You’re right, after doing some research this does seem to come up quite a bit although it doesn’t seem to be a universal issue (not everyone seems to experience it or perhaps they just don’t notice it). Regardless, you could always try exchanging it, but there’s no guarantee your new unit won’t have this issue. However, I’ve seen some users reporting some temporary fixes that worked for them. You can read more about that here. Hope this helps! :)

Its not true, doesnt happen often and if it does its usually from playing with the settings, since the latest update it has not happened to me while tweaking settings which is the main reason it was happening. Also the fact that “high” is dimmer than “standard” is a little confusing, so i could see people having a placebo effect. They should rename high to balanced and standard to high.

Oh, and the bug is software related so there is no point on exchanging it. If it happens to you just press and hold the power button til the Neo QLED logo appears.

I think it’s only the 75 because it never happened with my 65 and I futz with the settings A LOT 🤣

Ok so I just purchased as 65" qn90a and am not sure if the bug is affecting me. Sdr content in standard and movie modes work like this: local dimming low, dimmest picture with most raised blacks, standard local dimming is a bit brighter with darker blacks and high is the brightest with darkest blacks. This is where it gets interesting, in hdr mode while playing a game with game mode off, it works the same as sdr video content whether in standard or movie picture modes. Now watching an hdr movie the low local dimming setting works normally but standard local dimming has the highest brightness while high local dimming has a bit lower brightness and I can’t tell much of a difference between their black levels. Also during hdr movie when paused there is a lot of blooming coming from all the stickers that pop up from pausing it, can’t tell if my local dimming is glitching.

Well I think I encountered this bug too. On a 55". I was watching something that looked dim. Changing from low LD and high LD did not seem to change much. restarted the TV, and the brightness was at its highest again.

This is kind of confusing. I feel like that a fix should be coming, but I am not really hopefull seing comment about this a few months ago. I can still return my TV and wondering if I should…

Nov 29, 2021 10:53 PM By Mythique

14

Well I think I encountered this bug too. On a 55". I was watching something that looked dim. Changing from low LD and high LD did not seem to change much. restarted the TV, and the brightness was at its highest again. This is kind of confusing. I feel like that a fix should be coming, but I am not really hopefull seing comment about this a few months ago. I can still return my TV and wondering if I should…

We still have this TV scheduled for a retest, so I really can’t say for sure if there’s any fixes or anything like that. Hopefully we can get to it soon and provide some insight. As for whether or not you should return the TV, that’s entirely up to you. Assuming it’s software related, it could be resolved in an update. So, if it doesn’t really bother you, then it could be worth waiting it out because it’s an excellent overall TV. Otherwise, if it really bothers you, then ya, it may be worth swapping out!

Oct 31, 2021 06:52 PM By MightyMike629

15

Ok so I just purchased as 65" qn90a and am not sure if the bug is affecting me. Sdr content in standard and movie modes work like this: local dimming low, dimmest picture with most raised blacks, standard local dimming is a bit brighter with darker blacks and high is the brightest with darkest blacks. This is where it gets interesting, in hdr mode while playing a game with game mode off, it works the same as sdr video content whether in standard or movie picture modes. Now watching an hdr movie the low local dimming setting works normally but standard local dimming has the highest brightness while high local dimming has a bit lower brightness and I can’t tell much of a difference between their black levels. Also during hdr movie when paused there is a lot of blooming coming from all the stickers that pop up from pausing it, can’t tell if my local dimming is glitching.

High local dimming in HDR (when working properly) will appear to slightly dim the screen for most content; this is because it is dropping the midtone brightness to a more proper level. If you make the change when there are really bright highlight elements on the screen, you’ll see that those don’t decrease in brightness at all.

Best way to see the bug (in HDR mode) is to compare the difference between low and standard. If working properly, you will see a noticeable increase in overall brightness with “standard”; if the bug is in effect, you’ll see little change between low and standard and maybe even a slight drop.

