Sky Glass picture quality update starts rolling out, improves contrast dramatically

Sky is releasing a major software update for its Sky Glass TV that dramatically improves picture quality. It is rolling out from this evening, Wednesday 7 December, and is expected to reach all Sky Glass customers by the end of the week.

Since its launch a year ago, Sky Glass has gained many fans - not least because it offers an all-in-one solution of TV, sound system and full Sky experience over broadband. However, one criticism it has faced in the meantime is that its pictures have merely been okay, rather than spectacular.

That is changing with this update to what Sky calls, the Aurora Display.

In October, Pocket-lint was invited to Sky's HQ to get a sneak peek at the new software. It greatly improves contrast, brightness and other aspects of its picture performance.

We saw a side-by-side comparison of the current picture processing and the forthcoming update, and can honestly say that there's a marked difference.

The new picture software has been rebuilt from the ground up and essentially remaps the backlight and tone, creating more accurate black levels and less washed out greys.

New aspects include black bar recognition, which effectively switches off the locally dimmed backlight in the areas where black bars appear - framing an image more precisely. Black levels have more depth generally, while specular highlights are rendered with greater accuracy to give a picture increased impact.

There are also enhancements to the Vivid Mode - selectable through the Options menu - which make for a "punchier" picture.

We'll check out the final update when it arrives on the consumer Sky Glass models ourselves, but the enhancements were certainly promising from our brief demo.

The picture performance improvements to the Aurora Display will roll out to all Sky Glass customers via an over-the-air software update.