UHD HDR on Sky Stream: A Real Problem

[Jayded]

A few weeks ago, I made the switch to Sky Stream, after best part of a decade on Sky Q. This switch was an enforced one, due to the fact that it wasn't really feasible to cable up a Satellite dish in our new house. Overall, I am really pleased with the Sky Stream product and one of the big perks over Q was that you are not limited to UHD / HDR content on just your main box - all Stream Pucks can facilitate this content. 

However, there is a catch.

When watching Live Sky content in UHD (Sky Sports F1 UHD, Sky Sports Main Event UHD) it seems that Sky broadcast in HDR by default. This is resulting in a very dull and washed out image on my TV. This is really frustrating and really quite a drawback of the service - whilst the picture is undoubtedly crisp, it also looks very muted.

My TV is not an old model (Samsung Series 7 CU7100 65") and it handles UHD and HDR picture from other apps beautifully. It also handles Sky's on-demand UHD-only content beautifilly as well - the issue seems to be specific to HDR content.

After a bit of research, this seems to be a common problem for many Sky Stream subscribers. There also appears to be no way to disable HDR as a streaming preference, which is very frustrating - Sky Q had a feature to choose 8-bit or 10-bit, a choice which is not present on Sky Stream (which seems a real oversight).

Question for Stream subscribers: Does anybody know of a solution to this? If not, can anybody recommend a TV that can handle Sky's HDR broadcasts, short of an elite home cinema setup?

Question for Sky: Is it on the Product Roadmap to give Stream subscribers the option to disable HDR on Live Broadcasts? Because this would surely be the simplest fix?

[Nigelb1972]

Sky use HLG as their HDR format of choice as it was designed by BBC & NLK for life broadcast TV and delivers comparable, if not better results than HDR10 while using a lot less bandwidth. The downside is that not all TV's handle HLG particularly well and if your TVs NIT count Isn't very high. Sky UHD certainly isn't designed for high end home cinema systems at all, we have a 2 year old Samsung QLED which cost around £900 and handles HLG and Sky UHD beautifully. The stark reality is, that technology moves on. For reference, our TV is compatible with every HDR format including the elusive HDR10+ which only Amazon seem to support. The only one it doesn't support is Dolby Vision, which is a shame but the other pro's of the TV outweigh the lack of Dolby Vision compatibility.

[mikealanr]

Hi @Jayded 

This is a customer helps customer community. Sky don't routinely respond to  post on here and they certainly don't release roadmap details. They only publish information on new features as they are about to be released.

MikeAlanR

[Mister_Dalek]

@Jayded 

Try looking at some UHD content on your TV's built in iPlayer app - this will have HLG HDR too, the same type as Sky use. 
I have a 2018 Samsung NU7400 in my office which does a half decent job with HLG but only in a certain picture mode (Movie), with the contrast up at max and a few other settings tweaks. 
You may need to manually change the picture mode on your TV when viewing UHD HLG HDR content from Sky Stream, or get a more modern TV with a higher peak brightness level. 
I have a Panasonic OLED which offers all the HDR formats - HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ & Dolby Vision and once set up properly it produces astonishingly good results with all of them. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ from my Apple TV 4K box in particular is exceptional. 

[Nigelb1972]

I've been doing a Google and found that your TV appears to have a maximum NIT count of 1000. In comparison, most newer TV's are at least X3 this amount. 

I can only suggest having a tinker with your settings. 

[defector16]

Changed to sky stream two months ago from sky q, changed tv as well from lg to Philips ambilight oled 808 with all hdr formats supported and Dolby vision, picture on all formats bright and clear, more so than lg tv.

[Floydianslip]

@defector16 what model of LG tv did you change from to the Philips?

[Jason+Golding]

@Jayded @The issue is your tv I am afraid. It's a budget model with comparably low level of NITS (brightness). I have an LG OLED and UHD is excellent. Unfortunately HLG which sky use doesn't play nicely with low performing tv's. Not ideal 

[defector16]

Model was lgc3 oled to Philips 808 both oled

[Paulgoode]

I have the same problem with sky stream and hdr. When choosing a film you get the option of uhd/ hdr, uhd and HD

Which you had the choose when watching sky sports.

[geordiejohn1950]

I bought a Panasonic TB-55W60AEY in September last year and when I watch UHD HDR it changes to UHD HLG and the picture is really dark,is there any way of stopping it going to HLG pls 🙏 

Thank you.

[Paulgoode]

Ended up buying a sky glass 2nd generation TV. Problem solved. Perfect picture in uhd/hdr

[defector16]

You could change picture mode to 1080p which on sky stream seems sharper than2160 mode , unfortunately if you watch something in uhd you will need to change  mode back to 2160 on box. From a personal point of view some programs look just as good on 1080p mode than uhd.

[BenJoBanjo]

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@geordiejohn1950 wrote:

I bought a Panasonic TB-55W60AEY in September last year and when I watch UHD HDR it changes to UHD HLG and the picture is really dark,is there any way of stopping it going to HLG pls 🙏 

Thank you.

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Choose the UHD version of on demand programmes, not the UHD HDR version. 

All of Sky's UHD HDR programmes have the HLG format of HDR. 

For live UHD HDR sport channels, you'll need to watch the HD channel instead as there's no way of turning off HLG. 

Or, get a TV that can handle HLG better. That model of Panasonic has a low peak brightness so will never look great with HLG.  

[Wizardblue]

I have the same issue. I was running Sky Q and didn't want to keep paying their ever increasing prices. Cancelled and rejoined with Stream with an offer. But the 2 services aren't directly comparable.

My biggest issue is the dark dull F1 UHD picture. With Sky Q I changed the HDR setting which is now not possible. Every ones only solution is change the TV. 

I'm not sure there's even a valid solution in my case as Im runnig an Epson TW9300 Projector as the main TV. Probably the wrong side of £5k to upgrade and I don't see even a newer projector having enough Nits to dsiay HLG correctly. BBC UHD has the same issue within Sky and the Firestick. That confirms HLG as the issue. Netflix and Disney+ are both ok