Nov 30, 2021 11:24 AM By  Dylan Crete

We still have this TV scheduled for a retest, so I really can’t say for sure if there’s any fixes or anything like that. Hopefully we can get to it soon and provide some insight. As for whether or not you should return the TV, that’s entirely up to you. Assuming it’s software related, it could be resolved in an update. So, if it doesn’t really bother you, then it could be worth waiting it out because it’s an excellent overall TV. Otherwise, if it really bothers you, then ya, it may be worth swapping out!

Please retest this TV as soon as possible. Your review confuses me because I don’t have any Blooming issues but I do have major discoloration problems with the local dimming. You can see kind of a green shadow as things move from black to white and vice versa. There is also a major issue in video games where HUD text and other on screen elements get completely discolored upon a black background. It’s not so much that it fades like subtitles on a black background but the colors almost become inverted , it’s strange. To see what I mean look at assassin‘s creed odyssey‘s loading screens or the halo infinite armor select screen or the redline on the speedometer of Forza Horizon 5.

I have found an odd solution to this problem however. if you change the label of the Xbox to PC this problem no longer occurs. This has mostly kept me satisfied with the TV but when you do watch video content the local dimming is now pretty shitty because it is the same as in game mode.

I feel like either the original firmware had much better dimming or you guys missed this stuff somehow. It makes me feel like you guys rely too much on test patterns and not enough usage in real content. I don’t see how anyone could’ve missed it and it has made me lose faith in rtings.

Maybe share your settings? I don’t have any of the issues you described.

You may want to start a new thread for that too, as it doesn’t seem related at all to the original poster’s issue.

Dec 06, 2021 07:27 PM By mjnichol

130

Maybe share your settings? I don’t have any of the issues you described. You may want to start a new thread for that too, as it doesn’t seem related at all to the original poster’s issue.

It’s pointless here since I can’t post pics. We are discussing it in avsforum

UPDATE

Hey all, thanks for being patient as we looked into this. We’re just finishing up our retests, so we’ll be updating the review in the next few days with our results!

Dec 15, 2021 05:21 PM By  Dylan Crete

UPDATE Hey all, thanks for being patient as we looked into this. We’re just finishing up our retests, so we’ll be updating the review in the next few days with our results!

You say you didn’t see any discoloration. Did you try the examples I listed? It has to be colored text or icons on a dark background. A crap ton of us have this issue, and it even goes back to the q90t. We can’t all be defective.

I am talking to an ababcock in avs forums and I gave him some pictures there.

Dec 16, 2021 02:35 PM By bitterkevin

50

You say you didn’t see any discoloration. Did you try the examples I listed? It has to be colored text or icons on a dark background. A crap ton of us have this issue, and it even goes back to the q90t. We can’t all be defective. I am talking to an ababcock in avs forums and I gave him some pictures there.

I sent your information to the testers in a new retest for them. They did look into the discoloration in game menus, but I don’t think they followed exactly what you did. Your notes should help them to reproduce the issue.

Dec 16, 2021 02:42 PM By  Adam Babcock

I sent your information to the testers in a new retest for them. They did look into the discoloration in game menus, but I don’t think they followed exactly what you did. Your notes should help them to reproduce the issue.

Much appreciated!!

Dec 16, 2021 02:42 PM By  Adam Babcock

I sent your information to the testers in a new retest for them. They did look into the discoloration in game menus, but I don’t think they followed exactly what you did. Your notes should help them to reproduce the issue.

Hi, I detailed the issue on the AVS forum with some images and a video. With this it should be quite easy to reproduce. Hopefully bitterkevin is talking about the same issue.

Here is the link to the post on avsforum : https://www.avsforum.com/threads/2021-samsung-qn90a-neo-qled-4k-series-owners-thread-no-price-talk.3188064/page-553#post-61247644

Dec 16, 2021 03:33 PM By Mythique

14

Hi, I detailed the issue on the AVS forum with some images and a video. With this it should be quite easy to reproduce. Hopefully bitterkevin is talking about the same issue. Here is the link to the post on avsforum : https://www.avsforum.com/threads/2021-samsung-qn90a-neo-qled-4k-series-owners-thread-no-price-talk.3188064/page-553#post-61247644

Yep, it’s the same issue. I sent that thread to our testing team.

