HDR10+ not available on HTPCs?!

[kiki4431]

Hi,

 

I just found some information, which, I wish I never knew about.

 

Apperentlly, you can't send HDR10+ (dynamic) metadata to TV, only regular HDR, when using HTPC.

 

Up untill now I thought, I was getting HDR 10+ as long as the movie I watch on my Samsung S95C, being played on windows 10 PC with RX6600X GPU, was HDR10+.

 

God, I bought the TV, went through hell with cables, untill I found the right one, build a PC with one of the newest GPUs that support HDMI 2.1, make sure I set everything up properlly, calibrate the TV, only to find out a month later, YOU CAN'T GET HDR10+ ON HTPC.

 

Here is the information qoute: https://r-htpc.github.io/wiki/faq#what-is-hdr-video-and-what-do-i-need-to-take-advantage-of-it

Quote

DOLBY VISION AND HDR10+ MEDIA PASSTHROUGH IS NOT SUPPORTED ON HTPCS

I am using MPC-HC with madVR to watch such movies, the image on my TV is awesome, I would have never know, that I am actually not getting HDR10+. but ran some tests, and indeed, no HDR10+ metadata is present, only regular HDR.

 

so what I also found out is that for such support, you need a streaming device, such as FireTV or ROKU. the problem with those, is that I can't find any information whether or not you can play your own .mkv files with these, or even if you can, what setup options you have.

 

Here is the thing, I have 5.1 Home cinema setup, and it has HDMI 2.0 ports (4K60Hz capable), meaning no eARC, meaning, I won't ever get true 5.1 sound if it has to go through the TV, it will go back to PCM, and no bitstreaming support, meaning, no Dolby or DTS stuff, I am fine with that on regular TV chanels, they are stereo anyway, but loosing 5.1 audio is not something I am villing to trade.

 

I would like to ask, is there a way to make HDR 10+ work on my setup, (all my hardware should support it, the software seems to be the problem), without loosing other aspects of it, and if such thing is not possible, what would be the best alternative?

 

 

[Brando212]

that doesn't sound right. maybe those FAQs are out of date.

 

An HTPC is just a normal windows computer; usually just with a smaller form factor such as ITX or NUC. And Windows itself supports HDR 10+ as far as I'm aware, so should just be a matter of compatible iGPU/dGPU and compatible monitor/tv.

[dilpickle]

Just get a good media player like a Shield or Zidoo. HTPCs are a nightmare to use.

[seanondemand]

HTPCs have been a dead concept since the 2000s. HDR support is either spotty or nonexistent, streamers might not even offer a 4K streaming option through a pc, and there are so many good options below 200 bucks. Sucks. 
 

I used Apple TV and Plex to play any of my downloaded files, handles hdr10+ and Dolby vision just fine. 

[Brando212]

28 minutes ago, seanondemand said:

HTPCs have been a dead concept since the 2000s. HDR support is either spotty or nonexistent.

that's kinda my point above though. HTPCs are just normal computers; it's mostly about the form factor.

 

Does Windows not actually support HDR10+ in of itself? Because I could have sworn it does.

 

Note: I don't own any HDR displays so I could be wrong on Windows supporting 10+.

[kiki4431]

4 hours ago, Brando212 said:

that doesn't sound right. maybe those FAQs are out of date.

 

An HTPC is just a normal windows computer; usually just with a smaller form factor such as ITX or NUC. And Windows itself supports HDR 10+ as far as I'm aware, so should just be a matter of compatible iGPU/dGPU and compatible monitor/tv.

I know what a HTPC is, built one simply because, I use it to store a huge library of movies (in fact about 12 TB worth of files), and than watch those on my TV, recentlly upgraded to S95C, and this forced a bunch of other  upgrades as well, costing me nearly as much as the TV itself, and as unfortunate as it is, the motherboard decided to take a permanent vacation so I had to get a new one and rebuild, and than re-install windows, because it refused to boot on that new system, and reconfigure everything, drivers, MPC-HC and madVR, used the guide in the wiki above to help me do that, but I guess I wasn't paying attention enough the first time, so now that information came to me.

