YouTube HDR... finally

[Kuschelmonschter]

YouTube HDR content is finally available!

You will find a playlist here. However, these clips will be played as SDR on Sonys for now.

With youtube-dl you can find vp9.2 encodings for those clips:

330          webm       256x144    144p60  156k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 2.38MiB
331          webm       426x240    240p60  256k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 3.87MiB
332          webm       640x360    360p60  485k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 7.35MiB
333          webm       854x480    480p60  909k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 13.83MiB
334          webm       1280x720   720p60 1991k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 28.18MiB
335          webm       1920x1080  1080p60 3201k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 49.70MiB
336          webm       2560x1440  1440p60 11166k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 170.23MiB
337          webm       3840x2160  2160p60 20122k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 335.45MiB

Those are webm however which the native Video app won't play.

We will see whether we will get support for it soon, even for the early 2016 models with the old MediaTek SoC from last year. At least Sony promised that back at CES:

Spoiler

YouTube will also start streaming in HDR quality later this year, using a new VP9-Profile 2 codec that brings HDR support to Google’s VP9 video format. Sony’s Motoi Kawamura, Head of TV Product Planning for Sony Europe, confirmed to FlatpanelsHD that the 2016 models will support VP9-Profile 2 and be capable of streaming YouTube in HDR. We saw a demo at CES and it looked very good.

Source

[Jecht_Sin]

Still nothing.. First Google makes the YouTube HDR supported only in Android TV 7.0. Then we fortunately  get an update to 7.0 and discover that the YouTube app still doesn't support it. Because it's more than a year old. So we wait for version 2.0. It reaches the LG tvs, because the Samsung tvs have had it for ages (and neither run the Google owned Android TV), it gets developed and pushed for Android TV as well, but the genius at Google decided to make it only for x86!

It's your own OS, Google!!! You made it, thus support it!

Honestly, I can't stand that company anymore. A €2.42 billion fine isn't enough. The EU AntiTrust should triple it (and buy iPads for European needy students with that money!! Just to add insult to injury. )

[Kuschelmonschter]

A guy in Germany already got the update, see here. I think it was available for a short time, but then got pulled again. The guy reports that 4K does not work anymore. You can select it but it stays at a lower resolution.

[Jecht_Sin]

@Kuschelmonschter I'll have to trust your words because netiher Google or Bing translators work with that link.

Oh, well. If they pushed it and pulled it back for fixing it.. I'll be more patient. Not that they didn't have a whole year (and more!) to develop (and test) it.

Then I didn't understand well, but is there a link to the retired YouTube 2.0 for ARM? I wouldn't mind to test it a bit (although if it does't play 4K sure it doesn't play HDR..)

[Kuschelmonschter]

HDR does not have to necessarily be 4K .

I am not aware of any publicly available ARM APK. We have to wait...

[Jecht_Sin]

---

Kuschelmonschter wrote:

HDR does not have to necessarily be 4K .

---

Well, sure, I know. I have a standard PS4 and still the HDR plays beautyfully with FF XV at 1080p!

But I meant in the way the YouTube videos are organized, if it doesn't get the 4K streams it would hardly get anything with vp9.2 enabled. As far as I remember when I checked with youtube-dl they were all 2160p streams. Unless some HDR streams support variable resolution as well. Then there are those couple of videos at 720p with HDR enabled, playing in the version 1.3.11. The links should be in this very same thread.

[Kuschelmonschter]

The guy now received 2.0.0.17 which fixes 4K. I still can't see any update. Probably you can somewhere activate Play Store Beta downloading or something?

[Anonymous]

Im still on version 1.3.11

So Im not sure what this article is referring to:

https://androidtv.news/2017/07/youtube-2-0-for-android-tv-comes-with-a-major-redesign/

[Kuschelmonschter]

Well, they say that it is coming, not that it is already here .

[Jecht_Sin]

That article is from July 5. They have probably copied and pasted other articles, wthout considering that it is out but only for x86..

Sure Google is taking its sweet time, though. Hopefully it will be updated before I completely finish FF XII The Zodiac Age!! And that should take a month.

[Jecht_Sin]

Version: 2.00.17 (20017320) for ARM apperead in apk mirror but 4K (max 1440p)  nor HDR are working. Also if one has two YouTube channels associated with the Google account it doesn't choose the one defined as default (losing all history, subscriptions and the like).

It doesn't show in Google Play, so I suppose it may have been pulled (again). I uninstalled it, waiting for the official release. Hopefully not this one!!!