Sony’s PS5 Is Reportedly Unable To Correctly Display Original SDR Content, Can Lead To ‘Black Crush’

A series of tweets by members of pixel wizards Digital Foundry has revealed that the PS5 is not able to correctly display original SDR content via backwards compatibility.

While it’s possible to turn off HDR for those games that do not support the feature, the PS5 does not accurately reproduce SDR. According to DF’s Alexander Battaglia, the issue can lead to changes when the console attempts to reproduce the game’s colour or tone.

PS5 is actually not displaying Original SDR content correctly – unfortunately. Does it with Backward Compatibility titles for sure. Could lead to black crush or other changes in reproducing the game’s colour or tone.

It is not as dramatic as the limited vs full issue shown in the quoted tweet – but if you capture SDR on a PlayStation 4 Pro and compare it to SDR on PS5 of that same game there are differences which can be negative.

Related Content – Sony PS5 Complete Guide – A Total Resource On PlayStation 5

Elsewhere, John Linneman also chimed in on the matter, observing that all captures for titles from DF in SDR have resulted in black crush issues.

Yeah, it’s been a real issue for us. That said, in this case, it’s likely a full/limited RGB issue as PS5 typically crushes darker shades rather than increase the black floor.

[…] the PS5 does not properly display SDR. If we capture the same game from all PS4s and Xbox systems using the same settings, blacks are crushed on PS5 in SDR. I’m convinced SDR output is broken. SDR in HDR container is better here.

The PS5 was released in November 2020 in the US and UK, and has sold over 4.5 million units worldwide as of January 2021.

[Source – Digital Foundry via WCCFTech]

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