KD-55AG8 BBC iPlayer UHD poor quality

[ChrisAG8]

Hi

My 2019 model KG-55AG8 shows excellent UHD picture quality via the Sky box for cricket & F1, and Netflix & Amazon as 4K sources also provide very good picture quality.

I find that for the Euro 2021 football and Wimbledon on the BBC iPlayer (accessed via Sony Select) quality is reduced and is darker and has a gloomy feel to it, not the vibrant bright colourful image that the same HD signal has. No amount of tweaks to the settings can make it bright and vibrant, to the point that I don't bother with the BBC UHD service now. 

In reality it looks as if the initial overlay that appears with the picture that carries the branding and other info, is retained when the branding text drops off. Momentarily the picture is bright, then it instantly dims. The same happens with the Wimbledon feeds.

Does anyone else see this, or can you suggest picture settings that will generate a bright vibrant picture on BBC UHD on the iPlayer? I'm quite relaxed about working through every setting in the toolbox on this particular tv due to endlessly trying to get it right.

Thanks.

[royabrown2]

@ChrisAG8 

I see exactly what you see on the UHD Wimbledon feeds, on both my LG GX (LG’s best 2020 OLED TV) and on a Roku Stick plugged into my Samsung JS9000 (Samsung’s best 2015 TV, but it won’t get the BBC iPlayer UHD feed natively).

In both cases, the UHD feed looks washed out, not vibrant, and like you are watching through a sheet of gauze.

It also does strange things to the net, making it look much a much finer mesh than HD does, but I think HD is resolving the net just fine, and what you see on UHD isn’t real.

On both TVs, we have gone back to HD for a better experience.

Now you seem to have seen the same thing on a Sony.

One thing to bear in mind is that HD is BBC coverage, and UHD is Wimbledon’s own coverage, supplied to the BBC; so I think there are questions that will need to be asked about this UHD feed.

Can’t answer for the footy, as we don’t watch that, but it would be worth asking if these are BBC cameras or not.

[ChrisAG8]

Thanks for the confirmation that it's not just my tv that struggles.

The Euro 2020 (21) UHD football feed is via EUFA and is sourced from their broadcast centre in Amsterdam. It's the same as the HD feed as unlike previous tournaments where the UHD pictures were from separate cameras, this one is a UHD source with the HD extracted from that.

I've not looked into Wimbledon, but I don't think that the source is relevant - anecdotally it seems that that iPlayer UHD feed for football and tennis is superb, but there seems to be an issue with the way some TVs handle it, Sony included. 

It would be interesting to see if any other viewers on here have had similar experiences; if you have pls respond to this thread and I'll collate them and then get on to the BBC to see what they might be able to do with that information. From prev experience BBC Engineering are always keen to get this sort of feedback.

Thanks again

[HannahEd01]

Hi ChrisAG8, that doesn't seem relevant to the TV, but just in case, did you try  updating the software?

[spannerzone]

I got the same results for Wimbledon on my Sony XG8096 using built in iplayer....UHD was dull and lifeless, HD via the Freeview was far brighter and arguably more detailed. I've use iplayer for UHD before and it's looked ok but this time it was pretty much terrible unless in a very dark room.

[adamski99_uk]

BBC iPlayer uses HLG for HDR while while almost every other broadcaster uses HDR10. I found that the HLG pictures are darker and had a quick google and came up with this which gives a comprehensive guide to why and how to adjust your TV to get the best picture.

[royabrown2]

@adamski99_uk 

So to use a car analogy, if I have a car that can cruise at 70, but not go up to 80, I can get it up to 80 occasionally, but only if I now normally cruise at 55?

[adamski99_uk]

No, it's two different ways of achieving the same thing, but to use your car analogy it's more like Petrol vs Diesel.  

[royabrown2]

I was more thinking of HDR versus non-HDR than HLG versus HDR10…..

[Rufus57]

I have the Sony KD48A9 which is a brilliant tv but UHD on the BBC iplayer seems to defeat it. Just watched a series called Chloe on UHD and some scenes were so dark it was impossible to see what was going on. No matter. The upscaling on the TV is so good I will stick to HD next time I use the BBC iplayer.