Dec 16, 2021 03:42 PM By  Adam Babcock

Yep, it’s the same issue. I sent that thread to our testing team.

Here I made a video of the problem

https://youtu.be/OA-gyEMZ0U4

Local dimming issue is still there. Even on 1905. It appears during Game Mode with LD standard or High. Colors are washed but only if they appear on black or just darker background.

I don’t know if this counts as an issue but the lamps on Resident Evil 8 are totally white even on SDR unless you display the QN90A hub. I tweaked the contrast and various settings but it persist. At least on game mode. I think the LD takes too long to adjust the brightness on certain scenes like subtitles on a dark scene or almost white colorss(like pale skin)

Dec 29, 2021 08:31 AM By YaN13

7

I don’t know if this counts as an issue but the lamps on Resident Evil 8 are totally white even on SDR unless you display the QN90A hub. I tweaked the contrast and various settings but it persist. At least on game mode. I think the LD takes too long to adjust the brightness on certain scenes like subtitles on a dark scene or almost white colorss(like pale skin)

I’m starting to think it actually has more to do with their dynamic tone mapping based on how it behaves it my halo video

I have the same issue when playing destiny 2 on xbox series x while in the crucible menu the icons next to the the various playlists has some fine details in them but on this set they are just a blury mess with no detail what so ever! And the launch match button that’s a green box with white writing inside is unreadable. The only fix I’ve been able to achieve is to set LD low outside of gaming mode and it works but then you lose all the shiny stuff and the picture looks no better than the set this on was going to replace. It’s noticeable in almost all the games I’ve played on the set. Absolutely rubbish for gaming reading the reviews on this site was the main reason I picked up the set but it’s going back.

Jan 04, 2022 08:55 AM By djsween

5

I have the same issue when playing destiny 2 on xbox series x while in the crucible menu the icons next to the the various playlists has some fine details in them but on this set they are just a blury mess with no detail what so ever

Yeah I don’t get how no one sees this. It actually affects gameplay. I can’t tell what button I am supposed to press to bring up Halo Infinites picture calibration screen. It’s just a gray circle.

Samsung we need control of your tone mapping and backlight flicker because right now this tv is ass for hdr gaming

I have this bug on my 50QN90A when using HDMI 2.1 on PC, the image blinks, to solve it I changed the Local Dimming to Low and the problem didn’t appear again.

Jan 10, 2022 07:53 PM By LAWreano

24

I have this bug on my 50QN90A when using HDMI 2.1 on PC, the image blinks, to solve it I changed the Local Dimming to Low and the problem didn’t appear again.

You Shouldn’t have to put it on low. If we were gonna have to use low for everything we could’ve bought a much cheaper television.

Jan 10, 2022 09:21 PM By bitterkevin

50

You Shouldn’t have to put it on low. If we were gonna have to use low for everything we could’ve bought a much cheaper television.

Unfortunately it happens only as PC Monitor use. For Movies and other usage I set it to Movie mode with Standard Local Dimming

If dimming has no issues outside game mode is it possible to play games that way or would input lag be noticeable?

Jan 13, 2022 01:37 PM By MightyMike629

15

If dimming has no issues outside game mode is it possible to play games that way or would input lag be noticeable?

Input lag does increase relatively drastically outside of game mode. It goes from 10.1ms at 1080p/60hz to 76.8ms outside of game mode and 9.8ms at 4k60Hz to 76.6 outside of game mode. Whether or not that’s noticeable will likely vary between users and their personal tolerances/sensitivities, but we consider 15ms to be a noticeable difference!

Jan 13, 2022 01:37 PM By MightyMike629

15

If dimming has no issues outside game mode is it possible to play games that way or would input lag be noticeable?

It does have issues outside of game mode. Standard & movie have the problem while Dynamic & Natural do not. How Rtings doesn’t see it is baffling.

Input lag is pretty heavy outside of game mode, you can definitely feel it. The dimming is good in PC mode and that has lower input lag but it has severe ghosting. PC game mode is better than Console game mode when it comes to the HUD issues, but it has bad ghosting as well and also the slow crappy dimming of game mode & VRR mode which causes major discoloration and green smears.

