Buying a TV? One tip:

pat100

Colin_Maybe
Sorry, I previously posted an ambiguous statement. I have gone back and edited it:

- since I watch a lot of Netflix and AppleTV+ in DV (Edit: replace “in DV” with “DV-encoded titles,” to not buy a set that doesn’t support that. -

I realise that I am not seeing DV when watching DV-encoded titles. Perhaps, if Samsung allowed me to see the intended DV mastering, my picture would not be so dark.

RumRat

You only realise it because it says it's DV encoded. What you should be doing is getting the best out of the TV you have rather than the TV you want.
It reads like you may not have the TV set to it's optimum settings. As Colin_Maybe says.

pat100

Just to attempt to keep things on track, I’ll try to share my intentions as OP:

My “One tip” was not intended as a “top tip.” I did note that other factors might be more important than DV. It was also directed to those buyers who intend to watch channels who frequently output DV-encoded streams. And my bottom line was specific to DV streams: (So I excluded Prime)

“Why buy a TV that doesn’t support Dolby Vision to watch Dolby Vision movies and programs.”

It has been argued here that DV is not important at all but I feel that here we are arguing a question of degree and relevance - which could become very subjective - as it’s inclusion in the majority of brand’s tv sets suggests that DV must have some relevance now, and in the future. (For buyers interested in future-proofing.) So comments from those who own a variety of sets become very relevant. The rest of us have to rely on hearsay. If my replies to comments seem to you to paint me as an ardent supporter of DV, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intent. Like Fox News, I’m trying to be fair and balanced (cough, cough )

I didn’t originally mention specific sets as I wanted to generalise and to avoid possible brand loyalty and other sensitivities. Later, it seemed relevant so, prompted by others’ experiences, I mentioned the one problem with my own set.

Excessive overall picture darkness specific to most DV encoded streams.

Pure, intense blacks were not my interest. If they were a bit too light then I would have shrugged it off as a result of buying a budget set. But they seem pretty dark to me. But so does the rest of the picture. And I can’t lighten the picture adequately even by maxing settings which increased brightness (i.e. most!) at the expense of quality.
I noticed a lot of internet “Netflix dark” comments. Though I realise that they are generated by a lot of different causes, there is a strong thread of HDR complicity.
I’ll avoid OLED as I’ve read that it’s inferior to LED/LCD in bright environments and I don’t want to watch daytime TV behind closed curtains.

Comments here encouraged me to look further and introduced me to Nits which I had ignored. There were tenuous suggestions that DV needed less Nits than the HDR10 so, for budget sets like mine which is very close to the HDR minimum specs, DV might help and that would support my One tip (a little )

I prefer to do my own calibration so as to suit my own vision and so prefer not to use internet offers. I use sheets like this one to record my initial adjustments over a period of time and in different conditions:
http://www.haggistogo.com/RU7400Settings.docx

pat100

My intention in posting was not to complain about my purchase but to help other intending purchasers.

pat100

The best setting for my TV is to use my Apple TV box instead of the Samsung apps and set it to SDR for DV titles and HDR for everything else. But I suspect that’s not relevant to most intending tv set purchasers.

pat100

Sorry Colin_Maybe, my apology should have been directed to Inner Zone so apologies to both.

pat100

I’ll admit to going a bit “Conspiracy Theory” when I suggested that Samsung banned DV across their whole range so as to cover up the fact that their budget models couldn’t handle it. They do give lots of other reasons. I probably need to add more layers to my tin-foil hat
(Digging upwards through the avalanche)