gamma settings. Do they all work properly? 10% brighter? They should! Same brightness? It might. If it does, lower the brightness slider 10% and repeat. Is it now too dark to show the proper decrease in brightness? It probably is: you've found your TV's minimum brightness. But if not, continue lowering by 10% until you do and note the brightness (Too Dark #2, write it down). If you can reach Too Dark #2 in low, repeat - go 10% brighter than Too Dark #2, check gamma, lower brightness slider 10%, check gamma. If you see the proper reduction that's probably your minimum, but to be sure, lower brightness by 10% to verify. You're probably done now, but if not, continue the reduction described above through the lower brightnesses until you are. It's a good idea to add 5% to the brightness slider when you're done.
I guarantee you, with a 2.4 gamma you won't be down to 100 nits. But it's not the end of the world! There are steps you can take.
Personally I don't mind higher brightness while watching TV, I watch most things at about 275 nits with gamma of 2.4, sometimes 200 nits gamma 2.3, it depends on the content. If I watch at 100 nits (I go through phases), I put gamma to 2.2 and adjust the colour from 50 to 54. This makes the darker colours pop a bit (like 2.4) without the brightest colours looking too saturated (this is trick#1). Trick 1 works for SDR content down around 100 nits, but not much brighter. Over 160, the brighter colours start to look look too saturated. Your mileage may vary (personal preference and all that).
For some reason, HDR tolerates colour setting increases really well at all brightness and gamma settings, up to 60 and sometimes even past. This is probably because saturated looking colours are nowhere near the video signal's maximum Ie. bright red pants outside in SDR may be 80-100% saturation in, and HDR 25-30%.
Onto trick #2 (for SDR): lowering brightness using the contrast setting. Try not to go below 82, and don't go below 76. Why this works: the contrast setting lowers the white point. Technically this puts the steps near black closer together (all steps, really), but this doesn't matter to video quality because you have a 10 bit panel with 1024 levels showing you 8 bit video with 256. So they're usually stretched apart, so picture quality won't be negatively affected by pushing them a bit closer together with the contrast setting - especially not if your brightness setting (OLED light, Peak Brightness etc) is at a high enough setting that your tv comes out of blacks optimally (it does now if you what I described at the beginning of this post). Then it's better.
I hope this helps some people! Let me know if you have any questions (PM or here)
Optimizing our home theater experience is fun.
Original post below:
I made a bunch of 8 bit 16:9 png files (to zoom into full screen and view in a black room) with different colours/shades near black.
R G B
0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 0
0 1 1
I made all combinations up to 3 3 3, and many combinations with 4s and 5s
Going from
0 0 0 to
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
To get the panel to even come out of black with Gamma at 2.4,
Oled "peak luminance" aka "oled light" has to be set to high, with brightness at at least 43/50. Almost full brightness! With gamma 2.2, Medium and 32/50 is required. Even still, all the shades up to 2:2:2 suck!. They're not necessarily the colours they should be, and brighter images are 50/50 displayed darker than the darker images!
And forget colours looking anything like they should with any reliability until 3s are reached, and even then...
2019 A8G. Someone should test their 2020/2021 OLEDs like this. I'm surprised near blacks even appear at all on most people's OLEDs. Have your OLED light to off or low with 2.4 gamma? Nothing but black crush and noise up to the 5s - I can almost guarantee it!
Infinite contrast ratios yeah right! You can't see near blacks without white being 300 nits in SDR with gamma 2.4
Why has literally nobody posted about this? I am appalled, never been so!
Edit: yeah, it's a bit of work to replicate what I did, but a starting point is opening mspaint, creating the custom colours 0 0 0, 1 0 0, 0 1 0, 0 0 1, 1 1 0, 0 1 1, 1 0 1, 1 1 1 and use each one to save a full coloured image 16:9 at 3840x2160, png format. See how bright your TV has to be set to at normal gamma and -2 gamma (2.2 and 2.4) for all of the above combinations to raise black to something visible. Also check that the pictures that total 1 when added are dimmest, 2s are brighter, and 3 is brightest. You can continue and make 2 2 2, 3 3 3, 4 4 4 etc until you get the panel to come out of black... It'd take 30 minutes in an evening.
I hope my TV is malfunctioning, but I bet it's not.
The method is not perfect (no tools required) but you'll be between 0 and +5% of the minimum brightness required for optimal shadow detail at your preferred gamma. If the brightness is too high for you, you can lower it further using the trick. If you like it and it's dim enough, great! If it's still too bright, you can use the second trick. If you don't like the first trick you can just use the second (you can't not like the second, it's perfect). If, after the second trick, your TV's still too bright for you, you can lower the brightness the normal way, choosing your preferred balance between picture brightness and shadow detail
Ok: (from post 15)
The easy way to find your TV's minimum required brightness for optimal shadow detail is:
Put your TV to Maximum OLED/Peak Brightness and put the OLED light/Brightness slider to 100% of maximum. Get some somewhat dim SDR content playing - not something dark, but a TV show, not a news channel or cable commercials. They are too bright. Adjust the Gamma setting from center down to -1, then -2, and down to -3 (2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5)
Notice how much the overall brightness decreases each time.
