Video playback performance is way more interesting. Compared to previous Realtek SoCs,
we do get proper HDR10+ support from our UHD backups while at the same time
the infamous Realtek banding issue appears to be disappeared or heavily toned down depending on the source.
4K HDR to 1080p SDR conversion (mostly used on projectors and non-HDR 4K TV sets) now works better than ever with very good results which are very close, if not identical, to the original.
24p motion handling is now spot on, measured at 23.973 with an HDFury Vertex in the chain. The only chance to get a 24.00 non-accurate result is when the player outputs a 12bit, 4:2:x signal. This only happens with selected manual video settings (12-bit color, maximum color space). Leave your video settings to “EDID” (or 10-bit) and “as content” and you will not face this. This time
we also get proper HDR MaxCLL/MaxFALL passthrough information, which was not a given with previous Dune players.
The latest UHD and Blu-Ray menu navigation engine is now better with improved compatibility compared to the competition. Menu loading times are also faster. The unit’s form factor did not appear to have any toll on image quality. Dozens of A/B comparisons were made with day and night scenes and we got the exact same image quality results with last year’s RTD1295 and RTD1296 based media players. All tests were performed on a 4K LG C9, Panasonic 4K (non-HDR), and a Benq W6000 1080p projector (with and without the use of a Lumagen Radiance XD-3D).