You Asked: Blu-ray picture fix, lossy vs. lossless, and AI self-calibration

Each week, we'll hand pick some of the most commonly asked questions and answer them as concisely and helpfully as we know how.

On today’s You Asked: Can streaming and cable signals look better than 4K Blu-ray discs? When is the 65-inch TCL QM8 review coming out? Which is better on Apple or Amazon Music: lossless or Dolby Atmos? And can the power of AI be used to create a self-calibrating TV?

A 4K Blu-ray picture fix?

Ed O’Brien writes: I’m not getting the most out of watching movies on my Sony A95L with a Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player. With cable or streaming, I am blown away by the picture quality, while 4K Blu-rays just seem “meh.” I even tried direct comparisons with titles like The Fugitive and The Flash, and the cable and streaming versions have much better visual quality. Should I be using certain TV or player settings when watching a 4K Blu-ray? Any help would be much appreciated.

This is the first time I’ve heard anyone mention that the picture they get from their cable or streaming service looks better than the 4K Blu-ray. But I can imagine a lot of other folks will also be curious about this.

I have two theories about why the image quality on the cable or streaming version may look superior to your 4K Blu-ray.

But first, consider this: The 4K Blu-ray disc has a higher bit rate and bit depth than just about any streaming service. (Sony’s Bravia Core offers something very close.) That higher bit rate and bit depth helps with more subtle visual quality aspects like reduced color banding and other compression artifacts. However, most folks pick up on contrast and color more readily than other, more subtle cues.

Theory No. 1: You may simply like the look of SDR more than HDR. SDR has a lower dynamic range, which means that the image tends to be more uniformly bright. If you have the brightness setting on your Sony A95L set fairly high, the entire SDR picture will be a bit brighter and perhaps more vivid, too.

If you aren’t subscribed to the top tier of your streaming service (like is the case for Netflix, Max, or Amazon Prime), you may be getting 4K, but not HDR. And you could be watching in SDR and finding that picture to be more enjoyable. HDR doesn’t knock everyone’s socks off, and depending on how well the HDR was mastered, it may not be all that impressive anyway. Folks often complain HDR is too dark, usually because they aren’t watching it in a pitch-black room and they prefer brighter pictures.

Theory No. 2: You might not be getting HDR on your Sony A95L. It could be that you are, in fact, watching in HDR on those streaming services or — less likely — cable box, but you haven’t changed a setting in your Sony TV that unlocks HDR for the HDMI input that you have your Panasonic Blu-ray player plugged into.

On a Sony TV, go into the Settings menu and select Channels and Inputs > External Inputs > HDMI Signal Format. From there, identify the HDMI port your 4K Blu-ray player is plugged into and select one of the Enhanced options. If you don’t change this setting, you won’t get HDR from your disc player.

Your TV should have told you this was the case, but it only does that once. If you click out of it, then your Blu-ray player just remains on cruise control, delivering the SDR version.

There is also a possibility that a setting inside the Panasonic 4K player needs to be adjusted — whether or not you have the Enhanced format setting turned on for the Sony TV.

TV reviews coming up

Brad Haggerty writes: When will you review the 65-inch TCL QM8?

I must admit that I’m prioritizing three TVs over the 65-inch QM8 right now, and for a few reasons. One: I reviewed the monstrous 115-inch QM851G already, although I understand that review is not an indication on how the standard QM8 — the QM851G — will perform, which is why I will be doing that review soon.”

The other reason: The Panasonic TVs have arrived and we haven’t seen those here in 10 years, so some urgency is deserved. (Also, not only did I get a Samsung QN90D, but it’s a massive 98-inch version that’s taking up a ton of space and I need to get it out of here).

The next review will be the Panasonic W95A, followed by the Samsung QN90D, the Panasonic Z95A, and the TCL QM8.

At a loss: Lossless or Atmos?

Jonathan Morales writes: What is your take on Ultra HD/lossless audio versus. Dolby Atmos for music services such as Amazon Music or Apple Music? I understand that lossless audio has a higher bit rate, and that Dolby Atmos is lossy by nature digitally, but with more and more music being released mixed with Atmos in mind, is the difference negligible? I have gone back and forth listening to the differences multiple times and can’t seem to make up my mind.

First, a quick clarification: While it is true that Dolby Atmos on Apple Music and Amazon Prime Music means a lossy music stream, it is not true that Dolby Atmos is, by its nature, lossy — or, not lossless. Dolby Atmos can be delivered lossless through Dolby True HD — the Atmos spatial audio coding doesn’t have anything to do with the signal compression.

However, as you pointed out, on Apple Music or Amazon Prime Music, you can listen in either Dolby Atmos Music, or in lossless or high-res lossless. I think the quality of the signal itself — whether it is compressed or not — is the least significant aspect when it comes to how vastly different the two-channel version sounds compared to the Dolby Atmos version.

The Dolby Atmos mix you get for a song can be outstanding or it can sound like hot garbage. It really depends on who did the mix and what choices they made during the mixing process.

Sometimes the Atmos version has buried vocals or a bunch of reverb was put on the vocal. Horns may be mixed to the back, which can sound great or terrible depending on your system. There’s already a debate as to whether the difference between a high-quality MP3 versus a lossless codec can be heard by most folks. That debate notwithstanding, when they make music in Atmos, it’s the Wild West: Sometimes it’s awesome and sometimes it’s downright terrible.

AI calibration coming to TVs?

Cole writes: With the rise in AI capabilities, do you think there will ever be an AI feature added to TVs that could perform a calibration? Maybe not to the level of a professional calibrator, but a basic calibration?

First, let’s start by acknowledging that Samsung has a Smart Calibration app that lets you use a Samsung Galaxy phone or an iPhone to perform a basic and a more advanced calibration. And while I’ve not conducted a test on how well Samsung’s professional calibration holds up to a calibration performed by an actual professional, I hear it does a pretty respectable job.

On the more advanced level, some TVs have Calman AutoCal built in. This is something a professional or advanced home user might use, but it automates a bunch of the more manual work involved in calibration, namely making adjustments and then remeasuring. AI does have the potential to make calibration more accessible to consumers, but TV manufacturers and software developers would have to get on board.

Here’s how I think something like AI self-calibration might work.

It’s not likely that the software would get built into the TV — this seems like something to offload. Something like Calman calibration software would need to run in the cloud and, no matter what, the user is going to need a meter — like the colorimeter we use. Something not too expensive, but accurate enough to provide a quality calibration suitable for anyone but the most ardent professionals.

You’d need to get the TV to gather the measurement data from the colorimeter or spectro, and send that data back to the cloud-based calibration software. That program would analyze the data, send picture settings adjustments to the TV, and then retest. And so on.

Honestly, I think that could be done now and without AI. Where I think advanced AI — like ChatGPT or Bard — would come in: Asking the user a series of questions about their needs and wants.

The human element involved in calibration is the calibrator knowing how the TV needs to be set up based on the customer’s needs and wants. AI would be needed for that discretion. AI would also be required for an ongoing feedback loop. For example, AI could ask: Here’s how that’s going to look — do you like it? What would you want to be different? AI could then interpret and implement it.

I think it can be done … today. But it would require cooperation by several entities to make it a reality. Will we see that happen? Not for a couple of years at best. I am not sure the need is great enough. It’s hard enough as it is to get the overwhelming majority of new TV owners to adjust the picture mode preset or turn off eco mode. It’s hard to see a big return on investment for what I think would be a sizable project.