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I reject the premise that all Netflix shows have the same look. Just a theory, but it's possible the author is viewing HDR shows on a non-HDR TV/display, leadin

I reject the premise that all Netflix shows have the same look. Just a theory, but it's possible the author is viewing HDR shows on a non-HDR TV/display, leading to a similar look as the HDR is tone mapped to SDR. Consistent tonemapping could also explain why they feel the content is dark or over-saturated. But honestly, the other reality is that cinematography is an art, and there are trends in art. Right now, cinematographers are embracing the shadows—maybe because they're finally able to. For most of film history, cinematographers had to avoid deep shadows due to technical limitations (including film latitude, VHS, DVD and lack of color consistency on TVs).

InitialLastName 4y ago
To be fair, 2 of the 3 available tiers of Netflix don't include HDR; if they are delivering a color palate for HDR to all of those tiers, it's no wonder it looks bad.
t0mas88 4y ago
Very possible. I really like the Netflix produced stuff because nearly all of it is in Dolby Vision When my old TV died I switched to a new OLED one that has Dolby Vision / HDR. The colors on that are much better and the calibration is built-in so the manufacturer can't fuck it up with over saturation and too much brightness like most TV brands do. It also adjusts to the amount of ambient light via a sensor, so it's great to watch both with sunlight in the room and at night.
Melatonic 4y ago
Yea thats possible. ALthough if you are actually incorrectly mapping HDR to SDR it REALLY looks like crap.
- turnsout 4y ago
  Yeah, if they're doing it well (which I think they are, based on viewing Netflix on a laptop) it shouldn't look bad, but I could see how using the same tone & gamut mapping might make highlights and bright colors look similar across shows. But if they're not doing it well… We watch Apple TV+ shows on the Apple TV app on a MacBook Air, and it looks objectively too dark compared to our TV (OLED). I think the TV app is Catalyst, or at least shares a lot of code with iOS, and those devices have some HDR headroom. My theory is that app is just assuming the display is HDR, leading to ultra-dark SDR representation. It's kind of crazy, considering they own the whole stack, from silicon to the streaming service.

InitialLastName 4y ago

To be fair, 2 of the 3 available tiers of Netflix don't include HDR; if they are delivering a color palate for HDR to all of those tiers, it's no wonder it looks bad.

t0mas88 4y ago

Very possible. I really like the Netflix produced stuff because nearly all of it is in Dolby Vision When my old TV died I switched to a new OLED one that has Dolby Vision / HDR. The colors on that are much better and the calibration is built-in so the manufacturer can't fuck it up with over saturation and too much brightness like most TV brands do. It also adjusts to the amount of ambient light via a sensor, so it's great to watch both with sunlight in the room and at night.

Melatonic 4y ago

Yea thats possible. ALthough if you are actually incorrectly mapping HDR to SDR it REALLY looks like crap.

turnsout 4y ago
Yeah, if they're doing it well (which I think they are, based on viewing Netflix on a laptop) it shouldn't look bad, but I could see how using the same tone & gamut mapping might make highlights and bright colors look similar across shows. But if they're not doing it well… We watch Apple TV+ shows on the Apple TV app on a MacBook Air, and it looks objectively too dark compared to our TV (OLED). I think the TV app is Catalyst, or at least shares a lot of code with iOS, and those devices have some HDR headroom. My theory is that app is just assuming the display is HDR, leading to ultra-dark SDR representation. It's kind of crazy, considering they own the whole stack, from silicon to the streaming service.