Harmy wrote: I'm afraid there is indeed something wrong with those screens none, they seem to have increased brightness (this is clearly visible on the black bars), which I'm sure isn't the case with the HDTV captures.

I've read about some broadcasts using the color safe palate of 16-235 instead of the full range 0-255. Don't have a confirmation if this German'07 is indeed following that principle. This could explain the greyish black bars.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1090642

Check out the second post. (here's a excerpt)

Source video files - DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray and Broadcast TV MPEG2, H264 and VC-1 will have their video stored in 16-235 format on-disc. This is what broadcast facilities and studios use as standard for digital video. Black is at 16, White is at 235.

This avsforum conversation happened in 2008 shortly after this German'07 broadcast. If anyone wants to say 'confirm' then this could be the explanation.

I've got a bunch of others, if time i'll cap'um.