I watch a lot of movies at home, and when I can, I try to do it in the best format possible. That usually means I’m watching a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc paired with my 4K Blu-ray player. I’m a fan of it most of the time, and for a long time, I did that viewing on a 65-inch Sony Bravia X90J. That TV is several years old now, and the screen was starting to fail. That meant I had to start researching new TVs, and it mostly boiled down to whether I wanted a Mini-LED or OLED TV. I opted for a Fire TV Mini-LED in the end, and I’ve been very happy with it.
It’s not a top-of-the-line model by any means, but it’s a nice step up from a regular LED TV. Something I didn’t realize was that I needed to utilize local dimming to really get the most out of this TV. I’ve heard that Mini-LED TVs have really good contrast, and they are just about as close to OLED you can get without getting an actual OLED TV. After watching a couple movies and thinking the black levels could be better, I decided to dig into the settings and change some things around. Local dimming is what I needed to tinker with.
UHD Blu-ray technology
Trivia challenge
4K discs, Dolby Vision, and beyond — how much do you really know about UHD
Blu-ray?
4K VideoAudioHardwareFormatsStandards
What is the maximum video resolution supported by the UHD Blu-ray format?
Correct! UHD Blu-ray supports a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160,
commonly known as 4K UHD. This is four times the pixel count of standard 1080p Full HD Blu-ray,
delivering stunning on-screen detail.
Not quite. The answer is 3840 x 2160, which is standard 4K UHD
resolution. While 8K (7680 x 4320) exists as a consumer format, UHD Blu-ray tops out at 4K — still a
massive leap over traditional Full HD discs.
What is the typical maximum data capacity of a dual-layer UHD Blu-ray disc?
Correct! A dual-layer UHD Blu-ray disc can hold up to 100GB of data.
This extra capacity over standard Blu-ray’s 50GB ceiling allows studios to pack in high-bitrate 4K video
alongside lossless audio tracks and bonus features.
Not quite. The correct answer is 100GB for a dual-layer UHD Blu-ray
disc. Standard Blu-ray maxes out at 50GB on a dual-layer disc, but UHD Blu-ray needed more headroom to
accommodate the much larger 4K video files and premium audio formats.
Which of the following lossless audio formats is natively supported on UHD Blu-ray
discs?
Correct! DTS-HD Master Audio is one of the lossless audio formats
officially supported by the UHD Blu-ray specification. It delivers bit-for-bit identical audio to the
studio master, making it a favourite among home cinema enthusiasts.
Not quite. DTS-HD Master Audio is the correct answer. Dolby Digital Plus
is actually a lossy compressed format, not lossless, while MP3 Surround and AAC 5.1 are not part of the
UHD Blu-ray audio specification at all.
Which High Dynamic Range (HDR) format was mandatory in the original UHD Blu-ray
specification?
Correct! HDR10 is the mandatory baseline HDR format for all UHD Blu-ray
discs. It uses static metadata and supports up to 10-bit colour depth with a peak brightness of 10,000
nits, significantly improving contrast and colour range over SDR content.
Not quite. HDR10 is the mandatory HDR format in the UHD Blu-ray spec.
Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are optional enhancements that some studios add on top, but every UHD Blu-ray
player and disc must support HDR10 as the baseline standard.
What laser colour is used in UHD Blu-ray players to read discs?
Correct! UHD Blu-ray players use a violet (blue-violet) laser with a
wavelength of 405nm, the same as standard Blu-ray. This shorter wavelength compared to the red laser
used in DVDs allows data to be packed much more densely on the disc surface.
Not quite. The answer is violet — specifically a blue-violet laser at
405nm. DVDs use a red laser at 650nm, and CDs use an infrared laser at 780nm. The shorter the
wavelength, the more data can be stored, which is why Blu-ray outpaces its predecessors.
What maximum video bitrate does the UHD Blu-ray specification allow for video
content?
Correct! The UHD Blu-ray specification allows a maximum video bitrate of
82 Mbps. This is substantially higher than standard Blu-ray’s 40 Mbps ceiling, enabling richer detail,
smoother gradients, and less compression artefacts in 4K content.