 

Again, if I just skipped that part like the last time, I would have never know, and would never notice probably, but now that I know, I am not getting everything I expect, well, you know how it feels like, when you aren't getting all the features you expect...

 

The other reason I need a HTPC is to separate Audio and Video, I have Onkyo HT-R395 AV reciever, which has HDMI 2.0, and thus no eARC support, and I can't get 5.1 audio through regular ARC it always switches to PCM and I only get stereo, I can make my AVR process the sound into Dolby Digital, or something, but that is not the same as having that dirrectly bitstreamed into it.

For this reason, I can't relly on my TV passing sound to AVR, because I will loose all the extra channels, and Dolby/DTS bitstreaming. And so, I need a separate HDMI cable that goes to AVR, than, I can have the video go to TV, and audio with all the data, to AVR., as far as I know no streaming device will allow me to connect AVR directlly to it, therefore, using one, means, I have to relly on ARC, or TOSLINK (which I used once on my old TV, and it didn't work, I got a lot of echo).

 

Also streaming devices aren't offering as much of advanced options for all that, as MPC-HC does, and I don't know if I can even use them to stream my own stuff locally.

 

Don't know about windows, the guide I follow suggest that I turn off OS HDR, therefore I have that off, and when watching movies madVR switches to AMD HDR.

 

4 hours ago, dilpickle said:

Just get a good media player like a Shield or Zidoo. HTPCs are a nightmare to use.

will look into that.

1 hour ago, seanondemand said:

HTPCs have been a dead concept since the 2000s. HDR support is either spotty or nonexistent, streamers might not even offer a 4K streaming option through a pc, and there are so many good options below 200 bucks. Sucks. 
 

I used Apple TV and Plex to play any of my downloaded files, handles hdr10+ and Dolby vision just fine. 

Can you tell me how did you set this up?, I just looked through apps available for my TV, it seems I can install Plex Media Player, dirrectlly to TV, than I guess I don't even need a streaming device, I can just use that HTPC as a NAS, and have my TV access it from LAN, but even than I have that Audio problem to work out...

Also I am not sure if it will work, if I go the NAS route, the HDMI bandwidith required for 4k HDR10+ 4:4:4 is way bigger than any LAN cable going through a router.

[dilpickle]

1 hour ago, Brando212 said:

that's kinda my point above though. HTPCs are just normal computers; it's mostly about the form factor.

HTPC means playing video on a PC hooked up to a TV or projector. The HT stands for Home Theater. Its not about form factor.

 

1 hour ago, Brando212 said:

Does Windows not actually support HDR10+ in of itself? Because I could have sworn it does.

 

All I could find was info about gaming support. No one uses HTPCs anymore so its hard to find info about video. The last I checked you couldn't even get Dolby Vision from a ripped blu-ray on a PC.

[Brando212]

2 minutes ago, dilpickle said:

HTPC means playing video on a PC hooked up to a TV or projector. The HT stands for Home Theater. Its not about form factor.

Yes, that's basically what I was saying above. there's nothing special about HTPCs, they're just normal Windows computers. I only mentioned form factor because computers that labeled themselves as HTPCs were generally ITX or NUC sized to better fit in the TV cabinet.

 

3 minutes ago, dilpickle said:

All I could find was info about gaming support. No one uses HTPCs anymore so its hard to find info about video. The last I checked you couldn't even get Dolby Vision from a ripped blu-ray on a PC.

That is weird, so the limitation does indeed seem to be from Microsoft's end then if that's the case.

I guess it comes down to 'not enough demand' or something as usual with Microsoft.

[TheGreatestGazoo]

I totally understand wanting to get the best picture and sound your gear can provide. And when you don't get a feature like HDR 10+, it can grate on your nerves. As in, dammit I paid for it and I want it!

