UHD rips are dark in brightness for some reason?

[AkaiGX]

Hello all!

I'm fairly new to ripping discs and was seeking some help. For reference, I'm using an LG BU40N drive. I've just gotten everything set up and have successfully ripped a few movies. I've got an issue when ripping specifically UHD movies; they turn out dark in terms of brightness! I have used many different playback softwares, but the ripped version is still dark no matter what software I use. Perhaps something in MakeMKV that I have to do in order to not rip them so dark?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

[Woodstock]

Examples would be helpful. There are a number of UHD disks that have video that encodes more bits, intended to increase the dynamic range, which could affect playback.

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello all!

I'm fairly new to ripping discs and was seeking some help. For reference, I'm using an LG BU40N drive. I've just gotten everything set up and have successfully ripped a few movies. I've got an issue when ripping specifically UHD movies; they turn out dark in terms of brightness! I have used many different playback softwares, but the ripped version is still dark no matter what software I use. Perhaps something in MakeMKV that I have to do in order to not rip them so dark?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Are you watching them on a UHD tv/monitor?

[AkaiGX]

I am watching them on my LG HDR 1440p gaming monitor. I understand I'm loosing a bit of quality but I definitely shouldn't be loosing brightness. Turning on Windows' HDR in settings makes the movie slightly brighter and more watchable in a dark environment, at the cost of everything other than the movie being dark.

[Radiocomms237]

EDIT (INSERT): My apologies, the post above this didn't appear until quite sometime after I'd submitted this reply (it must have still been under moderation). /EDIT

When you say "they turn out dark", are you comparing the ripped version to the same movie played on a regular household disc player ON THE SAME DISPLAY?

And if so, which player app are you using (Plex, crAppleTV, etc.)?

What I'm trying to establish is whether you're comparing oranges to oranges... As in, whether something is wrong with the ripped file itself, or whether different monitors/televisions are displaying them differently, or whether "they turn out dark" is just a generalization?

Obviously some movies are just darker than others.

[scarbrtj]

I wouldn't play back with Windows HDR turned on. I would play all HDR files using madVR in standard SDR and let madVR tone map.

[Penthious]

I also have the same issue, ripped Elf 4k. Normally the snow is a blinding white when playing it on my bluray player, but with the rip everything is just much darker.

When playing on plex and VLC player the movie is very dark, when playing on windows media player it's brighter but not nearly as bright as the disk.

[tnuhnivad]

What video player are you using to view the files? VLC has an issue which when using d3d11 it crushes dark colors in HDR files. you can try a different renderer or a separate player and determine if it is the file or the player. I have personally been using 5kplayer. You can also try KMPlayer 64X, however I personally ran into odd stuttering playback issues on my rig w/ that one.

[cantonhero]

Hi gang. Apologies in advance if this has already been answered:
Along the lines of this thread, most of my 4K rips come out very dark as well. I know it's the hardware and software I'm using to view the result, but I still have a question...

I rip my discs using an external asus drive connected to my mac mini. I then use Handbrake to create smaller, 720p versions which I ultimately view via my Plex server (which runs on a Synology NAS) on a 1080p projector connected to my Yamaha home theater receiver. (Usually I play discs in my home theater, but sometimes I'm lazy.)

So. Again. I fully get that I'm not even running a 4K projector. However, whether viewed on my mac mini (using VLC player) or on my plex server/1080p projector combo, my DVD and Blu-ray rips looks perfectly fine. My handbraked 4K rips, however, are super dark. (Note: the raw rips pre-handbrake are also super dark. I know it's the HDR and that the darkness is not being introduced by Handbrake.)

Recent example discs where I've observed this: Twisters, Kingdom of Planet of the Apes, and Barbie.

My questions are these:
1 - would the resulting 720p versions of my 4K rips look normal/correct on a 4K projector/TV? Or has my process killed it?
2 - Is there a way to rip these 4k discs and get a 720p file like I described which looks similarly natural/normal brightness, i.e. similar to my blu-ray rips? Or is a 4K disc that has HDR simply never going to look right given my above setup?

Thanks in advance!

[dcoke22]

In recent versions of Handbrake, if you want a 4K HDR disc to look 'right' on regular SDR equipment, you need to change the colorspace on the filters tab. Most 4K UHD discs are in BT.2020 colorspace. If you tell Handbrake to change the colorspace to BT.709, you'll end up with the same colorspace as a regular blu-ray, which your home theater stuff can handle correctly. The algorithm recent versions of Handbrake use to do this is decent and produces generally pleasing results for people.

A colorspace is a term used to describe how many colors an image or video can contain. Humans have yet to build a display that can show all of the colors in the visible spectrum nor have we built a capture device that can capture all of them. So, we've ended up with standards that define which subset of all colors we care about.

The move to 4K UHDs allowed for a new standard, one that allows for more colors and a wider range of brightness. That standard allows for colors and brightnesses beyond what most displays can currently show. As such, each display has a 'transfer function' where they map the possible range of colors and brightness (as defined by the colorspace) down into whatever the display can show. If your display doesn't properly understand the BT.2020 colorspace, it'll do transfer function improperly, which generally results in what looks like a very dark image. Hence, having Handbrake change the colorspace to something your playback equipment understands means it'll look 'right'.

So, rip your 4K discs as normal. Keep them in their unchanged state; future you with a better TV/projector will thank you. Use Handbrake to create versions of the rips that are most useful to you now. Future you may Handbrake them into something better for your new TV or may just play the original rips.

[cantonhero]

In recent versions of Handbrake, if you want a 4K HDR disc to look 'right' on regular SDR equipment, you need to change the colorspace on the filters tab. Most 4K UHD discs are in BT.2020 colorspace. If you tell Handbrake to change the colorspace to BT.709, you'll end up with the same colorspace as a regular blu-ray, which your home theater stuff can handle correctly. The algorithm recent versions of Handbrake use to do this is decent and produces generally pleasing results for people.

A colorspace is a term used to describe how many colors an image or video can contain. Humans have yet to build a display that can show all of the colors in the visible spectrum nor have we built a capture device that can capture all of them. So, we've ended up with standards that define which subset of all colors we care about.

The move to 4K UHDs allowed for a new standard, one that allows for more colors and a wider range of brightness. That standard allows for colors and brightnesses beyond what most displays can currently show. As such, each display has a 'transfer function' where they map the possible range of colors and brightness (as defined by the colorspace) down into whatever the display can show. If your display doesn't properly understand the BT.2020 colorspace, it'll do transfer function improperly, which generally results in what looks like a very dark image. Hence, having Handbrake change the colorspace to something your playback equipment understands means it'll look 'right'.

So, rip your 4K discs as normal. Keep them in their unchanged state; future you with a better TV/projector will thank you. Use Handbrake to create versions of the rips that are most useful to you now. Future you may Handbrake them into something better for your new TV or may just play the original rips.

YOU...are my new hero.

THANK YOU for this super helpful (and educational!) response!