Dark video also darkens backlight

Question

Level 1

0 points

Dark video also darkens backlight

I've been noticing an annoyance that appears to be a feature. I've never seen this on my old 4S, but on my 6 Plus, the backlight brightens and dims depending on how bright the content is. For example, if I'm watching video, the backlight dims a bit during overall darker scenes and brightens up again during lighter ones. This happens regardless of my contrast settings or backlight settings.

This is exactly like the dynamic backlight/dynamic contrast mode found on newer TVs, which is a fake way of improving black levels on backlit screens. I don't like this one bit, as it messes with the overall video levels. It is also the very first thing that I disable when I'm calibrating TVs and monitors.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to disable this on the iPhone. Has anyone else noticed this? I checked out the phones in the Apple Store and they also do the same thing.

Posted on Oct 10, 2015 12:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

sneskid Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2015 10:25 AM in response to sneskid

Anyone?

Surely I'm not the only video guy who notices and is bothered by things like this.

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 13, 2015 9:55 PM in response to sneskid

If bright areas of the video stay the same, there should be no problem. it is just saving power so the battery will last longer. If a scene has no bright spots, reducing the backlight and adjusting the liquid crystal to allow more light though should give exactly the same picture with less power used. If it is doing it based on the average scene brightness not the brightest spot in the scene, then it would be a problem,

Reply

Answer 3

sneskid Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2015 8:26 AM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Malcolm J. Rayfield wrote:

If bright areas of the video stay the same, there should be no problem. it is just saving power so the battery will last longer. If a scene has no bright spots, reducing the backlight and adjusting the liquid crystal to allow more light though should give exactly the same picture with less power used. If it is doing it based on the average scene brightness not the brightest spot in the scene, then it would be a problem,

In theory, that may be accurate. in practice however, neither option works very well. That's why there should be a way to disable it. On TVs, this is one of the very first things that gets turned off during proper calibration, as it ends up degrading the accuracy of the overall image. I have not yet found a way to completely turn this off on my iPhone.

Reply