Extreme Black Level Clipping on XPS 15 9550?

Can anyone else with an XPS15 with the 4k display tell me how their black levels are? I have been noticing really bad banding in shadows in videos, and I initially thought it was just poor video compression. However, now it is catching my eye constantly even in pictures, videogames, website backgrounds, etc.

I have tried tweaking the premier color settings, but nothing works aside from dropping the black level way down to the point where all shadow detail is lost. It seems like dark colors are being merged together in even moderately dim scenes, resulting in extreme blockiness in the shadows.

I have tried calibration test images like this one: http://prohardver.hu/dl/cnt/2003-05/201/dispmate/black_level_adj_test.png and was unable to get blocks 1 through 4 to differentiate from the background, even when turning black level, contrast, or brightness to max. Other test images have similar results, and it seems like the first few blocks that are visible have the same shade/brightness. This reminds me of issues that I've had before when I've had graphics cards outputting PC blacklevels to a regular TV, resulting in black/white crush. But I can't seem to find a way to adjust this for the laptop display, and shouldn't this be configured properly by default?

I have output the same image to my 1080p TV (which is a fairly good, but not great display, and nothing close to a professional monitor) via hdmi and have had no issues getting all blocks to display properly by messing with the contrast, brightness, and black level settings.

Am I missing something here? Is there a possible display driver conflict or something else? I had heard of Dell's adaptive brightness, but I didn't think it would have anything to do with clipping of blacks. The fact that even max display levels have no impact, and it is not reproducible on an external display leads me to believe that there is some sort of clipping/compression at the firmware level.

 

You are right, even at max brightness I cannot distinguish any square of the first row (1-8), a little bit 7 and 8 to be honest but is really hard. (XPS 15 4K)
Tried on another computer and it was easily noticeable.
Damn, another issue

 

I put a post on the dell support site. http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/t/19663748?rfsh=1449455605759

I am certain this is a video level issue, as I have replicated the effect with extreme whites as well. I just don't understand how something so obvious could slip through. Outputting proper video levels is the first and most basic part of display calibration, well before fine tuning contrast, brightness, color gamut, etc.

I noticed that the intel display control panel has advanced options that allow you to change video levels for external displays, but when I select the laptop display it says that the display doesn't support advanced settings. UGHHHH.

 

i have tried other calibration images on the web and my xps15 looks ok. Do you know if we are to resolve all the black squares in the image you posted? For the image you posted, I cant resolve 1-6 but i suspect that is normal

 

As I said, my tv is able to resolve all blocks without issue. Maybe that test image isn't right (per the instructions you should be able to distinguish all blocks). But I've tried others as well such as http://gonedigital.net/wp-content/uploads/AVStest-black.png

My TV is nearly able to distinguish down to the reference black level (stops at 17). However, my laptop is only able to resolve down to around 22.

 

Try a calibrator? Might just be that gamma is off from the factory. That will definitely kill shadow detail

 

I don't have a colorimeter, so I can't do a full calibration. I did mess with gamma in premier color and nothing changed (low level blacks were all clipped regardless of how bright the rest of the boxes were). However, after uninstalling premier color and restarting, I was able to use gamma and contrast adjustments in the intel control panel to mitigate most of the black clipping without destroying the whites. It still seems a bit off though. I have some BB gift cards, so maybe I will buy a colorimeter and try to see how good of a calibration I can get. I don't understand why premier color is forcing blacks to be clipped though. Maybe there is a conflict between the software and the intel driver? That would seem like a huge oversight, and negates any benefit of having the premier color software.

 

I'm able to distinguish every box with gamme set to 1.3 in intel graphics setting (haven't installed dell premier color) but then the whole screen is a little bit to bright...

 

The contrast looks too low when you adjust the gamma to remove the black clipping. I also uninstalled dell premier color. Is there anywhere I can get back dell premier color application for xps15? It seems I have lost the factory calibration profile?

 

Dell released a new version of Premier Color that is actually stable and I tested several presets. I was also able to configure the gamma and black level to view all of the boxes in the above example, however everything else looked terrible. Currently on Cinema preset, and I think everything looks pretty much perfect.

 

Check here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/xps-15-9550-laptop/drivers

 

Had similar issues with the FHD display. Dark scenes in movies/TV were just murky and almost unwatchable. Part of it (black levels and washed out colors) fixed itself - I think there were some bad settings in the Intel Graphics or something, might have been software updates as well.

But even when I could see all the black levels videos still weren't right - darker areas of scenes seemed just all black. Because of my initial problems with 9550 color I bought a colorimeter (a X-Rite i1Display Pro). By accident I figured out what was wrong with darker scenes in movies/TV shows. Colorimeter had settings for the expected default 2.2 gamma but also a "sRGB gamma". What?

Turns out while the web seems to be mostly 2.2 gamma, the official sRGB gamma (which most movies/TV probably use) is not. It's 2.4. And 1. But about an average of 2.2. For black levels it starts at 1, which stretches out all the details in darker areas of a scene, but after that it changes to 2.4. (I think the change occurs around the RGB (10, 10, 10) value for 8 bit color, meaning black levels up to that are "enhanced".) See the third paragraph in the sRGB Wiki article here, which starts with "Unlike most other RGB color spaces, the sRGB gamma cannot be expressed...". Or TL;DR details under the " Theory of the transformation" heading.

Anyway, using the colorimeter to produce a ICC profile with a sRGB gamma fixed it for me.

EDIT:

Below is a correction from 2.2 gamma to sRGB gamma. Note the steep slope for black levels near the origin, which is the correction for 1 gamma. Essentially dark black levels are "amplified" which enhances visibility and detail:



For reference, below image is a color correction for 2.2 gamma - which it already is, so there's little change (except some minor color corrections):



END EDIT

There might be a preset in the Dell or Intel software that does sRGB gamma - named something like cinema, movie, etc. setting. On the FHD I couldn't find one (it doesn't come with the Dell color software). Alternatively, you might look for someone to provide a D65, sRGB gamma color corrected (ideally at native luminosity and contrast) ICC profile file for the 4k 9550.

 

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I added some images to my post above - see EDIT / END EDIT.