Sky Stream - Turn off HDR?

[JCensored]

Long story short, the HDR that Sky uses looks absolutely awful on my TV. I don't have an option to turn off HDR within my TV settings, I was wondering if there is one for Sky Stream? I'm aware I can choose other formats on demand, which is fine, but when watching live (Sky Sports F1) I'm not able to choose between HDR and no HDR so I get a dull flat picture .

Thanks

[SlenderRobert · Accepted solution]

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@JCensored wrote:

Long story short, the HDR that Sky uses looks absolutely awful on my TV. I don't have an option to turn off HDR within my TV settings, I was wondering if there is one for Sky Stream? I'm aware I can choose other formats on demand, which is fine, but when watching live (Sky Sports F1) I'm not able to choose between HDR and no HDR so I get a dull flat picture .

Thanks

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There is no option to switch off HDR on Stream. You could just watch the HD version of the channel I suppose. 

[JCensored]

Thanks for the reply. That's a shame, the HD channel looks low quality by comparison, I'm assuming it's 720p? I'll have to make a judgement between resolution and colour I suppose 

[SlenderRobert]

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@JCensored wrote:

Thanks for the reply. That's a shame, the HD channel looks low quality by comparison, I'm assuming it's 720p? I'll have to make a judgement between resolution and colour I suppose 

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It should be 1080p. Stream pucks can be slow at buffering up to full quality though so give it a few seconds to see if the quality improves. 

[JCensored]

Thanks, it has picked up a bit now 

[Daymo]

I had this discussion with sky tech support this week, and was advised that the issue with the dark HDR and quality is due to a broadcasting issue on the way sky handles it. They couldn't give a time scale, but advised it will be sorted in a future update. 

[Jason+Golding]

@Daymoi am afraid what you have been told is absolutely rubbish. Sky use a system called HLG to deliver HDR. HLG demands a high quality tv set with adequate brightness levels on the panel. Most middle to high end tv's can handle HLG and produce good results. If you have a low end tv with low brightness levels, there is nothing that sky can do to improve the brightness levels, if they continue to use HLG. Best bet is to upgrade your tv set. I use a LG C2 OLED and the HDR picture is very good, with good levels of brightness. If you want to be safe, QLED tv's are generally brighter

[Daymo]

This was my comments to the sky team as well after having researched HLG and it's main differences. We don't have the top of the range tv but it supports HDR and Dolby Vision well, but seems to struggle with the levels of darkness when viewing using sky"s HLG. This is an issue that needs to be better recognised across the board and those on the tech side be made more aware of the tv needing to support it better. 

[Daymo]

@Jason+Golding @We may look at going sky glass down the line or as you suggest a higher end tv that can handle the full beauty of HLG. Any feedback on glass and the quality it portrays in terms of HLG support?

Sky Stream whole home

Apple TV 4K with Dolby Atmos

BT/EE G Fast Fibre (300meg)

[JCensored]

@Daymo I have a friend with Sky Glass and we have been comparing quality. Apparently the Glass doesn't have a lot of the compression issues that the Stream does, I imagine it would handle Sky's own HDR fine as well but can't make comment on that. Unfortunately I've just bought a new TV otherwise I'd have gone for Glass

[Jason+Golding]

@Daymo  There is a huge difference in a tv supporting HDR, Dolby Vision, etc and the results it produces. The main expense for a producer of tv set is the panel, the better the tv the better panel

[Jason+Golding]

@JCensored  Sorry but this is rubbish. Firstly sky stream uses exactly the same software as glass. Stream doesn't suffer from any compression issues. The brightness on HDR has nothing to do with compression. lastly it is universally accepted that a high quality tv with stream produces a better picture than Sky glass. Fundamentally Sky glass isn't a good tv 

[Daymo]

So @Jason+Golding in theory the more pricy the tv is, the much better support in terms of picture quality 

[Jason+Golding]

Sky Glass is a very average tv with average panel. Go for a decent tv from LG, Sony, TV or Panasonic and stay with sky stream 

[Jason+Golding]

@Daymo  It's not always the case that the tv must be super expensive. I would recommend looking at the LG OLED. Maybe go for a last year model such as the C2 or CS.