I was trying to get the word out on this months ago! Haha.I just wanted to highlight a problem that many may already know, and have corrected. But for those who don't know this may seem helpful.
The fault? The PS4 set it's RGB setting to AUTOMATIC. They even recommend this setting. Problem is the PS4 isn't properly communicating with your TV like you'd expect it should through HDMI, so in effect, automatic is just limited. Even if your TV is outputting at Full/High. I verified this with my own BenQ monitor. It's clearly set to full, and the ps4 is set to automatic, but the problem only fixes itself when I have to manually put the PS4 to output at full. The PS4 doesn't do this automatically. Which is stupid.
Sony should really fix this. In the meantime, you should verify things on your own manually.
If you notice that often times you have to lower the games in-game brightness settings really low in order to achieve whatever the game is asking (usually : lower brightness until said object is no longer visible) than likely your RGB setting is off. Either your PS4 is set to limited and your TV is at full, or vice versa. The problem is they are different.
Also, if you generally feel that blacks appear kind of greyish, or that the colors lack 'pop' and there is just this general washed out look, you may have a problem.
*** What to do ***
- Under settings -> sound and screen -> your ps4 RGB output is at automatic. You want to either change it to limited or full, to match whatever your TV is set at. So - check your TV's option menu to see what it's RGB levels are, if you can - set it to FULL, or HIGH. Then, go under sound and screen in your PS4's settings menu and change it to FULL.
- If your TV only has a limited or low setting, or if it doesn't even have an option for this at all (probably an older TV) then assume limited, and set the PS4 to either automatic or limited (apparently it's the same thing).
The above steps are for ideal conditions. Some TV's call the RGB color range different things, so if you need help post it in here and I'm sure others with similar model TV's can help.
This is exactly right and I'm surprised it hasn't been patched yet. At the time, I was unsure if it was an issue with my TV or my PS4. A few of us stumbled upon it in this thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=103006922#post103006922
Well I'll be dang...I knew I wasn't crazy. Just ran this on my PS4 with the settings I've been using. Could only see the bottom row of those black squares. Guess that means I've been playing with crushed blacks this whole time? No wonder I had to crank up the brightness on Tomb Raider and BF.
Changing both the PS4 and my TV to the "full" RGB seemed to fix this instantly as I can now view each black box with your pattern. Looks like I can also get the same result though by setting both to limited or both to auto.
Basically, they just have to be the same. Before, the PS4 was set to "auto" and the TV was set to standard. Resulted in crushed blacks for me. Holy crap I can't believe I've been playing like this for months.
Great post and so very true about the obsession thing. You can drive yourself crazy over the tiniest detail.
Now that I finally got rid of my crushed blacks by addressing the RGB issue, I'm set. I can guarantee there are others out there like me though who aren't getting the best picture because either the PS4 doesn't detect the correct RGB when set to auto, or because my tv didn't detect the PS4 signal properly. I get identical pictures if I set both my TV and PS4 to auto, limited, or full, but if either of them is set to something different from the other, it immediately crushes my blacks.
Edit: Wow, just stumbled upon this thread here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=717488 Guess I should have been paying attention.
Edit 2: Very helpful link on the RGB question. http://www.nicolaspeople.com/ch3rokeesblog/?p=16