
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Level 7

Roku TCL TV no longer switches between HDR & non HDR properly

This has me perplexed. Ive just burned an entire half a day on it.  I own a TCL 55" roku TV.  I have it mated with a soundbar and a shieldTV unit.   Ive had 0 problems with any of it since day 1.   however, a few weeks back I went to watch a netflix HDR show with my wife, and while netflix SAW it was hdr capable, and the tv's HDR tag popped up when i started the video - the image didnt correlate.   It was super dark and washed out.  

I began troubleshooting.  Of course i did the staple hdmi port switch, cable switch, and refresh rate switch on the shield.  All resulted in the same.  I tested the TV's Netflix app and it displayed dolbyvision content fine, so i knew it had something to do with the HDMI input/shieldtv+rokuTV pairing.  

After further troubleshooting, it seems to be an incomplete refresh/handshake, when I click on the video.  The screen goes black as it switches from/to HDR from non.    Except for when i arrive at HDR, its not right.

The only thing I found that will get it to work properly, is if I use the roku remote to back out to the home screen while the "hdr" video is playing on the shieldtv.  If I move to the input square that allows you to preview whats playing, I can actually tell its working as the image is substantially brighter.   I re-select the input and go back in to proper HDR.  This lasts until I back out of netflix or play a non hdr video, anything that causes it to "refresh" back to hdr mode.   It's like the tv is having trouble with changing from standard to HDR.

Anyone seen similar behavior pop up?  Any ideas what it could be or how to narrow  down the culprit?  Trying not to point fingers but im leaning towards the roku tv. 

Labels (2)
0 Kudos
1 REPLY 1\
Level 7

Re: Roku TCL TV no longer switches between HDR & non HDR properly

Found the issue.

Argh.  Just not sure of the solution.  Especially since most content is "non" HDR.

So for normal content, I have a calibration profile set under the "movie" picture mode.

HDR removes the standard picture modes "movie, normal, sports etc" and replaces it with 3 options.  "bright hdr, dark hdr, etc" 

Apparently if i set the non hdr picture mode to "movie" it somehow under(over?) lays the HDR mode instead of it operating entirely on its own/seperate from.

it annihilates or overrides any semblance of HDR when it switches to an HDR output. 

seems like my options are calibrated non HDR with no HDR.  Or HDR with non calibrated regular broadcast.

Wasnt always this way so still someones fault, and it apparently rests with a roku software update.

Excuse the cynicism but color me surprised.  Back when I used a roku ultra (yea i bought a shield to be free of that mess) an update killed DTS i think it was (or maybe dd+) for ages before it was fixed.

Anywhere I can/should report this to?   I'll turn on non hdr color space for now but i'd like to think i can return to business as usual at some point in the future. 

Still circumventable by leaving the hdmi input to the home screen and jumping back in.  Sometimes it takes twice and it resets itself to a proper working order.   So its not the altered profile by itself, but something with it not changing properly over hdmi.   Considering it doesnt happen if i dont alter the calibration/profile, and doesnt happen on the tv itself even if i do.

for now ill be backing in and out of my hdmi inputs several times until hdr catches or until roku pushes the next update with a hopeful fix ><
0 Kudos