Auto Contrast while watching video

It's not entirely a solution, but I noticed on my iPad Air 2 that if brightness is at maximum the dynamic contrast seems to go away. It's most pronounced when the display is darkest. That makes watching movies in a dark room kind of ugly, though watching in daylight isn't as much of a problem.

Really surprised that there's no way to disable it. I guess it's one of those handy experience-ruining things that Apple does for your benefit - it's not a bug, it's a feature!

Grant Tompkins wrote:

When watching video on every iOS device I've used, the screen's contrast ( not brightness ) throttles down and makes the picture look muddy and washed out. It changes depending on the screen's content and is most noticeable when watching a video where the scene goes from dark to light. The problem only occurs when the video is in fullscreen and the playback controls aren't visible. It doesn't seem matter what app you're using, only that it uses the standard video player.

What doesn't work :

- Turning off Auto-Brightness. This is a contrast problem, not a brightness problem. The image washes out regardless of this setting.

- Turning off Zoom in the accessibility. A quick google search suggests this as a fix as part of its functionality can dim the screen brightness, but mine was never on. Toggling it on and off also doesn't work.

- Turning on Assistive Touch in Accessibility fixes the problem due to it's leaving the icon on screen at all times. Because the auto-contrast problem kicks in only when the video is fullscreen without controls, this suggests it only occurs when only the video is playing with nothing overlayed, including the Assistive Touch. Disabling Assistive Touch brings back the problem. Requiring a floating icon over the entire phone is just as distracting.

There's quite an extensive thread on this over at MacRumors with plenty of examples to highlight the behavior. It seems like it's a software problem rather than hardware. After swapping an iPad at the Genius Bar, the replacement had the same behavior. I can remember the bug from as far back as iOS 7.Talking to others with similar devices, they've noticed it too. For devices like iPads that are primarily for video viewing, this is hugely distracting as it ruins anything you watch on the device.

Devices I've seen it on :

- iPhone 6s

- iPhone 6

- iPad Air

- iPad Mini Retina

Is there a hidden setting I'm missing?

Yep, I see it too. I've never noticed it on my 4S, but the 6 Plus definitely does it as do all the devices at Apple Store.

This is very much like the effect that is seen on newer TVs with dynamic contest/dynamic backlight and energy saving modes turned on.

I turn all these off on TVs when I start basic calibration.

There seems to be no way to disable this on the iPhone. 😟

This is exactly what I am seeing too!!! I have to turn on the black scorebar when I watch MLB at Bat because if I don't the screen like you mention becomes "muddy"

Soccer is the worst! The screen just fades and it drives me crazy! I have to watch it on my iPhone 5 or AirPlay it to the Apple TV.

I Can't believe the 5s and 6 I have experience the same exact thing. Nothing has been done about it.

Same problem. How to fix it?? I want to sell my iPad after this ****.

The issue is especially annoying when the video has subtitles. The contrast keeps changing quickly when text appears.