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YouTube HDR... finally

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Kuschelmonschter
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YouTube HDR... finally

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

 

 

 

401 REPLIES 401
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Kuschelmonschter
Hero


@Jecht_Sin  schrieb:
Yeah, same here. I have to manually force BT.2020 when streaming via Google cast from my phone. The app still doesn't play HDR content at all. Smart YouTube does, but also with the BT.2020 issue. 

Can you confirm that Kodi (using latest nightly here) plays VP9.2 at the correct BT.2020 color space? For me it does. It can already be seen from the menu changing colors as it is not properly tone-mapped in HDR mode...

How about Plex?

 

I wonder why color space is correct for Kodi. It doesn't do anything in that regard.

 

Basically it looks better in SDR (vp9) compared to HDR (vp9.2) without changing the color space..

It actually looks much worse, completely dull, as it does not perform any sort of tone mapping, just interpreting colors the wrong way.

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stormyuk
Expert


@Jecht_Sin wrote:

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:

 

The two biggest issues for me are:

- 60p over Chromecast exhibits severe suttering

- wrong color space (BT.709 instead of BT.2020) set for VP9.2 HDR content over Chromecast


Yeah, same here. I have to manually force BT.2020 when streaming via Google cast from my phone. The app still doesn't play HDR content at all. Smart YouTube does, but also with the BT.2020 issue. Basically it looks better in SDR (vp9) compared to HDR (vp9.2) without changing the color space..


Does Smart YouTube app cope with 60p? I can't say I have tried it for a while.

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Kuschelmonschter
Hero


@stormyuk  schrieb:
Does Smart YouTube app cope with 60p? I can't say I have tried it for a while.

Yes it does. It is actually based on the foundations of YouTube 1.x. It always played 60p perfectly.

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Jecht_Sin
Enthusiast


@Kuschelmonschter wrote:

@Jecht_Sin  schrieb:
Yeah, same here. I have to manually force BT.2020 when streaming via Google cast from my phone. The app still doesn't play HDR content at all. Smart YouTube does, but also with the BT.2020 issue. 

Can you confirm that Kodi (using latest nightly here) plays VP9.2 at the correct BT.2020 color space? For me it does. It can already be seen from the menu changing colors as it is not properly tone-mapped in HDR mode...

How about Plex?

Kodi on Android TV? I don't have it. Same for Plex. I installed only the couple of apps I use. I do everything from the Apple TV 4k. Still I believe Kodi uses its own decoders, although I am not certain. 

 

I wonder why color space is correct for Kodi. It doesn't do anything in that regard.

Basically it looks better in SDR (vp9) compared to HDR (vp9.2) without changing the color space..

It actually looks much worse, completely dull, as it does not perform any sort of tone mapping, just interpreting colors the wrong way.


If you mean in HDR it looks much worse I completely agree. The colors are pale. The vivid red becomes brownish. Some videos in HDR are simply unwatchable in BT.709. I forgot that was the issue when testing via Google Cast so I tried to change the picture settings.. Then it came to my mind it doesn't apply the correct color space, I switched to BT.2020 and they all looked great. It's like many other things with this OS. 

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Kuschelmonschter
Hero


@Jecht_Sin  schrieb:
Still I believe Kodi uses its own decoders, although I am not certain. 

It uses MediaCodec API like every other playback app. You can't do it differently. 

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stormyuk
Expert

Hmm, I have a new problem for you guys. I have noticed recently and I am not sure if its since the firmware update on my XE9005 or due to something I have done settings wise, or if the TV just needs a factory reset.

 

I used to be able to get HDR videos working in Youtube by either a) casting from my phone to the standard Youtube App (60fps stuff didn't work well, but it it was anything  25 or 30fps it was fine) or b) using Smart YouTube TV app (when videos were 60fps). Now putting all the colour setting issues aside, HDR was flagged and the TV would switch to HDR picture mode with max brightness and high dynamic range at High.

 

Last night, when playing HDR games or Prime Video, this was all working fine (TV auto switched to max brightness and high dynamic range) yet for both cast videos onto Youtube and vidoes played directly in Smart YouTube TV app HDR was getting flagged by App and the TV (in picture settings) but it was leaving the picture settings in the SDR mode (so my brightness was way down, and high dynamic range not enabled). This obviously meant a very dark picture.

 

If I messed with these settings, they messed up my SDR setting for Apps. HDR video options were all on Auto (I did try manually messing with them, no real difference).

 

Anyone see this behavour as this is a new one on me?

 

Cheers,

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zer0ner0
Member


@stormyuk wrote:

Hmm, I have a new problem for you guys. I have noticed recently and I am not sure if its since the firmware update on my XE9005 or due to something I have done settings wise, or if the TV just needs a factory reset.

 

I used to be able to get HDR videos working in Youtube by either a) casting from my phone to the standard Youtube App (60fps stuff didn't work well, but it it was anything  25 or 30fps it was fine) or b) using Smart YouTube TV app (when videos were 60fps). Now putting all the colour setting issues aside, HDR was flagged and the TV would switch to HDR picture mode with max brightness and high dynamic range at High.

 

Last night, when playing HDR games or Prime Video, this was all working fine (TV auto switched to max brightness and high dynamic range) yet for both cast videos onto Youtube and vidoes played directly in Smart YouTube TV app HDR was getting flagged by App and the TV (in picture settings) but it was leaving the picture settings in the SDR mode (so my brightness was way down, and high dynamic range not enabled). This obviously meant a very dark picture.

 

If I messed with these settings, they messed up my SDR setting for Apps. HDR video options were all on Auto (I did try manually messing with them, no real difference).

 

Anyone see this behavour as this is a new one on me?

 

Cheers,


I confirm this behavior on my TV too.

HDR works as expected on Prime, Netflix etc. but on casting Youtube, despite the HDR icon, the brightness does not go to max.

Could this be a side effect of  this issue? I mean keeping 1.33.128811 and not updating to 1.33.133253? Just a thought, but I am reluctant to update to 1.33.133253 just to check this and eventually end up with no youtube casting at all...

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stormyuk
Expert


@zer0ner0 wrote:


 

 

I confirm this behavior on my TV too.

HDR works as expected on Prime, Netflix etc. but on casting Youtube, despite the HDR icon, the brightness does not go to max.

Could this be a side effect of  this issue? I mean keeping 1.33.128811 and not updating to 1.33.133253? Just a thought, but I am reluctant to update to 1.33.133253 just to check this and eventually end up with no youtube casting at all...


It could be but, using Smart Youtube TV app directly with no casting would cast doubt on this as no casting is involved. This app exhibits the same behaviour as a cast video in the standard Youtube app. So I am not convinced its a casting issue. HDR is flagged but doens't seem to be working properly, infact its even worse than before with just the wrong colourspace.

 

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Kuschelmonschter
Hero

There are lots of threads about the BRAVIA not differentiating between SDR and HDR settings with respect to brightness (backlight) for example. I could never reproduce this issue. But judging from what I have read, settings sometimes seem to have a life of their own.

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stormyuk
Expert


@Kuschelmonschter wrote:

There are lots of threads about the BRAVIA not differentiating between SDR and HDR settings with respect to brightness (backlight) for example. I could never reproduce this issue. But judging from what I have read, settings sometimes seem to have a life of their own.


Yeh I have never had the issue until now, and it only seems to affect YouTube and Smart YouTube TV which is annoying.