55XE9005 and HDR

[fredwerk]

Hi,

So I have a 55XE9005 TV (4K and HDR) and I am wondering how to test if HDR is working? Does it have YouTube HDR app in the Android TV system (and yes I have updated everything)? I tried on of the HDR videos in the HDR channel and it doesn't seem to show in HDR. How do I know when the TV kicks in HDR mode?

Thanks,

[Kuschelmonschter]

Amazon Prime is the subscription service, hence no in-app purchases in the form of rentals. That's why it is on Android, iOS and soon tvOS.

[fredwerk]

So NTFS somehow didn't work, however, exFAT did work

While I found no video player playing HDR on Windows 10, I did try with Windows 10 own Media Player and this did work but it did not return as good of a picture than the TV built in Movie app.

For now, I will simply put UHD and HDR movies on my 1.5TB external Hard Drive, and plug this in directly into the TV and use the Movie app from Sony (already included in the TV system).

I found it crazy how HDR is all new and great but there is very little information about how to use it and what to expect from it. I would have expected Sony to give an introduction to it when TV switched on for the 1st time.

[Anonymous]

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Jecht_Sin wrote: Anyway, I tried to contact the (Italian) Amazon support about the lagging/stuttering issues. What a waste of time. She told me to contact Sony. I had to repeat a dozen times that it is an Amazon app, developed in Amazon, by Amazon developers. 

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Dont you just love it when companies do that.  The blame game I mean.  The consumer is stuck in the middle.  A few years ago I had that same 'blame game' issue between Amazon (then LoveFilm) and TalkTalk (UK ISP).  9 months later TalkTalk found and corrected a routing problem on their network....

[Anonymous]

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@fredwerk wrote:

I found it crazy how HDR is all new and great but there is very little information about how to use it and what to expect from it. I would have expected Sony to give an introduction to it when TV switched on for the 1st time.

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This is always a problem when new technology comes out.  It takes a long time (too long) for everything to catchup and support it.  However this is really only a problem for 'higher end users' - the average household still has a 1080p TV and will be so for some time.

In regards to documentation - Sony give the hardware (HDR TV) - but do you expect them to create documentation for Microsoft or Nvidia or....  If an introduction is displayed at first time switch-on from new, im sure someone somewhere will complain...  "I just want to watch telly"   LOL

Glad exFAT worked.  Unsure on why NTFS didnt.  Hmmm...

[fredwerk]

The documentation only tells you what button does what, it would be great if it tells you "Hey buddy, do you know your TV has HDR and how you can benefit from it?".

I don't expect them to cover the PC and how this works and so on and what is required. For example, I was wondering "ok so it has HDR, do I need specific discs to watch HDR? Do I need to enable it myself or TV just does it own thing?".

Their is absolutely nothing in the documentation. I googled to get my answers and now I'm here (and thank you very much for your help).

And I'm not the only one having this issue

[Anonymous]

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@fredwerk wrote:
The documentation only tells you what button does what, it would be great if it tells you "Hey buddy, do you know your TV has HDR and how you can benefit from it?".

I don't expect them to cover the PC and how this works and so on and what is required. For example, I was wondering "ok so it has HDR, do I need specific discs to watch HDR? Do I need to enable it myself or TV just does it own thing?".

Their is absolutely nothing in the documentation. I googled to get my answers and now I'm here (and thank you very much for your help).

And I'm not the only one having this issue

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Actually, I fully agree with you on that.  It would be handy for Sony to actually state how basically it works and what the benefits are.  Proper documentation.  I have been constantly badgering Sony on documentation.  Just when I think its about to get better - they do disappoint me

Unsure if this is helpful to you, but Sony has created a couple of Blog posts about HDR.

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/how-tos-faqs-tvs-home-cinema/4k-hdr-what-it-is-and-how-to-get-it/ba-...

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/how-tos-faqs-tvs-home-cinema/hdr-technical-info/ba-p/2317193

You're welcome by the way

[Jecht_Sin]

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Quinnicus wrote:

Dont you just love it when companies do that.  The blame game I mean.  The consumer is stuck in the middle.  A few years ago I had that same 'blame game' issue between Amazon (then LoveFilm) and TalkTalk (UK ISP).  9 months later TalkTalk found and corrected a routing problem on their network....

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Yeah!! That was the most favorite hobby in the State office (I mean, the bureaus, how they are called in English): sending people from an office to another untile they enter in a loop! Then people learned the trick and stopped them before starting. Now the corps do it. But to be honest in this case I blame the Amazon representative. She really had no clue of what I was talking about, worst Amazon care experience ever. Usually it is a 10. I've got so many refunds just via chat/phones even keeping the faulty items.

[Jecht_Sin]

@fredwerk Honestly you can't expect Sony to give out information about how to use the tv as an HDR monitor with Windows 10. That's very OS specific (Windows in this case. I can't manage to make it going into HDR with macOS High Sierra. If that's even possible), as long as the tv shows the HDR logo, as you said it did,  it did its job. Still I am puzzled to see how the Windows 10 desktop looks in HDR. I mean, if the colors look brilliant you are doing it right, if they are washed or with a bizarre contrast and awful colors the tv is on HDR, but the desktop isn't rendered in HDR. As you may see there is little info about HDR also because not many system support it. Which is more or less what @Anonymous said.

Instead, without moving HDDs around, I'd suggest you to try with Plex. Right now they just broke the maximum resolution in the Plex client (it was working with UHD/HDR videos), so it will convert the UHD/HDR videos in 1080p, but what you can do is to enable the DLNA service in the Plex server (which must be installed in your PC) and then you can watch the video with the Sony's Video stock app. It works as long as you have both the PC and the tv wired or using the Wifi 5GHz (ac). Otherwise it may buffer being the network too slow with some videos at high bitrate (HDR demos we find around). Plex is cool because it also organises the content in libraries you choose, and builds thumbnails and other stuff of which some appears in the DLNA clients (Sony's Video in this case).

[fredwerk]

Hi,

I am not sure what I should expect from HDR. So far, only a LG 4K HDR demo video played via USB into Sony Video TV app, looks amazing. I played other videos the same way, also via Plex (streaming from my computer), and videos either look pale or pale dark. For example, I played La La Land, the title really popped out (very colourful and bright) however the movie itself is kinda dark and colours not vibrant.

Recently I played Star Wars Battlefront 2 on my PC connected to the TV, HDR mode on. And again, while I can see an increase in detail, the blacks look more grey (hence why I can see details) and colours kinda washed out/pale.

When I disable HDR, with video settings set on Standard (on TV), black are black and colours very colourful.

Does my TV got the wrong video/picture settings? Is the above normal? Am I expecting too much from HDR?

So far, I am not blown away.

[Kuschelmonschter]

Here is a nice video about HDR.