A few years ago, the third episode of the final season of Game of Thrones put our televisions to the test: The long-awaited battle for Winterfell was not watched in many homes due to the darkness that dominated most scenes. It was one of the first common complaints, but it wasn’t the last. What do the creators of these series think? By presenting a scene that is as natural as possible… even if it collides head-to-head with the limitations of our television. If this series seems so dark that it misses important details, there is an adjustment you can make to fix it..

The solution threatens image quality, but unfortunately you can’t have everything: Turn off Dolby Vision and maybe HDR too from the settings of your television or set-top box. Be careful because there is no option to disable Dolby Vision in Netflix’s app, so you will have to consult the television settings. The method differs from the manufacturer, but on Panasonic, for example, you will have to go to ‘.Settings‘ >“Playback Options” .

On popular devices like the Fire TV Stick you can find this in the ‘Picture & Sound’ settings. “Dynamic Range Settings”. Select the option there “Disable HDR”. On an Apple TV you will see it in the settings ‘Picture and sound’, marking the format as ‘SDR’. There we will also disable the ‘Set dynamic range’ option. “Fit Content”.

Rather than focusing on what HDR is, it’s important to be clear about its effects: High dynamic range anyone high dynamic range intended It provides images with a very wide brightness range. Or the same thing is a television’s ability to reproduce different levels of light intensity.

This dynamic range of a television grows as the distance separating the intensity of the darkest areas of an image from the brightest areas increases and becomes: TV can get more information in both cases. In HDR, it not only affects the luminance transmission, but also the contrast ratio and the color space it can reproduce.

Once we’ve clarified this point, it’s time to revamp some commercial standards. HDR10 is an open standard for producers and creators, while Dolby Vision is a proprietary standard that is better than its predecessor in color and brightness, among other things. Thus, while it offers 12-bit color in Dolby Vision, it offers 10-bit color in HDR10. So Dolby Vision is able to display 4,096 possible RGB values ​​compared to 1,024 for HDR10, well above non-HDR models in any case. As for brightness, HDR10 should offer at least 1,000 nits, while Dolby Vision can offer up to 10,000 nits. It is worth emphasizing that Currently, Dolby Vision is not fully utilized for one simple reason.: There are no TVs that offer these color and brightness features.

Why on Netflix, Disney+ or Apple TV? Since Spain only offers Dolby Vision technology for Apple TV+ and Disney+ content, Netflix has content in Dolby Vision as well as HDR10, and Amazon Prime Video has some content in HDR10+.

Why should you turn off Dolby Vision?

If, in theory, content with Dolby Vision (with a television obviously) means it has the potential to offer more brightness and colour, why would we disable it?

continue The most modern and ambitious content should aim to take advantage of being created for Dolby Vision, Platforms don’t seem to care as much as they should, although those with OLED TVs especially enjoy their bright colors and deep blacks.

Maybe you can’t stand it in The Mandalorian, which is mostly set in deserts and shiny ships, but you suffer in the darkness of Willow. The two examples from Disney+ were chosen not by chance, but because, as can be read in several Reddit threads, the platform seems to be the most floundering with this type of content right now.

It’s important to note that HDR doesn’t make objects brighter (it makes them brighter and dimmer). If you’re not sure that Dolby Vision is responsible for making a series look darker, try the following test: pause playback and go back until the mini-screen with the target frame appears. Grab this option if you find that the thumbnail looks much better..

Home in Xataka | There is no 4K, the future of televisions is called HDR, and we will explain what it consists of.