Filmmaker Mode in HDR Explained | There’s Nothing Wrong With Your TV

If you have been wondering why HDR is so dark, or why Filmmaker Mode seems dull and lifeless, you're not alone. But there's nothing wrong with your TV. Here's the explanation behind why HDR appears so dark, why Filmmaker Mode on TVs seems to make it worse, and what you can (and can't) do about it.

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[Caleb_Denison]

Hey all. Obviously 120 is evenly
Divisible by 24. I falsely extrapolated the 3:2 pulldown required for 60 Hz to also apply at double the refresh rate and yeah, that’s some embarrassing sh*t. I’ll just be over here not living that down.

[inigogc]

120 IS divisible by 24. 120/24 = 5. On 60Hz displays it must do 3:2 pulldown or Motion Smoothing, but not on 120hz displays. It can display it natively.

PLEASE correct your video.

[LucianPSimracing]

5:18 Wrong, 120/24=5, so a frame can be presented for 5 refreshes.

[lencarter]

Caleb, thank you for this. Absolutely excellent video! I recently bought a Samsung QN 90 C and was unimpressed with filmmaker mode. Because of your video I went in to the settings and made a number of changes and now the picture has definite factor! Keep up the good work!

[HullRupture]

Glad this video was made. I recently just ditched filmmaker mode for those reasons. It's meant for a dark viewing environment and doesn't take into account your tvs display tech and its capabilities to optimise for its display type. I just stick with cinema mode now. 2.2 gamma and a bit of motion smoothing to alleviate the stutter etc. Still has accurate colours

[toyanucci]

Thank you so much! I bought the U7N during the recent sale and was never conpletely happy with it because of the colors but putting it in film maker mode and turning the brightness up and setting the motion smoothing to custom and maxing it out (I love the smoothness) had made the tv much more enjoyable to watch as I no longer feel the need to constantly change setting while watching tv.

[cubsfan-lx]

I don't usually care for it. SDR looks totally fine to me. HDR makes some movies way too dark imo. All that's really different about a lot of 4K remsaters is they are just coloring them differently.

[rufdymond]

I have a Panasonic LZ2000 and when watching movies I tend to leave the set in Filmmaker Mode, but leave on the ambient light sensor and the auto white balance. To be honest it’s a credit to the processing in the TV that I don’t notice the picture change when going from lights on to lights off in my viewing room. The TV adapts the picture so well and so quickly I don’t notice the difference. I’m totally happy with the picture it produces.

[HullRupture]

Correction 24 is divisible into 120hz But if you're streaming then a lot of the time it's being refreshed at a standard 60hz anyway. But you have a real cinema mode or whatever its called on other tvs to apply the correct cadence.
The problem with stutter on 24fps content is with how the display tech shows each frame. Which is especially problematic on OLED where pixel response is perfect and you have each frame being kept on screen till the next one in what's called sample and hold which is why low frame rate content appears to stutter. It's tolerable but I prefer using some motion smoothing now to mitigate it. Also that's why black frame insertion exists but you lose brightness with that method of course

[davidh]

For better or worse, I've got a 9 year old Samsung 65"/4K that is most definitely getting long in tooth. I don't have any of these problems, but I'm just not happy with the picture quality. It's time to replace. The big question is, 2023 model or more expensive 2024? Keep up your great work, the more I learn, the longer I wait...

[Deccani]

HDR was NOT explained in this video. Remove it from title. But yes you need a make an in depth video on HDR

[BenRiley]

I have an OLED LG GX TV and a QD-OLED Alienware ultra wide monitor. So film maker modes, HDR mode, and Dolby Visions modes are my favorite. No complaints from me

[Obdus]

I agree. I love Filmmaker Mode, but for Non-HDR film and shows, I do set the dynamic brightness to high so I still get a brighter picture than intended. The jutter isn't an issue for me since my TV does have a mode where the panel refreshes and the same frame rate as the film. For HDR films, I do not do anything, I do like the intended filmmaker mode look on my LG C3 OLED, and Dolby Vision is my absolute favorite kind.

