Odroid N2+ brightness issues with Samsung Q90R

[nikiangel]

Hello team,
I am long time user of Odroid C2 and Samsung Q90R.
I’m using the TV in PC mode to disable all the processing as I’m very sensitive to the soap opera effect. Everything works great.

Today I purchased Odroid N2+ and installed coreelec.
Same setup of the TV (PC mode), tried many many settings on kodi, was playing with the TV settings and had to completely reset the TV settings, but the result is the same. N2+(coreelec) produces noticeably darker picture compared to C2(libreelec).
Both devices are setup 4k@60HZ.

The difference is that when I check the source on the tv, C2 says UHD, but N2+ says UHD and HDR.
Tried N2 with the stable build, and with the nightly (matrix) it’s always the same, noticeably and annoyingly darker.

Reinstalled C2 from scratch, and N2+ from scratch couple of times, always the same result, N2+ noticeably darker picture. Tried a lot of different video files, low res, hiugh res, 1080p, 4k etc.etc.

So the only obvious difference I see is that when I play from N2+ the tv always says UHD HDR.
Is there some way to disable HDR on N2+ or coreelec or kodi…or it’s something completely different that I’m missing.
If I switch the tv mode to BD player or Media center etc, the brightness returns to great, but then all the internal picture processing activates and for me it looks disgusting.

[smp]

Enable Game Mode in General > External Device Manager to disable all processing. PC mode is useless and works only at 60Hz HDMI modes.

[Pelican]

Have you turned on SDR to HDR?
N2+ with default CE setiings outputs SDR signal not HDR.
It outputs HDR only when you start a HDR video.

[nikiangel]

OK, my mistake, N2 only switch to HDR when HDR content is played.
However…
I don’t know what’s wrong, the TV is bright on the menus like the sun, and it’s top clas samsung so I don’t see excuses like cheap model etc. And… I tried many settings today, and HDR sucks.
Below is how it looks with the best HDR settings (right) I was able to achieve on the TV and N2+.
And with Odroid C2 (no HDR support) left.

Maybe HDR has more contrast, but HUIGE amount of details are lost, you just can’t see them on HDR.
And this is the top class TV from samsung, I can’t imagine how it is with the lower end TVs that claim they have HDR.

Would be great if there is an option to just block the HDR information on the stream (pure disable HDR) so everyone can decide for himself.

[nikiangel]

I’ve also tried the HDR to SDR mapping (reboot required), not sure if it works or what it is supposed to do but the TV still recognizes the signal as HDR and comparing C2 and N2+ there are picture details lost.
I used different media files too, same results.

I’m not sure even if I can blame N2+ or kodi.
Here for example,

Samsung Q90 4K QLED TV vs. LG C9 OLED TV

if we pause at 3:34, and compare the 2 pictures, we can see how much details samsung is missing(because of HDR),
look at the actress clothes for example and find the differences, or look at the ceramics colors etc.etc.
The results are identical with what I get, with/without HDR.

So, something is very wrong with HDR, or kodi, or samsung or something else.
And at the same time, if I play 4kHDR60Hz clips directly from the built in youtube app, the quality stops your breath while looking.

[Sholander]

You are probably using different picture/viewing modes/presets for Kodi and internal Youtube player

[Ray]

Thats it Sholander. I am very confident.

[nikiangel]

Latest firmware (was using an old FW before) and all settings on their factory defaults.
Restored factory defaults many times while testing. Still the same result…

[Sholander]

Firmware version and factory default settings have nothing to do with your problem, nor with my suspicion of your different viewing modes/settings.