Not quite. The correct maximum video bitrate is 82 Mbps. Standard
Blu-ray tops out at 40 Mbps, and while streaming services like Netflix offer 4K, they typically deliver
it at just 15–25 Mbps — making physical UHD Blu-ray the highest quality option available to consumers.
Which video codec is most commonly used to encode 4K content on UHD Blu-ray discs?
Correct! H.265, also known as HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), is
the dominant codec used on UHD Blu-ray. It offers roughly twice the compression efficiency of H.264,
meaning studios can deliver 4K footage at high quality without exhausting the disc’s storage capacity.
Not quite. H.265 (HEVC) is the correct answer. While H.264 was the
workhorse of standard Blu-ray, it simply isn’t efficient enough to handle 4K video at acceptable quality
levels within the disc’s bitrate limits. AV1 is a newer codec but isn’t part of the UHD Blu-ray spec.
Which of the following connection types is required to pass a UHD Blu-ray signal at
full 4K HDR quality from a player to a TV?
Correct! HDMI 2.0 or higher is required to carry a 4K HDR signal from a
UHD Blu-ray player to a display. HDMI 2.0 supports the 18 Gbps bandwidth needed for 4K at 60fps with
HDR, whereas HDMI 1.4 maxes out at 4K/30fps without HDR support.
Not quite. HDMI 2.0 or higher is the correct answer. HDMI 1.4 can
technically carry a 4K signal but only at 30fps and without HDR, making it insufficient for the full UHD
Blu-ray experience. Component video is an analogue connection and cannot carry 4K signals at all.
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Local dimming makes or breaks your image quality
Don’t sleep on this setting
With local dimming turned off, it means your TV won’t have that pinpoint accuracy in black levels. Mini-LED TVs are packed with, you guessed it, mini LEDs that can sort of mimic an OLED. No, the pixel doesn’t turn off, but it can make parts of your screen go dark instead of making the whole image do so. The result here is that the proper part of your screen will be dark when it needs to be while the brightness remains intact elsewhere. This helps you get much closer to how the movie or show you’re watching was intended to look, and it really helps the 4K Blu-ray format shine.
You can turn on local dimming for streaming services, but the compression there doesn’t always allow for true blacks. Instead of black, you’re more likely to get a dark grey, which isn’t the end of the world, since this is a flaw of streaming that we already know about. For 4K Blu-ray, I don’t like leaving performance on the table, and the disc can only do so much when it’s your TV that’s holding it back.
My TV’s Local Dimming options come in Low, Medium, High, or Off. For all picture settings, I picked the High option since I want to see it really flex its muscles. Since doing so, I’ve gotten near-inky blacks in a dark room, and that’s exactly what I was looking for. It’s especially nice in October since I’ve been watching a lot of horror movies. The horror genre has plenty of darkness, and having a TV that can let those scenes shine makes all the difference.
Even if you don’t have a Mini-LED TV, you might still have local dimming options. My Fire TV Omni QLED has local dimming settings to toggle on, and they were off by default. I don’t do much movie watching on that TV these days, when it comes time for me to do it again, it’ll look better than it did before.
TV settings are important for your picture quality
Don’t make your 4K Blu-ray player unhappy
Buying a 4K Blu-ray and accompanying 4K Blu-ray player is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the only thing you have to do to ensure you’re getting the best quality that you can get. As annoying as it might be, you have to watch into your TV’s settings and mess with a bunch of things. What I like to do is set my TV to Filmmaker or Movie mode, since that’s going to be the closest to what I’m looking for, and those modes typically give me the most customization.
I instantly turn off any type of upscaling and tone mapping. I don’t want automatic brightness or HDR tone mapping, and I definitely don’t want any motion smoothing. Features like this move movies away from the way they were meant to be seen, and at best, they are distracting. I’m not entirely sure how people like motion smoothing, but it’s very distracting to me and takes away mightily from what I’m watching.
At the end of the day, a lot of this is personal preference, and if you like the way HDR tone mapping looks, or you want a little added sharpness, then go for it. It’s not for me, and turning all that off and making sure Local Dimming was cranked all the way up made sure my movie nights stayed enjoyable. One of these days, I need to get more blackout curtains so I can have a better time watching movies during the day.
