Panasonic TX50JX800B HDR issues, help!

[Number 6]

Bought this set as a cheap spare room set.

Overall it gives quite a nice picture for the price.

Streaming The Boys from prime should be in UHD but it’s not (at least no indicator flashes up on screen that is 4K unlike when you play a 4K disc and HDR10 etc pops up) to my eyes. Same for iplayer.

Richer sounds (where I got it from) can’t help so I’m stumped as to why this isn’t working yet it does via 4K blu-ray.

Also I’ve no idea how to select different HDR modes, as this tv does both HDR10 and Dolby Vision, how do I select which one to watch it through (as HDR10 is the default).

Any help is greatly appreciated, as are any recommended settings.

 

[mikej]

What you've described sounds like normal behaviour for a Panasonic TV to me - in terms of HDR pop-ups, it's normal for this behaviour to vary between sources.

When watching 4K HDR on Netflix on my GZ950, for example, anything in Dolby Vision will result in a DV pop-up and only the DV picture modes are available in the picture settings. HDR on Netflix is almost exclusively in Dolby Vision as far as I've found.

When watching something in HDR on Prime you don't get a pop-up at all, but going into the picture menu will display 'HDR' at the top and you'll notice that Luminance and Contrast are maxed out at 100 which is another giveaway that you're watching in HDR. HDR 10+ is the most common HDR format for Prime - I'm not sure I've ever watched anything in DV on Prime.

Obviously you'll need a connection speed fast enough to reliably stream in 4K/HDR. Netflix recommend a minimum of 25Mbps but I suspect you'd want a higher speed than this, ideally.

I don't have a 4K UHD player so I've never had the need to switch between different HDR modes myself, but I think you'd have to do this in the player's settings.

 

[Number 6]

Thanks, guess I’m used to our main LG set which displays all the info easily.

I was torn between this and an LG LED (similar money) but this was recommended to me by Richer Sounds.

 

[mikej]

Thanks, guess I’m used to our main LG set which displays all the info easily.

I was torn between this and an LG LED (similar money) but this was recommended to me by Richer Sounds.

Yes, it's annoying the HDR pop-up behaviour isn't consistent across all sources on Panasonic TVs. I can't imagine it would be a difficult thing to implement either.

Ironically, I'm the opposite way round to you - I've always had Panasonic TVs in the lounge (from CRTs, through plasma to my current OLED) but have stuck with LG for smaller, cheaper bedroom and kitchen LCDs because LG make their own TVs, whereas Panasonic LCDs are outsourced to Vestel.

Whether it's your cheap Panasonic LCD or my cheap LG equivalent though, neither is going to do HDR any justice. The best we can hope for is that it doesn't make the picture worse ! HDR performance on my LG is actually OK but, like you're finding, it's often harder to tell the difference between SDR and HDR on a cheaper TV, whereas it's instantly recognisable on my OLED without needing to rely on pop-ups or dig through the settings.

 

[Number 6]

Yeah our main tv is an OLED.

I see what you mean though, but I did put The Shining through the set in Dolby Vision and it looked pretty decent really.

 

[Number 6]

Apparently this LED I have is made by Panasonic.

 

[mikej]

Apparently this LED I have is made by Panasonic.

Ah, OK - I thought it had been many years since Panasonic made all but their top-of-the-range LCDs in-house, so presumably the JX800 was high enough up the range to be included in that category.

 

[Number 6]

I mean I’m not 100% sure I just read that somewhere.

I don’t find the OS as good as LG’s - I think the user interface is much better. Was tempted to swap it as I did think there was an issue with it, no I know there isn’t, so thanks!

I still might swap it though, haven’t decided.