Discussions

[cuside]

HDR videos from any source, including the native apps like Vudu, Prime Video, Movies Anywhere, Plex, as well as HDMI sources like a Playstation 4, Windowss 10 PC, Nvidia Shield, and 4k Firestick, have a grey/dark tint to them.  Brightness is severely limited, and colors are not vibrant.  Non-HDR content looks noticeably brighter and the colors pop more.

Dolby Vision videos, on the other hand, appear to function properly.  Colors are more vibrant than HDR and non-HDR.  Although I've noticed in some apps, like the native Movies Anywhere app, if the video says it's offered Dolby Vision the TV will go into HDR mode instead.  In fact, so far I can only get my TV to go into Dolby Vision mode in the native Vudu app, as well as the Dolby Access test video app.

Here is a video comparison.  My phone's exposure made every capture way brighter than what it actually is in person.  Just note that any of the HDR videos, in person, have less color saturation to them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkH173tIKvk

https://youtu.be/ggeiSxoWSVY

https://youtu.be/gYBNWO3krvw?t=32

[RStro21]

Hi, 

I just purchased the same model TV (TCL 55R625) about week ago now and noticed the same exact issue with my Xbox One S. HDR on the YouTube app thru Roku TV, the colors are vibrant and seems to display properly with no problem whatsoever.

Going over the list of apps you said you noticed to issue with I decided check out HDR on the apps I have a signed up for, which is only Amazon Prime Video. I started by searching the for HDR material and when played it will play at 4K but won't switch over to HDR. I know you're supposed to get a little notification on the top left of the screen and that HDR notification does not popup (on the YouTube app HDR videos switch over), and also when I press * to access the Picture mode settings, only the regular picture modes are available, Low Power, Sports, Movie, Vivid etc.., not the HDR Dark, HDR Normal or HDR Bright. 

Not sure what else to do to figure out a fix for this issue. As of now, I just play my Xbox One S with HDR off (which thankfully the 4K games and 4K upscale still looks amazing) and just watch movies on Prime Video in 4K since it won't switch on to HDR.

Hopefully there's an update to fix this issue soon.  

[cuside]

I found a way to get the picture brighter and better colors, although Dolby Vision is better looking and even brighter.

First, used and older version (4.5ish) of the Android Roku app to access the expert picture settings.  The new version of this app is broken and won't allow you to access/change the HDR and DV expert picture settings.

Second I applied a custom white balance the same as the one listed here:

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-lcd-flat-panel-displays/3092866-2019-tcl-6-series-qled-r625-55-65...

I did this just to get the TV out of its default state.  You may not experience better color reproduction, but to me I didn't notice much of a difference.

Then for the NORMAL HDR and NORMAL Dolby Vision modes, I applied the following regular settings:

TV Brightness: Brighter
Picture Size: Auto
Picture Mode: Normal HDR/DV
Local Contrast: MEDIUM
Backlight: 100
Brightness: 49
Contrast: 100
Sharpness: 50 (I don't see a difference between any setting though)
Color: 80 (big improvement over the default 20)
Tint: 0
Color Temperature: Warm
Action Smoothing: Greyed Out
Natural Cinema: On
LED Motion Clarity: Off
Gamma: 2.2
Noise Reduction: Off

Expert setting:

Color Space: Auto for HDR10 and Native for Dolby Vision

Now the BRIGHT HDR mode looks even better, but there's a bug in it where if the scene of the movie changes from bright to or from dark rapidly, the backlight/local contrast will adjust rapidly and look like a flicker, instead of being a smooth transition.  This doesn't happen in the other HDR modes, despite Normal being almost as bright overall.

[RStro21]

Oh nice!! 

I was actually looking at this post in the same exact forum but was hesitate to try the setup especially since I have an iPhone so I wouldn't be able to download an older version of the of the Roku app. But I just remembered I have an old Amazon Fire Tablet that I haven't used in a long time. So, since this seems like it worked out for you, I going to download that Roku app on that tablet and try this out.

Thanks man! Hopefully this works out for me also, as it did for you!

***Update. (an hour after original post)***

It looks better now, it doesn't have that grey/dark tint to it anymore. 

Thanks for directing me to that other post for 11 Pt WB and I used your picture settings and looks a lot better to me.

Thank you.

[FattyBuumBatty]

Where did you find the older roku app? I tried finding the apk but didn't have any luck :/

Also it stinks that ipq android only works on Pixels...

[Laboky]

I think I’m having the same issue, although I haven’t tested around with HDR vs non-HDR images - I just noticed it on my Xbox Series X HDMI connection. I have a TCL 55S401. I also noticed that whenever I hard-restart the TV (settings > system > power > system restart), the power looks to be corrected again - until the tv goes in standby mode.