HBO's Game of Thrones

[Brian G.]

To all the people who had trouble with the lighting (a common thing I've read), were you watching on a TV in a lit room? I watched it on my computer in the dark so I didn't have much trouble seeing what was going on.

Nope. All lights were off, watching it on a 4K.

 

[Stryker]

In fairness, Martin himself told the showrunners the major plot points and the fates of all the characters several years ago, so while they haven't been able to adapt the text, they're still - presumably - hitting the major beats that Martin will hit if/when he finishes the novels.

I stressed this before, too, but I feel the showrunners may pull a Walking Dead where the show switches things around from the comics so the new books won't be spoiled by the show.

 

[Andysol]

On a serious note though... how many people did George Bush's head kill last night?

 

[Jamesh22]

Spoiler

Thought it was epic but the darkness issues did distract a bit too much.

For those a bit underwelmed and expecting some bigger characters to die - I do agree re character deaths but that might have been too obvious and your/my opinion 'could' change after what happens in the next 3 episodes, let's see then.

Honestly thought Arya was going to die - sounded like the NK had broken her neck before she stabbed him - that would have been a really fitting end to her character as others have said.

and...

Spoiler

Nothing to suggest this but I had a feeling Bran might be able to control the white walkers, and that was how they were going to win, still think there is more mystery to come.

 

[alomar]

I honestly had zero issues with the darkness, and I have the kitchen light on, patio outside the door next to the TV and the hall light on. I saw everything just fine. Also, you know the darkness was beyond intentional. They wanted to keep a lot not seen or mysterious and not just right out in your face, and I personally liked that.

 

[sjago13]

It was most likely shot and graded for HDR which can crush blacks and darken scenes when converted down to SDR. As far as I'm aware the HBO apps do not support HDR so I would hope it would look way better when it makes it's way to 4k bluray on a capable hdr TV set.

 

[bob albert]

Nope. All lights were off, watching it on a 4K.

I don't think you did. HBO does not stream in 4k yet. If they streamed in 4k and more importantly with hdr the darkness wouldn't have been as bad.

 

[Stryker]

I watched in on my 13-year old 1080p DLP (I know, ancient tech) and had no problems with the lighting. Thing is though, I calibrated it on day one so my black level is quite black and the contrast in dark scenes are more definitive. I'm wondering if those that are having lighting issues never bothered to calibrate their TVs and just used the factory settings out of the box.

 

[awhen]

I don't think you did. HBO does not stream in 4k yet. If they streamed in 4k and more importantly with hdr the darkness wouldn't have been as bad.

HDR doesn’t actually have “deeper blacks” like the marketing says. The main purpose is to more accurately render highlights. The reason it usually appears darker overall is that the brightness of a pixel in HDR (at least Dolby Vision, HDR and HDR10+; HLG is different) is defined absolutely. Think of 0-100 nits in an HDR image as the range of an SDR image, which is essentially what it is. Very few people have their SDR TV calibrated to show peak white at 100 nits. But in HDR if a pixel is supposed to be 100 nits, that’s what the display is supposed to reproduce.

 

[bob albert]

I watched in on my 13-year old 1080p DLP (I know, ancient tech) and had no problems with the lighting. Thing is though, I calibrated it on day one so my black level is quite black and the contrast in dark scenes are more definitive. I'm wondering if those that are having lighting issues never bothered to calibrate their TVs and just used the factory settings out of the box.

Nah plenty of people who calibrated their TVs had issues. The only way to help with compression issues this episode was going to highlight would be to push a higher quality stream out. It's possible some devices had a higher quality or more consistent stream though or some TVs just handled it a bit better. I was watching on a 5000 lumen dlp projector using apple tv and didn't have much of an issue seeing most of the episode. After when I viewed a clip on my phone I could hardly see anything.

 

[Brian G.]

I don't think you did. HBO does not stream in 4k yet. If they streamed in 4k and more importantly with hdr the darkness wouldn't have been as bad.

I mean my TV is a 4K, meaning it ain’t a broken, or old, TV causing “darkness issues”.

 

[rhino4evr]

the episode was dark, but it was obviously intentional. The idea is that you are on the battlefield at night with the solders in the middle of a blizzard. I found watching it a second time helped me quite a bit.

 

[Scott W.]

My thoughts after 24 hours is still that I think it was kind of lazy writing with the whole build up. We were told for 69 episodes that the night walkers were the biggest threat and they were taken care of relatively easy without much consequence.

Having said that, the more I think about Arya being the one who killed the night king, the more I love it and I'm so happy it was her instead of Jon Snow.

This had to happen over one episode because now it leaves 3 episodes to deal with Cersei and I hope that is where the genius will return.

It was easily the most beautifully shot episode of GOT, maybe even of any tv show. Simply it was style over substance with some good important moments.

 

[bob albert]

the episode was dark, but it was obviously intentional. The idea is that you are on the battlefield at night with the solders in the middle of a blizzard. I found watching it a second time helped me quite a bit.

Of course it was intentional. The people who from filmed this also intended it to be viewed in higher quality so people could see things better but that wasn't available to the average viewer. Also a day later you may have gotten a better stream from the servers.

 

[Andysol]

The difference between what you saw Sunday night from an HBO App or compressed cable stream vs what you'd see in a 4k Blu-Ray released later this year or early next would be night and well.... night.

 

[belloq87]

These are the perils of a streaming-dominated future. Compression, compression, and more compression.

Seeing the reactions to the visibility and visual coherence of this episode makes me quite confident in my decision to maintain a large physical media library (which GAME OF THRONES will be joining once the "Complete Series" box set is released).

 

[awhen]

The only issue I had is with a few shots that had a subtle gradient from dark grey smoke up to a black sky. Instead of a gradient, the only thing that survived the compression was an undulating monolithic dark grey blob against the black sky.

Otherwise, if it wasn’t lit up by a nearby torch, fire, or the moon you pretty much weren’t supposed to see it clearly or at all. My wife kept telling me how tense she was watching it. The look is part of generating that.

My only advice is to avoid picture modes that say things like “dynamic” or “vivid” or “retina burn.” And in the name of all that’s holy, no frame interpolation!

 

[Jamesh22]

Re the too dark debate...
GOT cinematographer Fabian Wagner says “I know it wasn’t too dark because I shot it.”

Game of Thrones cinematographer isn’t sorry he shot last episode’s Battle of Winterfell so dark - The Verge

I didn't find the darkness as much of an issue as some, but what I don't get is this was always going to be watched on TV/streamed to 99% of the audience, so why didn't they shoot it in a way suitable for their audience?

 

[devinp267]

Re the too dark debate...
GOT cinematographer Fabian Wagner says “I know it wasn’t too dark because I shot it.”

Game of Thrones cinematographer isn’t sorry he shot last episode’s Battle of Winterfell so dark - The Verge

He shouldn't have said NUTHIN it'll ony make it worse lol. Way Too many people have said this episode was too dark, start making sure next week's episode isn't too dark hun umkay..

 

[Scott W.]

I had a hard time seeing it at first but I closed my blinds and curtains and problem solved.

My tv is as calibrated as it allows and I wasn’t watching a stream.