[klosz007]

Hi,

I noticed that Kodi self-updated on my Shield TV from 18.9 to 19.0. On 18.9 everything was OK.
On Kodi 19 I immediately noticed there was something wrong with blacks.
On HDR content blacks are no more black - they are dark gray/graphite.
On SDR content it's even worse - blacks are gray and entire movie content looks dull.
How to fix that ?

I was fighting with black levels on Linux/LibreELEC on x86 and that was one of the reasons I moved to Android devices.
Now the same issue struck Kodi on Android... I see no option in Kodi 19 on Android to adjust black levels. I cannot blame Shield TV or rest of the entire setup - I haven't changed anything there, all other apps, except Kodi display content properly. It was KOdi that bumped its version.
How do I go back to Kodi 18.9 on Android ?

Luckily Shield TV is my secondary device. On Fire TV 4K I still have perfectly operating 18.9 and luckily there it will not self-update.

Thanks,
Zbyszek

[klosz007]

I realized what happened but this is something linked to changes in Kodi 19.
Kodi 18.9 was displaying movie content as "full" HDMI range (black = 0, white = 255) on my Shield TV so my TV set was set to use "low" black level.
Kodi 19 changed something, now it is using "reduced" range (black =16, white = 239) and that's why black looked like gray. Because rest of apps on my Shield TV still use "full" range, I couldn't set black level to "high", I had to change my TV to "auto" instead to properly detect black levels in the content across all apps.
Now it is working correctly.

[hoppel118]

Interesting finding! Where do you see that Kodi 19 outputs „reduced“ instead of „full“?

I want to check my setup.

Regards Hoppel

[Hitcher]

Kodi self-updated

Kodi does not update itself it was your Shield TV.

[black_eagle]

Interesting finding! Where do you see that Kodi 19 outputs „reduced“ instead of „full“?

Settings->System->Display->Use Limited Colour Range  - See https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/System/D...816-235.29

[klosz007]

The problem is that in Kodi 19 on Shield TV there's no such option. I do not recall it from 18.9 on Shield TV either. It' not there on Fire TV 4K stick on 18.9.
It's available on Windows though.
So Kodi 19 somehow arbitrally changed HDMI range from full (in 18.9) to reduced.
To restore proper black level I had to change setting on my TV set. Samsung TVs call reduced HDMI range as 'black level" set to "high" and full HDMI range as "black level" set to "low".