'Mastered in 4K' option greyed out

[slimslady]

I have just purchased 4k kd-55x9005b. I have the supplied Port Replicator set up (to minimise leads).

I have plugged in my Playstation 3 with a high speed HDMI cable into the port replicator (I have tried different HDMI connections on the port replicator) and I am playing a Sony 'Mastered in 4k disc'.

However on the TV, when i select either Cinema 1 or Cinema 2, the 'Mastered in 4k' option is OFF and is greyed out. When you click on the 'Mastered in 4k' option it states that you need to have a HDMI connection capable of 1080p at 24fps.

When I view the details of the film (whilst it is playing) it states that it is 1080p and 24fps.

I have tried different HDMI leads, different HDMI ports on the port replicator and have tired a stand alone Sony Blu-ray player (as well as Playstation 3)

Any ideas ?

[Jonnie1266]

Hi slimslady,

I have the TV model prior to yours (55X9005A) which also has the 'Mastered in 4K' option, however mine does not have a Port Replicator. It is available only upon detecting a 1080p 24fps source, anything else and it is greyed out.

Have you tried connecting your PS3 straight to one of the HDMI ports on the TV itself instead of the replicator ? I use a Blu-ray player to watch this media, I am not sure if PS3 is able to play the required content at 24fps although your information during play back would appear to support this. It could be the replicator which is the stumbling block.

Regards 

[slimslady]

Thank you very much  for your response, as the TV is wall mounted I was just seeing if there were any other answers to the problem to save me getting it off the wall unnecessarily if it wasn't specifically a port replicator issue.

I logged a call with SONY yesterday and I was hoping that it would have been a very quick answer if the Port Replicator couldn't handle the 1080p 24fps input, but they didn't seem to know at the time and I am still awaiting their call back.

I know that the MHL functionality on the Port Replicator HDMI ports aren't supported but all the knowledge within the SONY site seems to suggest that all other ports work absolutely fine

Hopefully I might get someone who uses a port replicator with either a success story or confirms the problem.

Either way I will look to get the TV off the wall and see if a direct connection to the TV as you have suggested does the trick.

Thank you

Scott

[Jonnie1266]

Ahh, bit of a pain that

I know that the only time that the 4K option is available is during playback of 1080p Blu-ray Discs. It is never available whilst watching HD Freeview channels in Cinema mode for instance as they are compressed and not 24fps.

Afraid I can't help with the 'on the wall' predicament - perhaps Sony should have a HDMI (arc) port on the side of the TV ? 

[slimslady]

Before I got the TV off the wall I purchased a high speed 2.0 Hdmi cable and plugged into the port replicator, lo and behold this has worked for the PS3 player and has made the 'mastered in 4k' option usable. It still doesn't work for my Sony blu-Ray player but that's fine although strange because you have an option to automatically play blu Rays as 1080/24p. The Hdmi cable previously used was a high speed one although not sure of the version.

HOWEVER, when playing a SONY Mastered in 4k blu Ray disc (Spider-Man) I can see absolutely no difference in picture quality between the 'Mastered in 4k' setting being ON or OFF. When you amend any picture settings on the TV you can straight away the changes to the picture but I can't see any difference at all with the 'Mastered in 4k, setting.

Don't get me wrong, I am very pleased with the TV and the quality seems great but I was expecting to be 'wow'd' by not only the  upscale of 1080p blu Ray but also with the fact that it had been optimised for 4k. Perhaps I was expecting too much although some of the reviews of these mastered in 4k blu Rays had somewhat good reviews stating that you would see a difference.

Because of this I did get the TV off the wall and plugged in the Hdmi cable directly bypassing the port replicator to see if it made a difference, which it didn't.

So in summary the port replicator wasn't at fault as it looked to be the Hdmi cable, still waiting for SONY to respond to original query so I might ask them what I should expect from the 'mastered in 4k' option !

Scott

[Jonnie1266]

Hi Slimslady,

Pleased you have sorted this out (kind of !), it's always good to get feedback.

You may be pleased to hear that you foced my hand to take a look at my HDMI leads around the back of my TV - the dust was just great to see, spent some time cleaning up LOL 

I do not understand unless it is a PS3 issue how you solved it with HDMI 2.0, I could not get HDMI 2.0 leads when I constructed my 'entertainment corner' so used the Sony high speed leads which may have been 1.4 (not sure) but they stated that they could handle ARC, network and 4K signals.  Mine do work.

Is your Blu-ray player capable of 4K upscaling ? My Blu-ray player (Home Theatre BDV-N9100W) has the 4K upscaling option on it but I disable it in favour of the televisions own upscaling processor as it is most definitley more powerful hence the expense. If you select the upscaling option on the player it counter acts and greys out the mastered in 4K option on the TV, I have tried this.   

Regarding the quality of the upscaling I have always maintained that is not the best, so to speak. This was always the case with upscaling to HD when using standard DVD's on upscaling DVD/ Blu-ray players. They were never anything like the quality of the actual Blu-ray dics. I am sure that if you ever get your hands on any raw 4K that the quality will be excellent and the TV does then not have to upscale anything - the pixels will be filled to the max. Remember that the mastered in 4K Blu-rays were filmed in 4K then scaled back in order to make playable on standard Blu-ray players as of yet there are no 4K players available.

Post back if Sony help you out with an explanation of this option.

Regards

[slimslady]

Hi

My alternative blu-ray player is the SONY BDP-S185B which I think came out in 2011. This has an option for setting output to 1080/24p (either Automatic or OFF). Using any HDMI cable (2.0 or lower) did not work (Mastered in 4k greyed out) with the setting on the player for 1080/24p to Automatic. This blu-ray is not a 4K upscaler one and as you mentioned I had heard that you need to turn the 4K upscale OFF on the blu-ray player in preference to the 4K upscaling on the TV (this is confirmed in the specific knowledge doc from SONY detailing how to play a Mastered in 4K blu-ray).

The PS3 also has the 1080/24p options (OFF / ON / AUTOMATIC) which I set to ON to force the issue and this has worked with the new HDMI2.0 cable and on further investigation tonight the ‘mastered in 4k’ option has now become available with my original HDMI cable (which is 1.4a at most) !?!? So I can’t really explain other than it being a little temperamental although I was trying every which way at the weekend.

It's a shame about the upscaling - i've been very happy with the quality of how blu-rays look, however was expecting the Mastered in 4K setting to have had an effect on the specific SONY 'Mastered in 4K' blu-rays. Out of interest have you bought a 'Mastered in 4k' blu-ray ? Just wondering if when playing whether you noticed a difference with turning the option on and off.

I'll keep this thread posted on any comeback from SONY