Basically this TV sucks for gaming in every mode.

Jan 16, 2022 02:49 PM By bitterkevin

50

It does have issues outside of game mode. Standard & movie have the problem while Dynamic & Natural do not. How Rtings doesn’t see it is baffling. Input lag is pretty heavy outside of game mode, you can definitely feel it. The dimming is good in PC mode and that has lower input lag but it has severe ghosting. PC game mode is better than Console game mode when it comes to the HUD issues, but it has bad ghosting as well and also the slow crappy dimming of game mode & VRR mode which causes major discoloration and green smears. Basically this TV sucks for gaming in every mode.

Suck? Really? You don’t know what are you talking about. It’s so strange when people complain about local dimming in Game Mode forgetting that this tv has so low input lag and VRR. Sony has so many problem with that. If you want everything perfect let’s go with OLED LG. Yes LD issue exists on Samsung tv but this is nothing new. Are you about to play the game or just look at it? To me games are just to play and have fun so low LD setting isn’t a problem. It is little bit different for movies but my qn85 has no problem with LD outside Game Mode. Beside that’s how LD works. There are a lot of people who complain about high LD no matter which brand it is.

Jan 17, 2022 10:42 AM By kristof46

19

Suck? Really? You don’t know what are you talking about. It’s so strange when people complain about local dimming in Game Mode forgetting that this tv has so low input lag and VRR. Sony has so many problem with that. If you want everything perfect let’s go with OLED LG. Yes LD issue exists on Samsung tv but this is nothing new. Are you about to play the game or just look at it? To me games are just to play and have fun so low LD setting isn’t a problem. It is little bit different for movies but my qn85 has no problem with LD outside Game Mode. Beside that’s how LD works. There are a lot of people who complain about high LD no matter which brand it is.

Thank you for confirming the dimming sucks. Most people will want to know that before dropping $2000

Honestly for me the only issues I’ve had with dimming was in movie mode watching Netflix. Daredevil has tons of scenes where you get flicker which was confirmed by Tech by KG, here is the review https://youtu.be/8-1DrX_Zh_w To my eye, game mode in console doesn’t seem to have any less dimming zones than in non game mode, blacks looks as black etc. As far as logos and HUD dimming I haven’t noticed it, I guess if I look for it I may. If gaming in game mode under Natural or Dynamic fixes it why not play that way? BTW I updated software to 1903 and it reactivated atmos for apps, not sure what else was fixed, haven’t noticed anything else yet. Be nice if they listed all the fixes with updates..

Jan 17, 2022 06:47 PM By MightyMike629

15

Honestly for me the only issues I’ve had with dimming was in movie mode watching Netflix. Daredevil has tons of scenes where you get flicker which was confirmed by Tech by KG, here is the review https://youtu.be/8-1DrX_Zh_w To my eye, game mode in console doesn’t seem to have any less dimming zones than in non game mode, blacks looks as black etc. As far as logos and HUD dimming I haven’t noticed it, I guess if I look for it I may. If gaming in game mode under Natural or Dynamic fixes it why not play that way? BTW I updated software to 1903 and it reactivated atmos for apps, not sure what else was fixed, haven’t noticed anything else yet. Be nice if they listed all the fixes with updates..

Just because you don’t notice it doesn’t mean it’s not there. The problem has been confirmed by many different people now and they are returning their TVs. The dimming in game mode is also very slow as confirmed by rtings and causes discoloration and green smears. If that gets a seven I’d hate to see a five. In Game Mode you only have the one picture option- Game. The dynamic FAKE contrast screws up everything. That’s what you saw in daredevil. This tv is all smoke and mirrors. Totally inconsistent and garbage for gaming.

Jan 17, 2022 08:54 PM By bitterkevin

50

Just because you don’t notice it doesn’t mean it’s not there. The problem has been confirmed by many different people now and they are returning their TVs. The dimming in game mode is also very slow as confirmed by rtings and causes discoloration and green smears. If that gets a seven I’d hate to see a five. In Game Mode you only have the one picture option- Game. The dynamic FAKE contrast screws up everything. That’s what you saw in daredevil. This tv is all smoke and mirrors. Totally inconsistent and garbage for gaming.