 

Don't try to use Toslink to handle your audio. It does not have the bandwidth to carry the uncompressed versions of Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, or more than two channels of PCM audio. I can confirm this with my own setups but it's on Wikipedia as well. A lot of people don't realize this fact. Toslink was great.....20 years ago but it's pretty much only for legacy equipment now.

 

It's very unclear if a Windows PC can support HDR 10+ with any types of hardware/software. Go this hdr10plus.org webpage scroll down to Search Certified Products and select GPU. Only Nvidia comes up as an option, no AMD. So that MIGHT be your problem....but hard to say. The Nvidia results show HDR+ Gaming which might be something totally different than HDR+ Entertainment - not much info to go on there. This might be a long shot by try reaching out to AMD support to see if they can give an answer as to if the 6600 will support HDR 10+.

 

HDR seems to be problematic in any state for a lot of PC users. I've been pretty lucky using my PC and Alienware OLED monitor and LG C1 with HDR on Win11 with 4070ti. I have found that different software players can make a difference so maybe give that shot too - try the Jellyfin player to see if that might work if it's not a hardware problem.

 

You won't want to hear this but I think you are looking at a AVR upgrade and a media player like a Zidoo to get where you really want which is HDR 10+ video and native DTS/Dolby audio. Use your HTPC as a media server instead of a media player. I have AppleTV with Plex from a Microsoft 2022 Server but AppleTV doesn't support DTS which is a real problem for me as I like video concerts and most are DTS. AppleTV will convert it to multichannel PCM which in theory should sound the same but it definitely does not as when I play in native DTS it sounds much livelier and sharp. AppleTV does Dolby Atmos audio very well though and the video quality is outstanding (DolbyVision).

 

Having said that....you seemed really happy with the picture until you found out it wasn't HDR 10+ and then you had some cognitive dissonance occur. This happens to me quite often too.

 

Here is what ChatGPT said when I asked if Win 10 supports HDR10+ and if Win11 supports HDR 10+. Interestingly it explicitly says that HDR10+ is supported for Win11 but not explicit for Win10. Many users have reported more issues with HDR with Win10 that got fixed with Win11 so that might be something to explore too. I know that ChatGPT can be unreliable but the result below is very interesting for your problem.

 

Windows 10 indeed supports HDR10. To make the most of this feature, ensure you have the following components:

1. An HDR Display: Your TV or monitor must support the HDR10 standard. Look for an HDR10 logo on the packaging or specification page to confirm compatibility.
2. Cables and GPU: Use at least a DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 cable, along with a GPU that supports the same.
3. PlayReady 3.0 Ready GPU: Your graphics card should be PlayReady 3.0 ready for optimal HDR performance.

Here are three ways to enable HDR on Windows 10:

1. Keyboard Shortcut: Press Windows+Alt+B to toggle HDR on or off quickly. Your screen may briefly go black, and you’ll see an on-screen indicator.
2. Display Settings: Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Display Settings, choose the correct monitor, and find the “Use HDR” option. You can enable or disable aspects of HDR here, including Auto HDR (which translates non-HDR games into HDR).
3. Within Applications: Some video games that support HDR allow you to toggle it on/off using a menu entry¹.

Remember, HDR enhances your visual experience, so enjoy those vibrant colors!

 

 

Windows 11 indeed supports HDR10 and HDR10+. To make the most of this feature, ensure you have the following components:

1. An HDR Display: Your TV or monitor must support the HDR10 standard. Look for an HDR10 logo on the packaging or specification page to confirm compatibility.
2. Cables and GPU: Use at least a DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 cable, along with a GPU that supports the same.
3. PlayReady 3.0 Ready GPU: Your graphics card should be PlayReady 3.0 ready for optimal HDR performance.

