Netflix vs Ultra 4K disc quailty?

[TheForce]

Supposedly the new season 2 of Marco Polo is to be in HDR but there is no indication that is working on my Samsung K8500 player.

Some believe the Netflix app on the Samsung Player is not HDR compatible. I don't even see the HDR logo which some claim should be there if it is working. Anyone else see the HDR logo on Marco Polo? Don't confuse "Ultra UHD" with HDR logo.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Now that I have some decent speeds, Netflix 2160p looks real good. Vudu UHD, if you have the speed, looks about like a 1080p blu-ray IMO. All of that being said about nice image quality, the audio still doesn't compete with a blu-ray disc.

 

[Ilya]

Supposedly the new season 2 of Marco Polo is to be in HDR but there is no indication that is working on my Samsung K8500 player.

Some believe the Netflix app on the Samsung Player is not HDR compatible. I don't even see the HDR logo which some claim should be there if it is working. Anyone else see the HDR logo on Marco Polo? Don't confuse "Ultra UHD" with HDR logo.

I think that is correct. I do get the "HDR" label on Marco Polo and some movies when using the Netflix app directly on my Sony TV set, but not when using the Netflix app on the player.

Marco Polo looks amazing!

 

[teachsac]

Yep. No HDR update yet on the 8500 for NF. I think Samsung's soon and Dish's soon are the same thing

S~

 

[harshness]

I think Samsung's soon and Dish's soon are the same thing

You have to wonder if Samsung isn't looking down the road and seeing where their product isn't comparing well with other existing and announced models and dreaming about a 9000 series model that looks better on paper. If I were Samsung, I would have shot a lot higher or lower on the first effort and then tried to come out with something at the other end and the middle as what is really important is identified. The 8500 is probably a little below where middle will land.

Bleeding edgers seem to value getting the whole experience over saving a few hundred dollars and missing out on even one feature.

 

[Ilya]

For me, this is feature is not so important, since my TV set has a built-in Netflix app, which works great!
I think most 4K TV sets capable of HDR have Netflix built in. Sorry Don!

 

[Bruce]

For those that can't get HDR but have a HDR TV, I heard that the Netflix app on the Nvidia Shield has it, don't know how good it works.

 

[teachsac]

I'll probably be getting the Panasonic when it comes out.

S~

 

[Ilya]

Xbox One S will likely support HDR on Netflix. At $299-$399 ... Next week!

 

[gadgtfreek]

Yeah, Im just gonna pass the Xbox on by and wait on the Panny to hit best buy in Sept.

 

[teachsac]

Was not the least bit impressed with the Xbox. It just collects dust. I'll pass.

S~

 

[TheForce]

Update-
I still do not get any HDR on Netflix with the App on my Samsung K8500. I suspect patience is the name of the game. Amazon UHD on most content now does have HDR UHD and it is working very well.

I also bought the new Joe Kane UHD calibration files with full resolution test charts and BT2020 color cal mapping points. It comes in a USB stick but there is a technical limitation currently to the files. Joe designed these primarily to run in a professional mastering suite. While the files are great for setting up your display for brightness and contrast, sharpness, the color mapping coordinates for BT2020 will not work on our monitors so the best is to use the 50% saturation charts which will map colors to close to P3. Additionally, there is a problem that no HDR file can transfer and display from USB because the Player's USB port strips off the MaxCLL and MaxFALL metadata necessary for the display to recognize proper HDR. Joe intends to come out with a consumer version that will be sold on UHD disk form so that HDR can be recognized in standard UHD players. Obviously this is quite expensive since there is no current burner or media to do this.

There are more issues with the test chart files but these can be worked around. The BT2020 container test files are rendered in EXR file format which is an extended contrast range (HDR) special file format for loading into the
Black Magic Davinci Resolve he used. Fortunately there is a good converter that works I have tested (Photoshop sees the EXR file but is buggy and fails to properly convert it ) The converter that works is reaConverter. It seems to be a very nice tool for anyone working in computer graphics. Very simple and supports batch file conversion. While this converter can translate to jpg and BMP for the Samsung K8500 to recognize and display, we still do not have HDR metadata so the charts are only good for color coordinates within the P3 space, and BT2020 container with HDR OFF on your display.

