BBCi - so dark?

[Harry Bloomfield]

I've had this before, on BBCi, so not a one off....

I missed the start of 'The war between land and the sea', and so thought to take a look on BBCi, except the picture is unwatchable, it's so very dark. I know our TV is a bit lacking in brightness, but it's set up at maximum.

Yet, watching via the green button, restarting a program, it is fine on BBCi.

Anyone else?

 

[Rodders53]

BBC iPlayer by any chance? On what specific device - multiple different coded streams for different devices.

I should have it recorded from DSat at 1080i on my PVR.

A quick watch on this laptop of the first few minutes seems fine to me. It is set at night for part of the time with Russel Tovey being awoken then waking up another... Only HD at best, not a UHD programme, it seems.

NB Brightness usually adjusts black level. Contrast usually boost peak whites. (LCD backlight also has an effect).

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

BBC iPlayer by any chance?

Yep, BBCi, compared to live via terrestrial.

 

[Rodders53]

Yep, BBC iPLAYER, compared to live via terrestrial.

Fixed that for you.

On what device? It matters.

Have a look using a PC. Phone. Tablet and try again on the original device you watched it on?

Mistakes happen and they will re-encode / update things when they become aware of an issue (which there may or may not have been).

If via a TV embedded iPlayer app check the TV per input picture settings are not 'different' and need a tweak. My TV has different settings for iPlayer than the tuner(s) and each external hdmi input.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

My TV has different settings for iPlayer than the tuner(s) and each external hdmi input.

Thanks, you are correct - it seems to have different settings between tuner and BBCi from internet - the odd part, being it didn't affect all BBCi content.

 

[Rodders53]

iPlayer

no such thing as BBCi

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Well, whatever you call it - it's a little bit better, but still awfully dark, compared to live, or playback from the same source, while the program is still on, using the green button. Weird, that it only affects some program content on iplayer, but not the other similar sources, ITVX, 4, 5, and U.

 

[Lucid]

Yep, BBC iPlayer, compared to live via terrestrial.

Terrestrial is 1080i at best, and not HDR. On the average 4K HDR TV with the iPlayer app, the streaming version of this programme is UHD resolution, but also with HDR - High Dynamic Range - in HLG format. The result are two very different starting positions for the picture set-up, and it's more than just the brightness and LED backlight settings that need to be tweaked.

Quite a few other iPlayer programmes are also 4K UHD with HDR - the nature programmes Kingdom, and Planet Earth III for example. Other stuff is 1080i, 720p, and even 576i, none of which is HDR. The result is that the picture will look different depending on the programme even though it's all played via iPlayer.

Without you telling us the make and model of your TV, it's only really possible to give general guidance, but if you're playing HDR content and finding it too dark then have a look at your picture settings.

- Dynamic range - Full or Limited

- Gamma - BT-1886 or 2.2 - try 2.1, 2.0, 1.9 The lower settings put progressively more energy into the the mid-tone greys which will help with shadow area brightness. You will need to tweak the TV's main brightness setting to rebalance the picture

If your TV has multiple picture memories, then once you've set this up the TV should remember these settings for next time.