Here are three ways to enable HDR on Windows 11:

1. Keyboard Shortcut: Press Windows+Alt+B to toggle HDR on or off quickly. Your screen may briefly go black, and you’ll see an on-screen indicator.
2. Display Settings: Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Display Settings, choose the correct monitor, and find the “Use HDR” option. You can enable or disable aspects of HDR here, including Auto HDR (which translates non-HDR games into HDR).
3. Within Applications: Some video games that support HDR allow you to toggle it on/off using a menu entry¹.

Remember, HDR enhances your visual experience, so enjoy those vibrant colors!

 

[kiki4431]

15 hours ago, TheGreatestGazoo said:

I totally understand wanting to get the best picture and sound your gear can provide. And when you don't get a feature like HDR 10+, it can grate on your nerves. As in, dammit I paid for it and I want it!

 

Don't try to use Toslink to handle your audio. It does not have the bandwidth to carry the uncompressed versions of Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, or more than two channels of PCM audio. I can confirm this with my own setups but it's on Wikipedia as well. A lot of people don't realize this fact. Toslink was great.....20 years ago but it's pretty much only for legacy equipment now.

 

It's very unclear if a Windows PC can support HDR 10+ with any types of hardware/software. Go this hdr10plus.org webpage scroll down to Search Certified Products and select GPU. Only Nvidia comes up as an option, no AMD. So that MIGHT be your problem....but hard to say. The Nvidia results show HDR+ Gaming which might be something totally different than HDR+ Entertainment - not much info to go on there. This might be a long shot by try reaching out to AMD support to see if they can give an answer as to if the 6600 will support HDR 10+.

 

HDR seems to be problematic in any state for a lot of PC users. I've been pretty lucky using my PC and Alienware OLED monitor and LG C1 with HDR on Win11 with 4070ti. I have found that different software players can make a difference so maybe give that shot too - try the Jellyfin player to see if that might work if it's not a hardware problem.

 

You won't want to hear this but I think you are looking at a AVR upgrade and a media player like a Zidoo to get where you really want which is HDR 10+ video and native DTS/Dolby audio. Use your HTPC as a media server instead of a media player. I have AppleTV with Plex from a Microsoft 2022 Server but AppleTV doesn't support DTS which is a real problem for me as I like video concerts and most are DTS. AppleTV will convert it to multichannel PCM which in theory should sound the same but it definitely does not as when I play in native DTS it sounds much livelier and sharp. AppleTV does Dolby Atmos audio very well though and the video quality is outstanding (DolbyVision).

 

Having said that....you seemed really happy with the picture until you found out it wasn't HDR 10+ and then you had some cognitive dissonance occur. This happens to me quite often too.

 

Here is what ChatGPT said when I asked if Win 10 supports HDR10+ and if Win11 supports HDR 10+. Interestingly it explicitly says that HDR10+ is supported for Win11 but not explicit for Win10. Many users have reported more issues with HDR with Win10 that got fixed with Win11 so that might be something to explore too. I know that ChatGPT can be unreliable but the result below is very interesting for your problem.

 

Windows 10 indeed supports HDR10. To make the most of this feature, ensure you have the following components:

1. An HDR Display: Your TV or monitor must support the HDR10 standard. Look for an HDR10 logo on the packaging or specification page to confirm compatibility.
2. Cables and GPU: Use at least a DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 cable, along with a GPU that supports the same.
3. PlayReady 3.0 Ready GPU: Your graphics card should be PlayReady 3.0 ready for optimal HDR performance.

Here are three ways to enable HDR on Windows 10:

1. Keyboard Shortcut: Press Windows+Alt+B to toggle HDR on or off quickly. Your screen may briefly go black, and you’ll see an on-screen indicator.
2. Display Settings: Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Display Settings, choose the correct monitor, and find the “Use HDR” option. You can enable or disable aspects of HDR here, including Auto HDR (which translates non-HDR games into HDR).
3. Within Applications: Some video games that support HDR allow you to toggle it on/off using a menu entry¹.

Remember, HDR enhances your visual experience, so enjoy those vibrant colors!