[chriskelly]

For Sony TVs, Custom/Professional is the equivalent of Filmmaker Mode. Correct? So far, my only issue with this mode is underrsaturated colors when playing Rec.709 1080p Blu-rays and 480i DVDs. The color on my 4K UHD HDR10 and Dolby Vision Blu-rays looks fantastic in this mode. Yet when watching 1080p Blu-rays and SD 480i DVDs on older plasmas and CRTs, the colors look just as fantastic. This suggests to me that yesterday's displays were designed for the Rec.709 color space, while today's displays are designed for the BT.2020 color space. While director's intent is being achieved in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, if today's displays by default aren't converting SDR Rec.709 to HDR BT.2020, wouldn't undersaturation when playing older formats be preventing today's displays from revealing proper color reproduction, and therefor, not adhering to creator's/director's intent? On my Sony X90L, I have discovered that the best thing to do in the Custom picture mode is when playing SDR Rec.709 discs, set Live Color to Medium, and when playing 4K UHD Blu-rays encoded in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, set Live Color to Off being that they don't need any enhancements. Unless display manufacturers figure out how to properly convert SDR Rec.709 to HDR BT.2020, when playing 1080p Blu-rays and SD 480i DVDs, it looks like it's up to us to use features such as Samsung's Color Booster, Sony's Live Color, etc., and set them to a level at which the colors are accurate and vivid without making skin tones oversaturated in order for them to look as good as 4K UHD Blu-rays encoded with HDR10 or Dolby Vision. Make sense?

[MSDOGS]

I’ve rarely watched in Filmmaker mode. Instead of monkeying with the setting within it I use the modes within hdr like standard. And tweaked it a little. Works for my eyeballs.

[woodydawg]

I just purchased a Samsung QN80c 75" with FMM enabled and calibrated, it looks amazing in day or night viewing! I have always been an adapter of whatever mode gets me closest to theatre like viewing. Weather it be MOVIE mode or ISF or Cinema. My eyes just like the way it looks. There is no right or wrong. Its YOUR eyes. Your TV. DO what you want with it! Though I must say when I see someone with a set that is not using one of those mentioned modes, I cringe lol.

[KingBobaFett]

Which picture mode would be better for a Samsung 4K tv movie mode or filmmaker mode?

[WiljanWiljan]

Thanks for this. I agree that filmmaker mode is too dark to watch the tv during daytime. With my samsung s95d my preferred setting is film mode. This mode works great for both day and night time

[EmblemParade]

Thank you! One of your best videos. There is indeed a big disconnect between "director's intent" and the TV technology and viewing environment. I've seen people force themselves to suffer an unpleasant filmmaker mode for ideological reasons.

People in the comments are giving you a bit of a hard time here for getting the judder issue wrong. Actually, I think the truth is somewhere in between. Judder cannot be completely avoided even if the refresh rate is divisible by the frame rate (120 Hz / 24 FPS = 5). The problem is that in real world situations that doesn't happen 100% consistently. A TV is simply not an analog projector and digital formats are not film reels. So some judder correction is a good idea if you want it to get the best cinema-like experience. What I'm personally hoping for is TV manufacturers leverage VRR, a feature many new TVs have, for judder reduction, as a replacement or complement for frame interpolation. These days VRR is used for gaming, but it could probably do a lot for 1:1 representation of film frame rates.

[roberth]

Thank, God for film Making Mode. Film buff here.& a Boomer .Just got my 1st Smart T.V. hated the up scaling & other AI tools that made the film I was watching look like cut outs or a video game ( & why do younger folks hate gain..?). But than I found picture mode & Film making mode..I'm so glad I did..As far as watching in a pitch black room..Most of the time I watch my film classic films or others at night any way..Also I've seen most films I have in a theater, so I already know what that experience was like.