topic Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox in Android TV

Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

dylan_t_jones — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 10:02:41 GMT

I have a Sony 49XD7004 TV

When I play 4K HDR content from Amazon Prime (I don’t have access to other 4K HDR content yet), the black bars at the top or bottom of wide screen (letterbox) programs are grey and not black (eg Goliath and Transparent) . On normal 1080p, they are black. This is slightly off-putting. I've tried to change the settings, but they are still grey.

Any idea if this is a bug?

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 23:49:41 GMT

Hi there

Are you able to take a photo of this (the grey bars) as well as a photo in comparison to 1080p (black bars).

Cheers

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

GD1001 — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 22:05:45 GMT

I too have this problem on my 43XD8088. The HDR is great but the problem comes with a grey border which is rather distracting. I have provided a picture of each of the HD vs HDR UHD files.

Both images are taken from the same show 'Goliath' (Different scenes, but the issue is persistent throughout). Shows without a border in HDR UHD look great, like 'The Grand Tour'. The problem comes when there is a letterbox present.

Any possible solutions? Thanks

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 01:44:14 GMT

Hi there

Thanks for the pictures - it demonstrates the issue clearly. I have reported this issue to Sony and am awaiting information. Will post back if/when more info comes available.

Cheers

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

dylan_t_jones — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 11:17:36 GMT

Sorry for not having the time to post photos. The photos posted by GD1001 is the same as my problem. Any updtaes as to why it does this?

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

royabrown — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 11:31:09 GMT

@dylan_t_jones wrote:
Sorry for not having the time to post photos. The photos posted by GD1001 is the same as my problem. Any updtaes as to why it does this?

If you look in the front of your Sony manual, it will tell you not to watch 4:3, due to long-term differential screen burn between the picture part and the unused black parts.

The same issue, potentially, can happen above and below pictures that are (16+):9, as many modern series are,

i have long thought that the answer is to send an average grey, instead of black, to even things out.

And perhaps this is what is happening here.

(Though having see your examples, I'm not so sure it is the answer, unless that apparent slight magenta cast is an artefact of the screenshot, and not apparent on the actual showing).

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 13:31:53 GMT

Hi All

Sony is indeed aware of this issue and have requested that Amazon make a change within the app itself to overcome this.

Cheers

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

GD1001 — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:43:40 GMT

Awesome. That's great to hear. Hopefully it is a speedy release. Thanks.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

dylan_t_jones — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:48:33 GMT

Thanks. That good news. Is this an Amazon problem only? I have not tried UHD HDR bluray films yet.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:50:06 GMT

@dylan_t_jones wrote:

Thanks. That good news. Is this an Amazon problem only? I have not tried UHD HDR bluray films yet.

The problem is specifically between the TV and the Amazon app. For example, Netflix 4K-HDR does not exhibit this issue.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

rooobb — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:21:43 GMT

Just a doubt from us poor people living in the continent ... Goliath is not available in Italy while Transparent is available only in Full HD... so far the only show available in 4K HDR in Italy (but in English) is Grand Tour that features no band....so I cannot test it myself. The only thing I could do was to force HDR on and there are those grey bands... but this is not a fault you cannot view non HDR content in HDR....

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:29:54 GMT

Thanks @rooobb

However as Sony is already aware of this issue and have suggested a resolution for Amazon to implement, i guess its just a waiting game now.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 21:33:50 GMT

Hello All

This is going to come as a big disappointment, but unfortunately after a full investigation of this issue Sony has concluded that this is a "system limitation and cannot be resolved". Sony has not/will not elaborate on the definition of "system limitation" - therefore I cannot share why this is the case.

I hate being the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately for this case it is.

Thank you.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

dylan_t_jones — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 09:39:55 GMT

That’s disappointing. If its a system limitation, does that mean its the TV porblem and not Amazons? I haven’t got 4k/HDR subscription for Netflix yet. I hope it does not have grey bars.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Risc0n — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 10:50:26 GMT

The Amazon app sucks, horrendouns lip sync as well as this issue. NOT fixed in Android 6.0

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Armani650 — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 23:11:45 GMT

This is not exclusive to Amazon , I get the gray bars on my Xbr49x900F , with any 4k movie that is letterbox and not full screen , even digital movies i have on my plex server ...

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Joefeesh — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 18:45:10 GMT

Why is this a problem now when it has been talked about for so long? This was a problem before they released my TV model! And they continued to build with this problem.

Is anyone working on this problem at Sony???

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Yanos_Audrin — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 22:01:51 GMT

It seems to be an HDR 10 issue with the Amazon App!

While watching a film with the issue, try going to the quick settings and into the HDR setting, and change it from Auto or HDR10, into HLG, and the bars will turn black while still having a measure of HDR image.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

stormyuk — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 07:43:12 GMT

@Yanos_Audrin wrote:
It seems to be an HDR 10 issue with the Amazon App!

While watching a film with the issue, try going to the quick settings and into the HDR setting, and change it from Auto or HDR10, into HLG, and the bars will turn black while still having a measure of HDR image.

Excuse my ignorance but, does Prime Video support HLG? What you are describing is probably just darkening the whole picture. As far as I am aware Prime Video only supports HDR10 (and HDR10+ / Dolby Vision) and not HLG. I have never tried this I must confess. Good work around if it does work.

Re: Amazon Prime 4K HDR-grey letterbox

Kuschelmonschter — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 07:44:06 GMT

You are basically tampering colors when setting HDR to HLG. It is indeed HDR10.

Funny enough I never witnessed those gray bars on an XF90. Tried Goliath which is HDR10 and 2.35:1.