 

 

Windows 11 indeed supports HDR10 and HDR10+. To make the most of this feature, ensure you have the following components:

1. An HDR Display: Your TV or monitor must support the HDR10 standard. Look for an HDR10 logo on the packaging or specification page to confirm compatibility.
2. Cables and GPU: Use at least a DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 cable, along with a GPU that supports the same.
3. PlayReady 3.0 Ready GPU: Your graphics card should be PlayReady 3.0 ready for optimal HDR performance.

Here are three ways to enable HDR on Windows 11:

1. Keyboard Shortcut: Press Windows+Alt+B to toggle HDR on or off quickly. Your screen may briefly go black, and you’ll see an on-screen indicator.
2. Display Settings: Right-click anywhere on the desktop, select Display Settings, choose the correct monitor, and find the “Use HDR” option. You can enable or disable aspects of HDR here, including Auto HDR (which translates non-HDR games into HDR).
3. Within Applications: Some video games that support HDR allow you to toggle it on/off using a menu entry¹.

Remember, HDR enhances your visual experience, so enjoy those vibrant colors!

 

Thank you for this information, it's verry helpfull.

 

I contacted AMD about the HDR10+ support on Rx6600, and this is what I got back:

Quote

Your service request has been reviewed and updated.

Response and Service Request History:

Thank you for the email.

Please note that HDR10+ is not supported on RX 6600 GPU.

Thank you for contacting AMD.

In order to update this service request, please respond without deleting or modifying the service request reference number in the email subject or in the email correspondence below.
Please Note: This service request will automatically close if we do not receive a response within 10 days and cannot be reopened.
If it is not feasible to respond within 10 days, feel free to open a new service request and reference this ticket for continued support.

Best regards,
AMD Global Customer Care

So, at this point, I can safelly assume that no matter what I do software-wise, is not going to help me, as the GPU doesn't support HDR10+ in the end, I thought that it does since it has HDMI 2.1 ports on it, but there is not really any mention of HDR of any kind on AMD's website, so I wasted my money on it in ignorance.

 

Windows 11 might support HDR10+, but the PC I am afraid is not going to run windows 11 any time soon, the only thing "new" on it is that GPU and power supply, everything else is DDR3 era, and ofc 2 HDD where movies are stored, these are also newer.

I can try to force install by bypassing TPM and Secure Boot checks, and CPU check, but than I get "unsupported installation" - I don't know what kind of problems will arise with that.

even then, the GPU will not let me use HDR10+, so the only other thing is turn the PC into NAS or Media server or whatever, I hope I can retain my current windows installation though.

than I can try to install plex player or some other player onto the TV itself, and hope I can access the PC over LAN, the 100Mbit of speed should be enough I guess.

 

I have an extra HDMI 2.1 cable, maybe I will try connecting the TV and AVR with that, and by some miracle get eARC, not sure that will work though., This particular AVR was manufactured before HDMI 2.1 even existed, so there is no way I can make that work.

 

If only there is a splitter, or something, something that will make Video go to TV, and audio go to AVR, than any streaming device, that can access my local media, will do, connect the player device to splitter, splitter than sends audio data to AVR, and Video data to TV, but ofcourse, without loosing anything along the way.

 

Speaking of Players and Streaming devices, unfortunetlly, I can't get my hands on any Zidoo, they are just not available anywhere in my geographical area.

I tried looking for nVidia shield, I can acquire one, but, I can't find any information about specifically HDR10+, they only advertise HDR10, so there is no support either, also they came with HDMI 2.0 so I guess no HDR10+ support:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/shield-tv/

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/shield-tv-pro/

They do advertise DV though, which is like HDR10+ dynamic metadata format, it is not officially supported on HDMI 2.0, wierd, however DV is not supported by my TV, so it doesn't mean anything for me.

 

You were right, as it turns out, in the end, the AVR upgrade will be necesary, to get all I expect, one way or the other, because, I can connect the streaming device to AVR first and get the sound, problem is, than I will loose all the HDR10+ due to it going through HDMI 2.0.

