SkyQ UHD recording won't play on Samsung UHD TV

[NottStuart]

I mnde a Sky Q recording of a UHD broadcast (''Williams & Mansell: Red 5'' on skysports F1 UHD 8 July 2023) but when I try to play it on my Samsung UHD TV (''55in S95B OLED 4K HDR'') the box reports ''To watch this you need a UHD TV and have your picture resolution set to UHD To set now press [redbutton]''

But when I do that it goes through a test routine & declares ''Trying Ultra HD in 10-bit color didn't work ... you may need to change a setting on your TV ...''

I have set everything on the Samsung to max picture and spent ages on to Samsung tech to ensure I've not missed anything - they are adamant that the problem is with Sky but I can't see where or what I can do to change anything which would fix thate

Other UHD broadcasts seem to work fine, though I'm not sure how to tell whether I'm watching HD or UHD - I recently found the setting to switch between 1080i and 1080p which was a very evident improvement but I don't know how to check whether I'm watching a 2060 UHD broadcast. 

This recording reports itself as being 'part recorded, no signal' but I don't think that's the problem.

Any ideas?

[cuke]

Is the sky box connected directly to the tv and input plus on for that hdmi port? However if other UHD/HDR content on sky play OK then it must be the recording, try recording others..

[nigea99]

hi @NottStuart 

To watch that recording you will need to set the resolution to 2160p 10 bit but if your box is unable to set it then something is not playing as it should.

Assuming that the settings (Deep color for Samsung I think) are all set then the only thing I can suggest is to take out the HDMI cable and re-seat it (or ideally try another guaranteed HDMI 2,0 cable) & also suggest a full power down restart (i.e. switch off at mains or unplug)  of both the SKY Q box & TV

[NottStuart]

Thank you. I found some other UHD stuff to play by streaming stranght from Sky, i.e. not a recording, but got the same result.

So it looks like something to do with the Sky box not communicating properly with the telly.

[NottStuart]

Thanks peeps, I tried all the suggestions except a new HDMI cable, although we bought a new latest spec one along with the telly last year so I doubt that's the problem. 

I'll update when done...

[NottStuart]

I've ordered a new HDMI lead with 8K+ specs so that should do 2160, meantime I'm wondering - could the SkyQ box be refusing to play UHD (recorded or streaming) because ar well as the 4K Samsung I'm struggling with also have a mini box connected to a much less capable Samsung.  Could it be thinking that can't do UHD so none on the premises can? 

Suppose I'll disconnect it, reboot everything else & try again....  What do we think?

[nigea99]

---

@NottStuart wrote:

I've ordered a new HDMI lead with 8K+ specs so that should do 2160, meantime I'm wondering - could the SkyQ box be refusing to play UHD (recorded or streaming) because ar well as the 4K Samsung I'm struggling with also have a mini box connected to a much less capable Samsung.  Could it be thinking that can't do UHD so none on the premises can? 

Nope - nothing to do with that (many who use HDR also have minis attached - as I do)

Suppose I'll disconnect it, reboot everything else & try again.... 

I definitely suggest it is worth a try

What do we think?

---

[NottStuart]

Thank you.  Tried the disconnect thing, made no difference of course! 

8K HDMI lead due to arrive tomorrow, and a t/c call promised by Samsung level 2 tech so will let you know if either of those help...

[Kenny-J]

Hi there,

A mini cannot output in 2160, it can only output max on 1080P. So any UHD recording will not play on a mini only the main connected to a UHD TV,

Have you tried just connecting the Q box directly to the TV, as others have said Deep Colour needs to be switched on on the TV as well as sometimes enabling it on specific HDMIs. Trying this would isolate if an issue with the TV or the Amp. It would be good to know the model of TV and the make and model of the Amp, remember for any UHD/HDR signal to work correctly through all these devices all the HDMIs from the Q box to Amp from Amp to the TV have to be UHD / HDR compliant.

[cuke]

See last post here https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Q/UHD-HDR-on-Samsung-S95B-Q-STB-and-TV-were-not-setup-UHD-HDR/td-p/...

[NottStuart · Accepted solution]

Thank you for all the suggestions above - even those from people who had not properly read my question. 

I have report none of them made any difference, and especially the new 8k capable HDMI lead which I purchased specially and promised to report on except the link to a different thread posted by Cuke - so special thanks to you!

There wasn't a specific answer to my problem there but I did extract a vital idea from this by Stormtrooper12:
''I take it you dont see this message if you try downloading one of the videos from Help>HDR Set-Up Tutorials ?''

Well I didn't know there were any such tutorials in the SkyQ box but among them I found one in UHD which I was confident would not play on my TV but I thought I'd give it a try and sure enough it produced the same error message as when I tried to watch UHD previously, and also the same ''..press red button now to fix'' message on screen as I had seen many times.

But lo & behold for no apparent reason, this time it did fix the problem!! 😊😊😊

Note: the problem was not in my TV or it's settings, because they were already as they should be, and it was not with the HDMI lead because changing that made no difference (I changed it back!) - no, the problem was that the SkyQ box did not recognise these facts when it ran the 'fixing' routine when it was offered from any other UHD recording or broadcast but it did when triggered from Sky's own 'help' videos.

So they did help but I'm sure not in the way envisaged!

I'm not at all happy about this process but at least I have now got the outcome and I hope this information helps someone else.

Cheers everyone.

[sheng]

HI

I also have a Samsung s95b tv and spent many hours trying to resolve the 10 bit issue, this is guaranteed to work,

go to settings on the tv,

click on Connection

click on external device manager

click on input signal plus

click on the hdmi 3 this the earc socket which on the s95b 

once highlited

click on close

return to your sky q box and pick 2160 10 bit

you are good to go

[NottStuart]

So here is another update for any future researchers dealing with the Sky Q not wanting to display at maximum resolution...

Further reading & experimentation has established that (and I'm open to correction if anyone knows better or Sky change something to stop this being a problem) but it seems there is a communication issue which causes the Sky Q box to not recognise the TV & the connection to the TV are perfectly capable of 2160p & consequently turn down the output resolution when it is totally not needed. 

To be clear, it is a communication issue, nothing is wrong with the telly settings or the hdmi leads or the russians or anything else outside the way the Sky Q box has been programred to behave.

There is the option to go through Sky box menus & set 2160p every day but if the box is 'in a mood' it just won't let you. (or mine doesn't  anyway) but the far simpler solution that works for me is to turn the telly on first, then when Sky box turns on the info it needs is ready & waiting to be read.

If the Sky box has been left turned on to make recordings & the TV off because of not being used and you turn on the telly to find no 260p picture & Sky box sending a complaint to the screen: leave telly on, turn Sky box off, wait about 14 seconds, turn Sky box back on. Hey presto, job done.

That's what I do, I hope it works for you too.

If so please add reply here so others can be guided to copy and Sky can have a think about re-training their Q boxes to avoid this problem arisin, in the first place.

[Chodley]

Thanks for the update.

this does sound like a Samsung flaw in how it shares EDID info . Never had the slightest problem with multiple Panasonics (or a cheap Samsung attached to a mini but that only ever uses 1080p/8bit)

[NottStuart]

I make no claim to expertise or technical knowledge but since the workaround was re-booting the Sky box rather than the telly I'd have thought the issue was on the Sky side. 

But I don't suppose it's important enough for either manufacturer to fix properly.