What all this means is, the content producers have the freedom to generate colors well beyond any consumer display capability and be "legal" so that one calibration condition on hue for one disk may be different for another. The safe approach will be to produce a program disk that is about 80% of P3 color so it properly maps to all consumer UHD HDR capable monitors the same. Unfortunately, this limitation creates a displayed image that is not much better than BT709 8 bit. Content producers who render to colors beyond P3 might look great on a $60,000 Laser projector but some reds will look very bright orange and some greens very bright yellow, deep sky blue will come out as turquoise on lesser capable TV's. I suspect all this spells to a future of total confusion among the consumer buyer. For any of you old timers, this reminds me of NTSC as in Never The Same Color days.

UHD-
4K (3840 x 2160p) resolution is great and is the biggest advantage of UHD.
BT2020 has some serious compatibility problems causing the same disk to look wildly different on different calibrated monitors.
HDR is great but requires BT2020 to work.

 

[Ilya]

Joe intends to come out with a consumer version that will be sold on UHD disk form so that HDR can be recognized in standard UHD players.

I am anxiously waiting for something like that!
I wish UHD Blu-Rays included at least some calibration tables in the extras!

 

[Grandpa J]

About 1990 I pushed Paramount TV to start shooting our film shows with the HD in mind. My argument was that the back end value of Black and White shows dropped substantially when color became standard. We should protect the back end value of current shows with HD on the horizon.


Because most TV at the time were 4:3 we used a mat in the camera which had the outline of both 4:3 and 16:9 and tried to fame inside the area were both formats intersected. That is why you may find the first seasons of Star Trek TNG and DS9 in 4:3 and later in 16:9. The real problem was the film was transferred to tape (telecine) and many of the editing and effects equipment were not able to do HD at the time. In some cases there was upscaling etc. later.


But as I retired 19 years ago I am not really sure what end product is given to the various distribution outlets today. So when comparing picture quality keep this in mind.

 

[mike123abc]

AThe real problem was the film was transferred to tape (telecine) and many of the editing and effects equipment were not able to do HD at the time. In some cases there was upscaling etc. later.

Luckily for some shows (like Star Trek TNG) they went back and redid the special effects...

Some shows like Babylon 5 were not able to be converted. The original film masters were lost in a fire.

 

[TheForce]

I am anxiously waiting for something like that!
I wish UHD Blu-Rays included at least some calibration tables in the extras!

I have heard that there are some calibration charts on the Sony UHD disks but so far only people with the Panasonic UHD player with a keypad can access them. The code is 7669.

 

[Ilya]

I have heard that there are some calibration charts on the Sony UHD disks but so far only people with the Panasonic UHD player with a keypad can access them. The code is 7669.

I just tried that 7669 combination and it does indeed bring some calibration charts on a Sony 4K Blu-ray. I used CHAPPiE. Way cool! Thanks for the tip!
And by the way, this does work on the Samsung player using the on-screen numeric pad.

 

[TheForce]

And by the way, this does work on the Samsung player using the on-screen numeric pad.

Thanks for that. I'll have to figure out how to bring that on screen pad up. Any tips? If it is in the manual, I missed it. I'm curious what they are.

 

[Ilya]

Thanks for that. I'll have to figure out how to bring that on screen pad up. Any tips? If it is in the manual, I missed it. I'm curious what they are.

Just press and hold the "INFO 123" button on the Samsung remote.

And yes, it is mentioned in the manual on page 10 under the "Tour of the Remote Control". Easy to miss.

 

[TheForce]

Thanks. I don't know how I missed that. So I saw the test charts. Not very impressive.