 

Unless someone making GPUs or updates for madVR/MPC-HC, decides: "Hey, HDR is more advanced now, we should probably support the new standard of it."

 

 

[kiki4431]

Just received another email from AMD:

Quote

Your service request has been reviewed and updated.

 

Response and Service Request History:

 

Thank you for the response.

 

Please note that HDR10+ only supported on Nvidia graphics card and for more details please visit the following link:

 

https://hdr10plus.org/

 

 

Thank you for contacting AMD.

 

 

In order to update this service request, please respond without deleting or modifying the service request reference number in the email subject or in the email correspondence below.

Please Note: This service request will automatically close if we do not receive a response within 10 days and cannot be reopened.

If it is not feasible to respond within 10 days, feel free to open a new service request and reference this ticket for continued support.

 

Best regards

AMD Global Customer Care

So they give me the same link, and actually tell me to go for nVidia.

 

Their card is twice as expensive though, and I still can't be sure it will work afterwards.

[kiki4431]

I have checked my options, I can get a 3050 card, or I can get a streaming device (Apple Tv) and HDMI 2.1 splitter (it says that HDR10+ is supported), both options will be around 250€.

 

If I go with the card, the software will probably hold me back, if I go with streaming device/ splitter, I am adding another component, which might make everything unstable, given the experience I had so far.

 

First I think, I will install Plex server on the PC, and Plex player on TV, hopefully I can tell Plex server to send audio to AVR via HDMI. Will see how that goes.

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, kiki4431 said:

 actually tell me to go for nVidia.

 

No, they tell you that nvidia supports the feature, they don't tell you to "go nvidia"

[kiki4431]

32 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

No, they tell you that nvidia supports the feature, they don't tell you to "go nvidia"

Well, they say that nVidia supports the feature, which translates to what I say, if you want support for HDR10+, go nVidia, since apparently no AMD cards at this moment support it. This might change in the future I hope.

 

Should have probably say it differently, I am looking at this message and that is what I see, because I want HDR10+, my only option for GPU is nVidia than.

[kiki4431]

So, I have installed Plex server on my PC, and  Plex player on TV through Tizen app store, so far, I did manage to get somewhat better image on HDR10+ test video, but there is no confirmation whatsoever, that I am actually watching HDR10+, the info panel for Plex player doesn't show any HDR related information, my TV goes into HDR mode, but I am not sure whether or not I am getting HDR10+, also mediainfo on pc, clearlly states that HDR10+ is available, yet the player on TV says just HDR10.

 

Transcoding is disabled by the way, I've learned that transcoding on server side destroys HDR10+ metadata, but this prevents me to play certain HDR test files (namelly the ones in VP9 codec), for some reason plex wants to convert them to H264., If I enable transcoding on such files, I get this error: Cannot start direct play, reason: plex video exceeded max bit depth of 8. - or something simillar, anyway, I have to disable direct play and direct streaming on TV app, to make it work, but than it looses all HDR and becomes washed out.

 

why is bit depth of 8 a limit?, all HDR should be 10 bit, so if Plex cannot display those, I am loosing a lot of color acuracy with that.

 

Maybe I should look for some Plex alternatives that have HDR10+ support, but I am not exactlly sure what they are, any recomendations would be welcome.

 

The ARC surprisingly works well, all surround sound is properlly played through all 5.1 speakers, the bitstreaming test I ran, seemed fine., there is no latency, or missing/misplaced sounds.

Granted my AVR tends to switch to Dolby Digital, no matter what format is being played (DTS/DD/Atmos etc.) - I am not sure if the Plex is doing it or the AVR.

 

so in the end, I don't actually need a HDMI splitter, the ARC is working fine... I think?...

And since Plex player is available on my TV dirrectlly, I don't think I need a separate streaming device, tu run it.

 

I would like to see whether or not there are other simmilar server-client multimedia streaming software that can run on windows and my Samsung TV.

