Question Blocky color banding in dark scenes, seems to only be on netflix?

[PingSpike]

We bought a newer TV to replace our older one recently and I've noticed that when watching netflix dark scenes often have pretty bad color banding. The thing is, I've only noticed this watching netflix. Not on youtube (but that rarely has dark scenes) and not on DVDs which we watch a lot of. We watch everything through a browser with an nvidia card.

Given it seems to be confined to netflix I'm not sure I can blame the TV, is it possible they're just doing some kind of compression here? Is there a setting to change? The old TV was only 720p and I do only have 15Mbps internet. Any ideas?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've experienced issues with NVidia cards and my 40" 4K UHD TVs I use as monitors, not using the full color depth (4:4:4 or RGB full-range), due to either some driver issues, not using a 4K-certified cable, or setting "HDMI: Enhanced" (for 18Gbit/sec bandwidth) in my TV's settings.

My AMD cards handle 4:4:4 color automagically, with aplomb.

 

[snoopy7548]

Could be due to the compression/resolution Netflix is defaulting to for your internet speed.

Larry has a good point, though. It could be your desktop settings though your Nvidia configuration. The gamma may be screwed up, while watching DVDs through a program may use that program's settigns.

 

[UsandThem]

I get the same thing watching Netflix on our 4k TV. I think it has to do with video compression, as I haven't come across any setting for it (on TV or on Netflix app). I notice the banding the most when a show has fog or shadow, or in a dark scene with just a little bit of light (like someone in a dark closet with light from the room peaking through a crack). We have 300Mbps internet, and we even have a LAN cable going into our 4k Blue-ray player (Netflix app), so it isn't because a lack of available bandwidth.

The picture appears better when we play a movie that's on a disc.

 

[Muadib]

This might be a crazy question, but are you guys on the premium uhd plan?

 

[UsandThem]

This might be a crazy question, but are you guys on the premium uhd plan?

I am, although most Netflix shows are not offered in UHD.

 

[Muadib]

I am, although most Netflix shows are not offered in UHD.

Okay I gave it a shot.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Welcome to network video compression. The "blocky" banding is due to compression on the stream where all the various shadings of black/gray that were there were compressed down to a single solid color in the block to save on the bandwidth (since now it just sends the one color for that entire block instead of needing to send the color for each of the pixels within the block).