[mparter]

I know this has been discussed before (after searching through the forums) and from research on here and other sites, I'm under the impression that the two options available in the HDMI Black Lelve setting, Normal and Low, relate to 0-255 and 16-235 respectively.


When I connect my Sky HD box to my Samsung LCD TV via an HDMI connection this option is disabled/greyed-out and has defaulted to Normal, presumably because it's receiving a YCbCr signal.


However, given what I understand above, what the TV is actually using is 16-235, is this correct?


If this is the case then I plan to calibrate my TV based on the TV set to an HDMI Black Level of Low, the 360 set to a reference level of Normal and the PS3 RGB Mode set to Limited.

 

[sharkcohen]

If it is grayed out, then HDMI Black Level is not applicable for the source device. It doesn't matter what it says is selected if it is grayed out. Your Sky HD box is sending YCbCr, not RGB.

 

[mparter]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sharkcohen /forum/post/15471767


If it is grayed out, then HDMI Black Level is not applicable for the source device. It doesn't matter what it says is selected if it is grayed out. Your Sky HD box is sending YCbCr, not RGB.

So I assume that I therefore calibrate based upon 16-235? I need to know what to set my 360 and PS3 too to ensure they are all consistent tgroughout the chain of devices.

 

[rahzel]

You are correct in assuming that your HD box is outputting YCbCr 16-235. As already mentioned, it's grayed out simply because it doesn't apply to YCbCr sources.


For RGB sources, you don't have to set it to Limited. Samsung TV's have the ability to switch between Full and Limited, and as long as you match your device with your TV, your levels will still match up with YCbCr 16-235. For example, if you calibrate using your PS3 set to YCbCr, your settings will work with both of these configurations:

PS3 RGB Full / TV HDMI Black Level Normal

PS3 RGB Limited / TV HDMI Black Level Low


Reason being, the PS3 is mapping 16 -> 0 and 235 -> 255 and your TV is expecting black to be 0 and white to be 255.


For your PS3, I recommend setting your TV and PS3 to Full (Normal/Full), but force YCbCr (or leave at Automatic) for BR/DVD output. Games/XMB will output to RGB regardless. I recommend doing the same for your 360.

 

[mparter]



Quote:
Originally Posted by rahzel /forum/post/15471875


You are correct in assuming that your HD box is outputting YCbCr 16-235. As already mentioned, it's grayed out simply because it doesn't apply to YCbCr sources.


For RGB sources, you don't have to set it to Limited. Samsung TV's have the ability to switch between Full and Limited, and as long as you match your device with your TV, your levels will still match up with YCbCr 16-235. For example, if you calibrate using your PS3 set to YCbCr, your settings will work with both of these configurations:

PS3 RGB Full / TV HDMI Black Level Normal

PS3 RGB Limited / TV HDMI Black Level Low


Reason being, the PS3 is mapping 16 -> 0 and 235 -> 255 and your TV is expecting black to be 0 and white to be 255.


For your PS3, I recommend setting your TV and PS3 to Full (Normal/Full), but force YCbCr (or leave at Automatic) for BR/DVD output. Games/XMB will output to RGB regardless. I recommend doing the same for your 360.

Thanks for that. So for the 360, I set the reference levels to Expanded?


There seems to be so much contradictory and confusing information on this subject it's hard to figure out the wheat from the chaff.


For example: http://www.highdefforum.com/gaming-s...ce-levels.html


I had read that because the 360 is designed to be used on a TV, it outputs 16-235 (on Standard I guess) and 0-255 (on Expanded). However, at the link above, they claim Expanded "doesn't work properly"????


I think the added difficulty I have is that both my 360 and PS3 run into the 2 HDMI connections on my AV receiver with this then feeding into HDMI2 on my TV. So essentially my 360 and PS3 are using the same HDMI input on my TV. I primarily use my PS3 for DVD/BR's with the 360 for gaming, so I was tryingto find the best settings to use on HDMI2 bearing in mind the above.

 

[mparter]

Anyone else confused with all of this?

 

[rahzel]

I'm not sure about the 360 (I don't have one), but the PS3 correctly maps 16 -> 0 and 235 -> 255. But if you're concerned whether or not the 360 is mapping correctly, you can simply just use Limited on everything in your chain of devices. Using Full 0-255 will technically give you better color gradience, but you might not even notice any difference at all. Just make sure you're using YCbCr output for BR/DVD on your PS3.

 

[mparter]



Quote:
Originally Posted by rahzel /forum/post/15476983


I'm not sure about the 360 (I don't have one), but the PS3 correctly maps 16 -> 0 and 235 -> 255. But if you're concerned whether or not the 360 is mapping correctly, you can simply just use Limited on everything in your chain of devices. Using Full 0-255 will technically give you better color gradience, but you might not even notice any difference at all. Just make sure you're using YCbCr output for BR/DVD on your PS3.

Thanks