[TheGreatestGazoo]

4 minutes ago, kiki4431 said:

 

I would like to see whether or not there are other simmilar server-client multimedia streaming software that can run on windows and my Samsung TV.

Sorry about the news on the AMD graphics card and its inability to deliver HDR10+, but at least now you know why it wasn't working the way you expected it to work and can move forward with another possible solution. And your followup posted on here may help others in the future so you can feel good about that at least.

 

You might want to reach out on one of the Plex forums like on Reddit to find out more info on how Plex handles files with HDR 10+. I did read on a forum that disabling subtitles fixed HDR10+ for one user so if you are using subs you can try disabling that and see if HDR10+ lights up.

 

The other popular(ish) streaming software in this category is Jellyfin. I haven't played with it but from what I understand it may support HDR10+. Try giving that program a shot if you can get it from your Samsung TV app store.

[kiki4431]

17 hours ago, TheGreatestGazoo said:

Sorry about the news on the AMD graphics card and its inability to deliver HDR10+, but at least now you know why it wasn't working the way you expected it to work and can move forward with another possible solution. And your followup posted on here may help others in the future so you can feel good about that at least.

 

You might want to reach out on one of the Plex forums like on Reddit to find out more info on how Plex handles files with HDR 10+. I did read on a forum that disabling subtitles fixed HDR10+ for one user so if you are using subs you can try disabling that and see if HDR10+ lights up.

 

The other popular(ish) streaming software in this category is Jellyfin. I haven't played with it but from what I understand it may support HDR10+. Try giving that program a shot if you can get it from your Samsung TV app store.

The particular test file had no subtitles, but if they are the problem, well I kinda need them too, they translate movies.

 

Interesting, I tried watching the test files from USB drive, directly on TV, and I can't see any difference compared to Plex, when it comes to image quality, the TV did put a little HDR10+ logo on info bar, so I guess HDR10+ works on Plex, it just doesn't differentiate it from regular HDR10.

 

I am still concerned about Plex's need to transcode VP9 to H264, and apparently not being able to show me 10 bit color depth (according to specific error I get)

 

I will try to dig deeper and ask on reddit about this.

 

In the meantime I found two other apps that I could use instead of Plex:

Emby and Streamio, what are your experience with these, are they better or worse than Plex?

Jellyfin is unfortunately not available for Samsung Tv.

[TheGreatestGazoo]

5 hours ago, kiki4431 said:

Emby and Streamio, what are your experience with these, are they better or worse than Plex?

Jellyfin is unfortunately not available for Samsung Tv.

I've heard Emby is ok, but I am totally unfamiliar with Streamio. Since Plex fits my needs pretty well, I haven't played around much more with other streaming solutions. That might change in the future if I do eventually get a Zidoo player - I'd like to get one to be able to play DTS files natively since AppleTV doesn't do that. So if I want to enjoy DTS in my current setup, I have to play from my PC (4070ti) or my old Oppo DVD player which is limited to 1080P and no HDR.

[kiki4431]

Well I think I found my answers:

 

Someone on reddit sayed that Plex will always transcode to 8-bit, therefore HDR cannot work on transcoded video, it will be washed out, just what I experienced.

 

Hence why Plex has to do tonemapping, to restore HDR, but that is ofcourse premium feature, and I don't think it is nearlly good as original HDR.

 

EARC is only needed for advanced DTS X or Dolby Atmos/HD Master, all other formats should bitstream normally through ARC.

 

For my situation, I rarelly encounter Atmos or TrueHD (most of the time on movies these are reserved for 7.1 audio outputs, and since my setup is 5.1, I always switch to that, and its always AC3 or DD.

 

I encounter DTS formats even more rarelly.

[Blue4130]

5 hours ago, kiki4431 said:

Well I think I found my answers:

 

Someone on reddit sayed that Plex will always transcode to 8-bit, therefore HDR cannot work on transcoded video, it will be washed out, just what I experienced.

 

Hence why Plex has to do tonemapping, to restore HDR, but that is ofcourse premium feature, and I don't think it is nearlly good as original HDR.

