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]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

Yes. I know that the stream is available. But the TV for some reason says that it can't support that. So it is capped at 1440p.

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? How did you get that message?

Not that it really matters to me, 1440p would be fine. And I can't care less about 60fps. What I can't stand is the lack of HDR support. I downloaded with youtube-dl some 2160p@30fps vp9.2 videos and they play just fine in either Plex or Video. So it isn't matter of the SoC either. Actually now I want to download the 2160p@60fps HDR version. Yup. It plays just fine in Plex. And with HDR, of course!

[Kuschelmonschter]

There is no message. It might not be the TV saying so, but the YouTube app deciding so...

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Yup. It plays just fine in Plex. And with HDR, of course!

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Is 2160p60 HDR perfectly smooth?

[Jecht_Sin]

Yup. I can't tell you if there are frame drops, but a bit of soap opera effect is there. Also I've got a 10-20% of idle CPU. The resolution 2160p, as shown by Plex while playing.

[Jecht_Sin]

Oh, great. Video via DLNA instead doesn't play it as HDR.. But it looks very washed. If I manually select HDR 10 in the settings it seems like the one I watched in Plex. Also, for the most realistic results I have to manually select BT.2020 manually as well.

This isn't the first time it happens. It's like if sometimes it doesn't recognize the header or what gives out the HDR parameters. Regarding BT.2020 in some videos I have got the same with Plex as well.

[Jecht_Sin]

So yesterday I uninstalled the (sideloaded) YouTube update. The video "The world in HDR" plays at 1080p60fps max. Which is normal. But played via Google Cast it went to 4K!! And so other videos. After a while the videos started playing in HD, "The World in HDR" included. Closed the YouTube app in the phone, tried again, it was at 4K.

I'd love to know what the Google developers are thinking. Is it too hard to give the option to decide the default resolution, and in case of buffering to allow to scale it down manually? Then they can leave an "Auto" option for the masses!

[Kuschelmonschter]

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Jecht_Sin schrieb:

So yesterday I uninstalled the (sideloaded) YouTube update. The video "The world in HDR" plays at 1080p60fps max. Which is normal.

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Is it? I could go up to 1440p in the Quality menu.

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Jecht_Sin schrieb:

But played via Google Cast it went to 4K!!

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Nougat changelog indeed states that casting 4K video has been added. When I cast "The world in HDR", I only  got HD according to the indicator. I am on Marshmallow (ATV1). But when I cast the "4K test pattern" (which is 25fps only) that I posted a link to earlier, this indeed also goes up to 4K. So for sure also frame rate plays a role in all that...

[Jecht_Sin]

@Kuschelmonschter I reply point by point because quoting is a mess. So..

1: I meant 1080p was normal (for me) with that video no matter which YouTube version I used. With version 1.3.11 it shows up to 1080p60fps, and with YouTube 2.0 I get 1080p in the geek settings. Also, with YouTube 2.0 installed I was still getting 1080p (or better, the HD icon) via Google Cast. Never 4K.

2: Uninstalling the YouTube update, Google Cast streamed at 4K. But only for a while. Then it switched to HD. Closing the YouTube app in the phone and streaming again via Google Cast, it went back to 4K. The TV is now wired (so no WiFi link speed's oscillations) my Internet bandwidth is usually constant, so I doubt it has been something on my setup.

[kinggo01]

Don't have 4k and HDR so no such problems here. But it seems to me that this "app" is just a wrapper for youtube/androidTV web page and that most of the problems are there.

[Jecht_Sin]

I don't understand why people keep saying it is a wrapper for the web page. I mean, the interface isn't exactly identical. It misses the keyboard shortcuts for example (like "ESC"). And it doesn't give the option to pair the app in the YouTube activation web page with a code (while it does on TV's web browser).

But even if it is, it's the same app in the PS4, PS3, LG (since a couple of weeks)  and Samsung TVs. And UHD+HDR does work in the last two. On Samsung TVs it has been working for months. So the fault would probably be on what, the Android's HTTP Web Engine (I'm not sure this is the correct term) that doesn't correctly recognize the TV's capabilities? I mean, I don't know. 

Not that it really matters, the 2.0 update hasn't been published, yet. I am not even sure how apkmirror has got it.

[Kuschelmonschter]

Did again a controlled test with the following YouTube videos:

(1) The World in HDR in 4K (ULTRA HD)

webm       1280x720   720p60 1991k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 28.18MiB

webm       1280x720   720p 2036k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 25.57MiB

mp4        1280x720   720p 2323k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 29.77MiB

webm       1920x1080  1080p60 3201k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 49.70MiB

webm       1920x1080  1080p 3260k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 44.89MiB

webm       1280x720   720p60 3261k , vp9, 60fps, video only, 41.13MiB

mp4        1280x720   DASH video 3497k , avc1.4d4020, 60fps, video only, 50.22MiB

mp4        1920x1080  1080p 4375k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 54.71MiB

webm       1920x1080  1080p60 5108k , vp9, 60fps, video only, 71.01MiB

mp4        1920x1080  DASH video 5868k , avc1.64002a, 60fps, video only, 88.13MiB

webm       2560x1440  1440p 10248k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 134.26MiB

mp4        2560x1440  DASH video 10455k , avc1.640032, 30fps, video only, 126.69MiB

webm       2560x1440  1440p60 11166k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 170.21MiB

webm       2560x1440  1440p60 15387k , vp9, 60fps, video only, 203.80MiB

webm       3840x2160  2160p60 21696k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 339.06MiB

webm       3840x2160  2160p 21981k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 314.00MiB

mp4        3840x2160  DASH video 23320k , avc1.640033, 30fps, video only, 282.78MiB

webm       3840x2160  2160p60 29805k , vp9, 60fps, video only, 457.80MiB

Consider that the 2160p60 VP9 stream is 30mbps!

(2) 4K UHD Test Pattern

mp4        1280x720   DASH video  191k , avc1.4d401f, 25fps, video only, 1.04MiB

webm       1280x720   720p  203k , vp9, 25fps, video only, 1.08MiB

mp4        1920x1080  DASH video  312k , avc1.640028, 25fps, video only, 1.71MiB

webm       1920x1080  1080p  357k , vp9, 25fps, video only, 1.89MiB

mp4        2560x1440  DASH video  457k , avc1.640032, 25fps, video only, 2.49MiB

webm       2560x1440  1440p  609k , vp9, 25fps, video only, 3.20MiB

mp4        3840x2160  DASH video 1027k , avc1.640033, 25fps, video only, 5.45MiB

webm       3840x2160  2160p 1122k , vp9, 25fps, video only, 5.88MiB

YouTube 1.3.11

(1) plays at up to 1440p60

(2) plays at up to 2160p25 (=max)

YouTube 2.0.0.17

(1) plays at up to 1440p60

(2) plays at up to 2160p25 (=max)

So both YouTube versions behave exactly the same with respect to 4K. I still assume that something in the playback chain blocks high resolution+high frame.

New YouTube player 2.0 can’t play 1440p in a smooth way. It eats up 80% of the CPU while YouTube 1.X took about 10%. Well done Google!

Chromecast

(1) indicator says that it plays at HD resolution

(2) indicator says that it plays at 4K

So it looks like the same limitations apply to both, YouTube native app (old and new) and Chromecast playback.