Panasonic 4K best HDR “Environment” picture setting

Scoutfinch

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Hi,

I have a Panasonic UB420 player with the HDR Optimiser technology.

Like many recent Panasonic players this can be accessed via the HDR setting in the remote control and offers: Standard, Bright Environment, Natural Environment and Light Environment options.

I have a Panasonic OLED TV also and was wondering the best recommended setting.

Standard seems to lose to much too detail with Light retaining it much more and maximising cinematography in films like The Revenant and Bladerunner 2049.

Grateful for your thoughts on the best pre calibration setting?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Hi,

I have a Panasonic UB420 player with the HDR Optimiser technology.

Like many recent Panasonic players this can be accessed via the HDR setting in the remote control and offers: Standard, Bright Environment, Natural Environment and Light Environment options.

I have a Panasonic OLED TV also and was wondering the best recommended setting.

Standard seems to lose to much too detail with Natural retaining it much more and maximising cinematography in films like The Revenant and Bladerunner 2049.

Grateful for your thoughts on the best pre calibration setting?

Thanks in advance.
All just use a preset on the Dynamic Range Adjustment control and which one to use depends on your viewing environment. Standard is best for dark rooms as it is the off setting. Higher settings can result in elevated blacks in a dark viewing room and loss of colour vibrance.

Standard 0
Natural +4
Light +8
Bright +11

I find I get better results using the DRA control adjustments manually in combination with the other available controls. I'd rarely go beyond +2 on the DRA and most of the time it is at 0 (Panasonic recommendation), but I do watch UHDs in a completely dark room. Some UHDs benefit from a negative setting,

Basically the best setting is the one you like in the room you are watching in.
 
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All just use a preset on the Dynamic Range Adjustment control and which one to use depends on your viewing environment. Standard is best for dark rooms as it is the off setting. Higher settings can result in elevated blacks in a dark viewing room and loss of colour vibrance.

Standard 0
Natural +4
Light +8
Bright +11

I find I get better results using the DRA control adjustments manually in combination with the other available controls. I'd rarely go beyond +2 on the DRA and most of the time it is at 0 (Panasonic recommendation), but I do watch UHDs in a completely dark room. Some UHDs benefit from a negative setting,

Basically the best setting is the one you like in the room you are watching in.

Thank you very much for the quick reply.

For the record I’m like you, largely watching films in a dark room and aiming to just use the presets. I use Professional 1/2 also on my TV so like the cinema mode was expecting the player on Standard to perform in a similar cinematic way to the TV where it displayed powerful blacks (agreeing with you about not having elevated blacks) but also presented deep and natural looking impactful colours.


However, the main reason for asking was when watching a dark scene like Bladerunner 2049 (around 6 mins 30 - 7 mins 30), on standard DRA @ 0, much of the background like the fridge, ceiling lines and facial features like the character’s ear and hair is obscured. Hence, asking about how to retain those blacks whilst not losing as much colour or detail which the director would have wanted us to see.

Of course with a lower quality film transfer more detail would be lost in standard even though that appears to be the recommended setting.
 
Thank you very much for the quick reply.

For the record I’m like you, largely watching films in a dark room and aiming to just use the presets. I use Professional 1/2 also on my TV so like the cinema mode was expecting the player on Standard to perform in a similar cinematic way to the TV where it displayed powerful blacks (agreeing with you about not having elevated blacks) but also presented deep and natural looking impactful colours.


However, the main reason for asking was when watching a dark scene like Bladerunner 2049 (around 6 mins 30 - 7 mins 30), on standard DRA @ 0, much of the background like the fridge, ceiling lines and facial features like the character’s ear and hair is obscured. Hence, asking about how to retain those blacks whilst not losing as much colour or detail which the director would have wanted us to see.

Of course with a lower quality film transfer more detail would be lost in standard even though that appears to be the recommended setting.
I have my doubts as to what the directors want us to see given the current fashion/vogue for setting everything in the equivalent of a dark cave lit only by a single candle 50m away...:)

Perhaps here the director intended you not to see the fridge, ceiling lines and facial features like the character’s ear and hair and instead just see what was visible. Using the lighting in a similar way as to a restricted depth of field in focus area to blur the background and to concentrate the viewer on what was the area he wanted you to look at.

Or whoever did the mastering cocked up and didn't take account of domestic display capabilities when doing the lighting levels on their £30K monitors. The problem may also be the domestic Oled near black response and how quickly it comes out of black.

You can use the Panasonic Tone Curve (Black) control to slightly lift or drop the near black. Either on its own or in combination with a few clicks on the DRA. For example rather than lift DRA by the 4 clicks you get using the preset on natural, you could raise it by +2 manually and also the Tone Curve (Black) by +1 or +2.
Or lift DRA higher to push the midrange and top and then dial back the accompanying black lift which results in elevated blacks by going negative on TC (B).
 
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I have my doubts as to what the directors want us to see given the current fashion/vogue for setting everything in the equivalent of a dark cave lit only by a single candle 50m away...:)

Perhaps here the director intended you not to see the fridge, ceiling lines and facial features like the character’s ear and hair and instead just see what was visible. Using the lighting in a similar way as to a restricted depth of field in focus area to blur the background and to concentrate the viewer on what was the area he wanted you to look at.

Or whoever did the mastering cocked up and didn't take account of domestic display capabilities when doing the lighting levels on their £30K monitors. The problem may also be the domestic Oled near black response and how quickly it comes out of black.

You can use the Panasonic Tone Curve (Black) control to slightly lift or drop the near black. Either on its own or in combination with a few clicks on the DRA. For example rather than lift DRA by the 4 clicks you get using the preset on natural, you could raise it by +2 manually and also the Tone Curve (Black) by +1 or +2.
Or lift DRA higher to push the midrange and top and then dial back the accompanying black lift which results in elevated blacks by going negative on TC (B).

Very helpful. I agree with your sentiments about transfer and director.

The reason I raised this setting issue is objectively comparing the 4K disc to the non Netflix non HDR version which they broadcast, I need to push up the player version to the “Natural” or “Light” option to get an equivalent and/or more superior picture and level of detail to the Netflix broadcast which seems strange. I would have expected the “Standard” setting to at least be thr

I have tried those Tone manual settings which are useful. Overall, as you indicated, on Panasonic players especially, there normally is NOT a need to deviate from the standard default recommended setting.
 
Very helpful. I agree with your sentiments about transfer and director.

The reason I raised this setting issue is objectively comparing the 4K disc to the non Netflix non HDR version which they broadcast, I need to push up the player version to the “Natural” or “Light” option to get an equivalent and/or more superior picture and level of detail to the Netflix broadcast which seems strange. I would have expected the “Standard” setting to at least be thr

I have tried those Tone manual settings which are useful. Overall, as you indicated, on Panasonic players especially, there normally is NOT a need to deviate from the standard default recommended setting.
HDR at times can look just like overly boosted contrast which results in more noticeable black crush when compared to the SDR version. I've now resorted to dropping the TV contrast down from the recommended 100 to 90 or 85 for some UHDs which then look a bit better to my eyes.

The more UHDs I watch (over 350 now) the more it becomes apparent that there is a lot of difference imo in the mastering between them with some much better than others (and some much worse :().
 

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