LG OLED owners, Help! HDR not working w/ AVR

[ej24]

I just got an LG 55B7A OLED tv, its great. I also had to get a new receiver as my old one didn't support HDCP2.2, 4K60, HDR, etc. So, I got a Pioneer Elite VSX-LX102 7.2 channel receiver that supports all the HDR standards, 4K60hz, HDCP2.2 on all inputs and so on.

 

I have a Windows 10 PC (with a GTX1080, so HDR capable), Chromecast Ultra (4k60, HDR capable), and a regular Bluray player (not 4k, no HDR) connected to the receiver with brand new HDMI 2.0 cables and then a single HDMI 2.0 to the TV from the HDMI out of the receiver.

 

I immediately learned how much I hate smart tv's as WebOS was clearly not designed with an AV receiver handling all the inputs in mind. I'm not able to get any content to play with HDR. It just plays at SDR.

 

The damn TV has so many convoluted, overlapping, redundant settings, some of which seemingly supersede others when you don't expect it. However, the one setting in the TV that seems to be critical to HDR support is HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color. When I turn this on, the receiver stops sending any video to the tv. I've tried rebooting the chromecast, my PC, nothing works with HDR enabled on the TV. Disable it and the video comes right back.

 

Just for giggles I connected my PC straight to the TV and HDR was recognized by Windows and the TV even flashed a notification saying HDR was active. Back to the receiver, and Windows won't even let me toggle HDR anymore.

 

I'm not sure if my issue is with the TV or the receiver. The receiver should just be a passive HDMI switch basically (I have upscaling turned off on the receiver). The TV has so many damn settings that can alter the way inputs work though. I have the HDMI input from the receiver set to "PC" on the TV input settings menu. This disables almost all the excessive post-processing the TV usually does. HDMI-CEC is enabled on both the TV and receiver. Should I change the input type in the TV input menu to surround sound? Should I just return the Pioneer AVR? I feel like I'll just run into the same problem with any other brand of AVR.

 

I don't want to have to plug everything in to the HDMI ports on the TV and then rely on ARC for audio as I've never had a good experience with that. I tried it with my PC and while it worked with the Pioneer AVR for a few minutes, the TV kept turning its own internal speakers back on even though I had them off with Audio set to HDMI ARC on the TV. This tv is beautiful, but the "smarts" of WebOS aren't implemented very well. I mean, does LG really not anticipate someone with a nearly $2K TV will use an AVR for handling their AV inputs???

 

Any input from other LG OLED owners on how to get HDR/HDMI Deep Color working is greatly appreciated.

[Gruenbaum]

I have the same problem! Let me know if you find a solution! (I hate these "smart" tv's OS nothing ever works!)

[dizmo]

Is the content you're watching HDR?

[ej24]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Is the content you're watching HDR?

Yes, at least it should be, but I can't see it. Unfortunately the TV says it's receiving no signal over hdmi (from the receiver) the moment I turn on hdr/wide color gamut (4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0) in the TV settings. Nothing displays to know if it's working. Can't see my chromecast anymore. As for the pc, the only way my pc even allows me to toggle hdr is if its directly connected to the TV and not through the AVR.  

 

It seems like the AVR isn't reporting/passing through hdr capability? 

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, ej24 said:

Yes, at least it should be, but I can't see it. Unfortunately the TV says it's receiving no signal over hdmi (from the receiver) the moment I turn on hdr/wide color gamut (4:4:4, 4:2:2, 4:2:0) in the TV settings. Nothing displays to know if it's working. Can't see my chromecast anymore. As for the pc, the only way my pc even allows me to toggle hdr is if its directly connected to the TV and not through the AVR.  

 

It seems like the AVR isn't reporting/passing through hdr capability? 

Hmm. Weird. I'd call Pioneer tomorrow.

This is why I don't like overly complex set ups

[ej24]

Just now, dizmo said:

Hmm. Weird. I'd call Pioneer tomorrow.

This is why I don't like overly complex set ups

It's not that complicated really, three hdmi from my three devices into the receiver, one to the TV. With a plain old dumb TV the receiver handles everything. With a smart TV, the TV tries to handle everything but just ends up sh*tting it's pants. 

 

I already had an issue where the version of dolby vision on the TV was newer than that in the receiver and the AVR was displaying an error on screen. Contacted Pioneer and they directed me to a firmware update to update their implementation of dolby vision. Fixed the error I was getting, but still no real hdr pass through that I can tell. 

[ej24]

Ok so I left hdmi deep color off in the TV settings and then tried to play hdr content from Netflix. It worked. The TV puts up a notification saying it's switching to Dolby Vision. I had to manually turn it back off in settings after the show was over because nothing else would display again. The chromecast menu and other sdr content fails to display with deep color turned on. That was the mistake I was making. The TV will notify you when something is trying to display hdr content. Don't try to turn on hdmi deep color ahead of time unless the device connected is pumping out hdr all the time. 

 

I wish the TV would just switch on the fly and switch back without any intervention. Oh well at least it's working with Netflix on Chromecast.

 

Edit:

It's still worth noting that it still doesn't seem possible to turn on HDR in Windows without the PC directly connected to the TV rather than the surround sound receiver. The receiver is capable of passing on HDR data which the tv will recognize and then go in to HDR/Deep color mode, but it doesn't go the other direction. By which I mean, the tv doesn't actively advertise it's HDR/10-bit capability back through the receiver to the PC or other devices. The PC doesn't know it's outputting to an LG TV, but rather a "Pioneer Electronics Receiver/Generic PNP display". So even when future games begin supporting HDR, my PC doesn't realize its connected to an HDR capable display because all it sees is the receiver.

 

Is there a way to tell the PC it's connected to an HDR/10 bit panel without connecting directly to the TV?