 

EARC is only needed for advanced DTS X or Dolby Atmos/HD Master, all other formats should bitstream normally through ARC.

 

For my situation, I rarelly encounter Atmos or TrueHD (most of the time on movies these are reserved for 7.1 audio outputs, and since my setup is 5.1, I always switch to that, and its always AC3 or DD.

 

I encounter DTS formats even more rarelly.

If you are on the same network, plex does not need to transcode, it's fine directly playing the video file.

[kiki4431]

56 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

If you are on the same network, plex does not need to transcode, it's fine directly playing the video file.

I am, but still it wants to transcode that particular file, if I disable transcoding, the player says the CPU isn't powerfull enough, which I read on reddit, that error happens when Plex needs to transcode a video, but transcoding is disabled.

 

The way I undertood this is, Transcoding is necessary if the video file is not compatible with device's hardware/software capabilities or the player doesn't recognise something in the file. In this case Transcoding is necessary regardless of network.

[Blue4130]

29 minutes ago, kiki4431 said:

I am, but still it wants to transcode that particular file, if I disable transcoding, the player says the CPU isn't powerfull enough, which I read on reddit, that error happens when Plex needs to transcode a video, but transcoding is disabled.

 

The way I undertood this is, Transcoding is necessary if the video file is not compatible with device's hardware/software capabilities or the player doesn't recognise something in the file. In this case Transcoding is necessary regardless of network.

So this is just ONE file that you are having problems with? Have you tried to use handbrake to re-encode it in a plex friendly format?

[kiki4431]

16 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

So this is just ONE file that you are having problems with? Have you tried to use handbrake to re-encode it in a plex friendly format?

not sure, it's one file among test files I used so far. Whether or not I am lucky enough that it is the ONLY file, and all other movies work well, I don't know yet.

 

actually there are two files in my test samples collection, both of them are downloaded, and are supposed to test HDR passthrough while I use MPC-HC with madVR. 

 

maybe they are the only ones, and I won't have future problems with actual movies, I hope.

 

Do I loose some quality if I re-encode it?

[kiki4431]

Ok, some news:

 

The Plex alternatives, don't work for me, Emby can't access my local files (it will find, and put them to a library, but it won't play them), it says that it doesn't have permission to access them, I checked the settings on server side, and player side, but everything seems to be fine, after an hour of troubleshooting, I gave up, removed Emby and tried streamio, this one, is even worse, it won't even find my files, no matter what I try, it won't even allow for drag and drop, as recomended by their support staff.

 

I returned to Plex, as of right now, this is the only choice I have, everything is great with Plex, but there is one thing I would like to have, but can't seem to know how to do it, or if it even exist.

 

This is, subtittle offset, back when I used MPC-HC, I could offset subtittles with just pressing F1/F2 for -500ms/+500ms offset respectivelly, in case they are not in sync (and they aren't most of the time), now however it's a much more involved proccess (take a remote press down twice, pause the movie, press right twice to get to settings menu, press enter, press down twice - to get to subtitles settings, press enter, press right - to get to subtitles submenu, press down twice - to get to offset setting, press enter, and than press right/left/enter untill you get where you need to be), it really takes you out of the movie, if you have to do it several times to adjust subtittles, I wish there is a shortcut to do it, just press one button, and than maybe another, and done.

Audio is even worse, The Plex player won't allow any audio offset, so instead I have to do it in TV's own sound settings menu (I hope the particular movie I watched just had a bad audio sync, since all my tests run fine, there was no lattency).

[ncohafmuta]

On 2/5/2024 at 9:07 AM, kiki4431 said:

Hi,

 

I just found some information, which, I wish I never knew about.

 

Apparently, you can't send HDR10+ (dynamic) metadata to TV, only regular HDR, when using HTPC.

 

 

 

I am the r/htpc mod and write that wiki; it is up to date and accurate. It's an OS problem, not a GPU one