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

[Kuschelmonschter]

I just watched a Philips TV video review, which is based on MT5891 and Marshmallow. You could go all the way up to 2160p, but only 30fps. So it seems you can trade resolution for frame rate, but neithe Sony nor Philips can do 2160p60, most probably because of the weak MT5891 and poorly optimized apps.

There is also this HDMI option within the developer options of the TV where you can optimize either for resolution or frame rate. I haven't checked yet whether this has an influence on what you can select inside YouTube...

[Jecht_Sin]

@Kuschelmonschter I don't know what else to say. On MT5891 instead (1) plays 1080p60fps max w/o HDR on v1.3.11:

While once downloaded it does play at 2160p + HDR (you can see it from the washed yellow controls). I don't know the frame rate. But that's Direct Play so it shouldn't change on Plex:

Basically our results show that on YouTube MT5680 plays it at an higher resolution than MT5891. While the SoC/TV is capable enough to play it at 2160p HDR.

It shouldn't be a matter of Internet vs LAN connectivity either, because my Internet bandwidth is nearly capped by the 100Mbps Ethernet.

[Kuschelmonschter]

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Jecht_Sin schrieb:

@Kuschelmonschter I don't know what else to say. On MT5891 instead (1) plays 1080p60fps max w/o HDR on v1.3.11:

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In 1.3.11, you have the possibility to choose quality in the player controls. Does the TV only offer up to 1080p60 there?

[Jecht_Sin]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

In 1.3.11, you have the possibility to choose quality in the player controls. Does the TV only offer up to 1080p60 there?

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Yup. It is played at the max available resolution:

It isn't a matter of the SoCs. It's a matter that Google isn't even capable to write its own apps for its own OS!

[Kuschelmonschter]

It offers 1440p60 in my case.

Also YouTube 2.0 shows in the nerd stats that 1440p60 is the "Optimal Resolution", so the maximum it can go. So they are at least consistent.

1440p60 however eats up 80% of the CPU on YouTube 2.0 and is jerky as hell. And I can't select a lower resolution.

So how does it determine 1080p60 to be the max in your case and 1440p60 to be the max in my case?

I totally agree that Google totally fails writing software for their own OS.

[Jecht_Sin]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

It offers 1440p60 in my case.

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Oh yeah, I totally understood that. It's what caused this misunderstanding! That's why I wrote "1080p is normal" 

Nope, I get 1080p 60fps in both 1.3.11 and 2.0. And I use that video because it is one of the videos Google used to promote the HDR in YouTube. So double fail in my opinion.

Then regarding the streaming via Google Cast (the protocol. Not Chromecast the device), with 1.3.11 installed on the TV with that same video I get the 4K icon, with 2.0 only the HD icon. But 2.0 isn't published so I can't really say much against it. I can only reiterate that this is a shame, because that update was supposed to be out weeks, if not months ago!! Also working, obviously.

[Kuschelmonschter]

Weird. Didn't know that Google Cast Receiver and YouTube were interconnected somehow.

I however get consistent results between Cast and YouTuber player.

Totally weird behavior.

[Jecht_Sin]

I use the Murphy's laws: If something unsual should not be implemented, be sure that someone will implement it! lol

But in this case I noticed it in the YouTube 2.0 settings. I don't know how much it is related, but v2.0 has an option to pair the mobile phone for Google Cast. Either streaming directly in the same WiFi or by using a code furnished by the TV's app.

Netflix in this case (and this case only as far as I am aware) is even worse: Google Cast on TV launches the Netflix client (the app, not the one for Chromecast)! Indeed it did (and probably still does) have its fair share of bugs. When I had the Netflix subscription (still on 6.0.1) I never managed to use it because it was getting stuck at the login. But I didn't need it at all, it was just for testing, so I didn't bother.

[Kuschelmonschter]

You are right. The TV is perfectly capable of outputting 2160p60. I also downloaded this stream of "The world in HDR":

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

Kodi also happily plays it back.

Here is a comparison of YouTube 1.3 and 2.0 playing back the "The world in HDR" 1440p60 stream...

YouTube 1.3

User 12%, System 16%, IOW 0%, IRQ 0%
User 28 + Nice 0 + Sys 37 + Idle 156 + IOW 1 + IRQ 0 + SIRQ 0 = 222

  PID PR CPU% S  #THR     VSS     RSS PCY UID      Name
27655  1   9% S    96 1240852K 179536K  fg u0_a136  com.google.android.youtube.tv
 1131  0   6% S    25 115500K   9992K  fg system   /system/bin/surfaceflinger
 1139  0   4% S    52 163680K   6608K  fg media    /system/bin/mediaserver

YouTube 2.0

User 57%, System 30%, IOW 0%, IRQ 8%
User 127 + Nice 0 + Sys 66 + Idle 8 + IOW 0 + IRQ 0 + SIRQ 18 = 219

  PID PR CPU% S  #THR     VSS     RSS PCY UID      Name
 6044  0  72% S    51 1184696K 228848K  fg u0_a136  com.google.android.youtube.tv
 1131  0   8% S    25 111684K   9028K  fg system   /system/bin/surfaceflinger
 1139  0   6% S    52 162280K   6196K  fg media    /system/bin/mediaserver

[Jecht_Sin]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

You are right. The TV is perfectly capable of outputting 2160p60.

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Oh thank you! I know my posts sometimes are "a bit" (just to heavily use the English uderstatement) convoluted, but a bit more trust wouldn't hurt! 

I'd like to add that after the upgrade to Android 7.0 I downloaded a dozen of YouTube 2160p vp9.2 videos (not sure about the frame rate. They are all with YouTube format "337"), and they all play fine in either Plex or Video. Sometime HDR doesn't work in one of the two, though. Which makes me wonder if the vp9.2 profile is correctly implemented..

Instead you made me curious about the performances, now. I'll install the 2.0 update again and see how it works in mine.