Sony’s Creator Callibated could be a game-changer for home theater

Main points

• Sony is leading the trend in optimizing smart TVs to ensure a faithful viewing experience.
• Innovations like Netflix Calibrate and BRAVIA CORE Calibated are designed to preserve creative intent.
• Filmmaker Mode turns off post-processing and maintains original quality to suit the director’s unique vision.

The ideal home viewing experience is one that recreates the power of theater while adhering to any specific vision of the filmmakers, producing a faithful, immersive experience in your living room. This is not particularly easy to do.

Sony’s latest project, called Creator Calibration, aims to work with filmmakers to enable smart TVs to automatically adjust to specific content on the screen…

Sony has been leading the charge in bringing the cinematic experience home. Over the years, the company has been innovating ways to make this experience not only a reality, but a convenience. Its latest project, called Creator Calibration, aims to work with filmmakers to enable smart TVs to automatically adjust to the specific content on the screen, rather than just genre or style. Designed to bring fidelity to the screen by optimizing color, contrast, motion and other settings while gaining buy-in from those involved in making the movie or show.

The Creator Calibration feature isn’t fully implemented yet, but Sony has expressed interest in it, and it’s the next logical step in what the company has been working on for years. The following is Sony’s journey and progress as it continues to challenge the limits of TV functionality.

First, Netflix Calibration

Sony partners with streaming giants to optimize internal content

In 2018, Sony introduced Netflix calibration mode on its Android TV platform (and later Google TV). Sony’s partnership with the streaming giant has resulted in a preset design that can be used while watching any content on Netflix. At the time, Netflix was paying far less, so the partnership made sense: Disney+ hadn’t launched yet, and HBO Now still existed.

This preset is designed to preserve creative intent and optimize the viewing experience for Netflix-produced content.

Netflix Calibration is a set of presets that can be turned on before watching Netflix; it differs from Movie Mode, which uses metadata about the specific content being watched to alter settings.

This preset is designed to preserve creative intent and optimize the viewing experience for Netflix-produced content. It might not do much for watching reruns of The Office, but it does improve the visual quality of more dynamic shows like Stranger Things, Lost in Space, or Wednesdays. Any original Netflix production, especially one that relies heavily on darkness, color, and action to convey the story, can be improved by this preset.

Then there is the Bravia core calibration

New presets for Sony services

While Sony calibrates settings for Netflix’s catalog, it makes sense for the company to calibrate its own streaming service, BRAVIA CORE. The platform is packed with content from Sony Pictures, including blockbusters such as “Spider-Man,” “Jumanji” and “Ghostbusters.”

Unlike Netflix calibration, which requires viewers to turn on settings before watching, Bravia Core calibration kicks in automatically every time IMAX enhanced content is watched on the service.

With Bravia Core Calibated, Sony aims to bring the IMAX experience to home theaters. This preset adjusts content shot in IMAX by adding more color and brightness to the screen while providing immersive sound. Unlike Netflix calibration, which requires viewers to turn on settings before watching, Bravia Core calibration kicks in automatically every time IMAX enhanced content is watched on the service.

What about Filmmaker Mode?

Top TVs offer Filmmaker Mode to ensure fidelity

A few years ago, the Ultra HD Alliance’s Filmmaker Mode also appeared, aiming to recreate what the film’s creators wanted you to see. However, this initiative isn’t being led by Sony, but by a group of filmmakers and studios who are more or less annoyed by all the post-processing done by smart TVs that ultimately diminishes the quality of the content. This processing can be very helpful with older content, but it doesn’t help when you’re watching a movie that was crafted by a dedicated group of individuals.

Filmmaker Mode doesn’t open up a lot of settings, but it turns off a lot of things. It negates motion smoothing, sharpening, noise reduction, and any other so-called enhancements.

So Filmmaker Mode doesn’t open up a lot of settings, but it turns off a lot of things. It negates motion smoothing, sharpening, noise reduction, and any other so-called enhancements. It also maintains the aspect ratio, frame rate, color and contrast of the original source.

This background is a boon for a lot of creative content, especially for award-winning directors and directors who have a specific vision for their content. It’s also useful for any movie with a lot of dark scenes, especially horror movies. Not being able to see what’s going on in a particular scene is scary, but that’s not what the director wants you to be scared of.

The future is calibrated by creators

Sony’s next step is ambitious

Sony wants its TVs to automatically adjust to the specific content you’re watching, rather than having blanket settings for specific genres or platforms. It’s not out yet, and likely won’t be for a few years, but it’s an ambitious mark to aim for and something consumers should get behind.

Creator Calibration aims to inject specific content into each show and film through creative personnel such as directors, cinematographers or studios. Innovations like this mean that Sony TV will become the gateway to watching movies exactly as the filmmakers intended: without any barriers between creators and consumers. It’s essentially Denis Villeneauve here to help you set up your TV so you can watch Dune 2.

Execution of this plan will require a lot of work on many fronts, but the intention is to position Sony as a brand that filmmakers support and movie lovers patronize.

Sony aims to achieve this with mini-LED screens, the latest attempt to match the contrast achieved with OLED screens without actually controlling the pixels individually. Mini-LED TVs create small areas that can be dimmed as needed while still delivering the incredible brightness and color associated with LED screens.

Help with your TV – If you’re watching big-screen content, you can recreate the theater experience at home by blocking out sunlight and setting up a quality sound system.

All of this work from Sony and others is done with authenticity in mind, which can be a difficult concept to grasp unless you see the difference firsthand. This kind of loyalty can only be understood and appreciated by understanding the past and future of things. It’s easy not to realize the shortcomings of your TV or screen until you see something better: that’s exactly how I feel every time I see a new TV.

I thought the quality of the content I was consuming was pretty good until I realized it could be better, at which point I couldn’t go back (spoiler, you probably won’t either).