What is your size? I’m asking because I’m 50 and the problem with fading in dark scenes is very hard to miss even if you don’t intend to look for it. And I can’t understand why Rtings experts don’t see this? Maybe larger sizes don’t have this problem?

Guys, we bought this TV based on your reviews. Please help us with this!

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/2022-qn90b-local-dimming-challenge-vs-2021-qn90a.3243243/

Take a look of the pictures in the link. The moving face is overblown when moving in the shot in LD high and standard. LD low fixes the problem but raising the black to grey dulls the pictures. What a waste of money.

I have this problem of discoloration in Movie and Game mode. It’s linked to

• size of bright/color object
• luminance of the background

For example, if you have a small color icon over a large dark background, it will appear white. If you have the exact same icon over a bright background (flames, sky, etc) it will be colored. It’s the same thing for Movie and Game modes. Standard and natural are a bit better, but I think it’s due to their different gamma curve.

the only workaround so far is to use LOW local dimming, but this lifts black levels. edit: I think this might be linked to “subtitle detection” algorithm. I’ve watched a video with pinkish subtitles and in dark scenes the they’re completely white, but in bright scenes they’re pink.

Well, glad it’s not just me. Default settings, enable game mode, and NHL on PS5 nearly burnt through my retinas with its insane brightness. Switched to Fifa, and the grass is like vibrant lime green. It’s all trash. I play in non-game mode because I can’t figure out how to make the colors not utterly psychotic.

Just look at the filmmaker mode settings and use those in game mode. Picture will look nearly identical.

Nov 30, 2021 11:24 AM By  Dylan Crete

We still have this TV scheduled for a retest, so I really can’t say for sure if there’s any fixes or anything like that. Hopefully we can get to it soon and provide some insight. As for whether or not you should return the TV, that’s entirely up to you. Assuming it’s software related, it could be resolved in an update. So, if it doesn’t really bother you, then it could be worth waiting it out because it’s an excellent overall TV. Otherwise, if it really bothers you, then ya, it may be worth swapping out!

hy can yoi guys check the new firmware update 2111 looks like local dimming is a lot better in game mode and no whashout color anymore with vrr on

Dec 04, 2021 04:39 PM By bitterkevin

50

Please retest this TV as soon as possible. Your review confuses me because I don’t have any Blooming issues but I do have major discoloration problems with the local dimming. You can see kind of a green shadow as things move from black to white and vice versa. There is also a major issue in video games where HUD text and other on screen elements get completely discolored upon a black background. It’s not so much that it fades like subtitles on a black background but the colors almost become inverted , it’s strange. To see what I mean look at assassin‘s creed odyssey‘s loading screens or the halo infinite armor select screen or the redline on the speedometer of Forza Horizon 5. I have found an odd solution to this problem however. if you change the label of the Xbox to PC this problem no longer occurs. This has mostly kept me satisfied with the TV but when you do watch video content the local dimming is now pretty shitty because it is the same as in game mode. I feel like either the original firmware had much better dimming or you guys missed this stuff somehow. It makes me feel like you guys rely too much on test patterns and not enough usage in real content. I don’t see how anyone could’ve missed it and it has made me lose faith in rtings.

I don’t know if you still check this, but I was wondering something about your solution. I was having some difficulty with calibrating this TV after a PS5 firmware update. I tried the solution of changing the input label from Playstation to PC and it did significantly increase the response of local dimming. I was wondering if you noticed any difference in input lag from this change. I was trying to figure out if I noticed any, but couldn’t determine it for sure.

Dec 07, 2022 06:10 PM By joe8989

1

hy can yoi guys check the new firmware update 2111 looks like local dimming is a lot better in game mode and no whashout color anymore with vrr on

We added it to our retest queue, so we’ll do our best to look into it ASAP. Once we do, we’ll update our review with our results!