Lower brightness with the brightness slider by 10% and repeat.
At some point (it won't take long), the last decrease will not subtract the amount of brightness that it should. Usually people don't use the lowest setting, so lower the brightness by 10% and continue. Once you find the point where the setting you use (probably 2.4) doesn't dim the image as much as it should, note the brightness (Too Dark #1, write it's configuration down) and then change Peak Brightness/OLED light to medium. Set the brightness slider in medium to make you image 10% brighter than "Too Dark #1". If the TV can't get bright enough in medium to even match Too Dark #1, you are finished searching: you've found your minimum brightness. If you can match or surpass Too Dark #1, go to the highest of the two you can reach and go through the gamma settings. Do they all work properly? 10% brighter? They should! Same brightness? It might. If it does, lower the brightness slider 10% and repeat. Is it now too dark to show the proper decrease in brightness? It probably is: you've found your TV's minimum brightness. But if not, continue lowering by 10% until you do and note the brightness (Too Dark #2, write it down). If you can reach Too Dark #2 in low, repeat - go 10% brighter than Too Dark #2, check gamma, lower brightness slider 10%, check gamma. If you see the proper reduction that's probably your minimum, but to be sure, lower brightness by 10% to verify. You're probably done now, but if not, continue the reduction described above through the lower brightnesses until you are. It's a good idea to add 5% to the brightness slider when you're done.
I guarantee you, with a 2.4 gamma you won't be down to 100 nits. But it's not the end of the world! There are steps you can take.
Personally I don't mind higher brightness while watching TV, I watch most things at about 275 nits with gamma of 2.4, sometimes 200 nits gamma 2.3, it depends on the content. If I watch at 100 nits (I go through phases), I put gamma to 2.2 and adjust the colour from 50 to 54. This makes the darker colours pop a bit (like 2.4) without the brightest colours looking too saturated (this is trick#1). Trick 1 works for SDR content down around 100 nits, but not much brighter. Over 160, the brighter colours start to look look too saturated. Your mileage may vary (personal preference and all that).
For some reason, HDR tolerates colour setting increases really well at all brightness and gamma settings, up to 60 and sometimes even past. This is probably because saturated looking colours are nowhere near the video signal's maximum Ie. bright red pants outside in SDR may be 80-100% saturation in, and HDR 25-30%.
Onto trick #2 (for SDR): lowering brightness using the contrast setting. Try not to go below 82, and don't go below 76. Why this works: the contrast setting lowers the white point. Technically this puts the steps near black closer together (all steps, really), but this doesn't matter to video quality because you have a 10 bit panel with 1024 levels showing you 8 bit video with 256. So they're usually stretched apart, so picture quality won't be negatively affected by pushing them a bit closer together with the contrast setting - especially not if your brightness setting (OLED light, Peak Brightness etc) is at a high enough setting that your tv comes out of blacks optimally (it does now if you what I described at the beginning of this post). Then it's better.
I hope this helps some people! Let me know if you have any questions (PM or here)
Optimizing our home theater experience is fun.
Original post below:
I made a bunch of 8 bit 16:9 png files (to zoom into full screen and view in a black room) with different colours/shades near black.
R G B
0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 0
0 1 1
I made all combinations up to 3 3 3, and many combinations with 4s and 5s
Going from
0 0 0 to
1 0 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
To get the panel to even come out of black with Gamma at 2.4,
Oled "peak luminance" aka "oled light" has to be set to high, with brightness at at least 43/50. Almost full brightness! With gamma 2.2, Medium and 32/50 is required. Even still, all the shades up to 2:2:2 suck!. They're not necessarily the colours they should be, and brighter images are 50/50 displayed darker than the darker images!
And forget colours looking anything like they should with any reliability until 3s are reached, and even then...
2019 A8G. Someone should test their 2020/2021 OLEDs like this. I'm surprised near blacks even appear at all on most people's OLEDs. Have your OLED light to off or low with 2.4 gamma? Nothing but black crush and noise up to the 5s - I can almost guarantee it!
Infinite contrast ratios yeah right! You can't see near blacks without white being 300 nits in SDR with gamma 2.4
Why has literally nobody posted about this? I am appalled, never been so!
Edit: yeah, it's a bit of work to replicate what I did, but a starting point is opening mspaint, creating the custom colours 0 0 0, 1 0 0, 0 1 0, 0 0 1, 1 1 0, 0 1 1, 1 0 1, 1 1 1 and use each one to save a full coloured image 16:9 at 3840x2160, png format. See how bright your TV has to be set to at normal gamma and -2 gamma (2.2 and 2.4) for all of the above combinations to raise black to something visible. Also check that the pictures that total 1 when added are dimmest, 2s are brighter, and 3 is brightest. You can continue and make 2 2 2, 3 3 3, 4 4 4 etc until you get the panel to come out of black... It'd take 30 minutes in an evening.
I hope my TV is malfunctioning, but I bet it's not.
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