With the new Plex Media Server Release Today (1.10.0.4516) hardware decoding of 10bit HEVC HDR content seems to work for me. The issue is however, that on all devices that I tried the resulting video looks very washed out. I tried this on
Plex Web App (Safari)
Android Client on a Nexus 10
iOS Client on iPad Air 2
iOS Client on iPhone X
tvOS Client on Apple TV 4
Chromecast Steam
While I understand, that correct tone mapping depends on the client capabilities of the device and I think it may be basically impossible to get a perfect result on all devices, I still think that the current implementation should be tweaked. I tried this on a wide variety of devices, and all of them looked washed out. I think it would probably be a good idea to boost color saturation a little ofter the current tone mapping approach.
The ideal solution might be to just keep a version without HDR along the version with HDR. This way there is a version with the correct color space for all the different clients. I would however be interested in what the best approach would be to do that.
Right now I have two different libraries, one for all Movies with HDR and one for movies without HDR. This means, that I have to know whether the device I am currently using is capable of playing HDR or not and then select the correct version. Is it possible to set this up in a way that Plex itself decides what version to play? (Direct Play possible --> Direct Play with HDR, Tone Mapping necessary --> Use 8Bit Version without HDR). If not, I think this would be a great addition for all users that have mixed devices (some HDR capable, others not).
I went into Plex settings in chrome and hit āsplitā where I had 2 copies of a movie. I then renamed the HDR version āTitle HDRā and also found a 4k/HDR cover online and put that in as an added reminder. That way my wife and I both have one Movies section, plus the warning that the content wonāt play correctly and we should open the file directly. So much easier now that Iāve done it, and Iām all set for when proper HDR support arrives.
Still, as a user I alway have to think about which version of the movie I have to start, depending on the device that I am using. My Girlfriend does not know which of our devices support HDR and which donāt.
Another trick you can useā¦ Create a new library and name it UHD Movies, then toss your high def stuff in it. I have a library/folder called Other Movies I put select content intoā¦
And also another way, which is what Iāve started to to do, is that on all the clients I use, Android mobile, Android TV, and web, gives you an option to select which version to play before you start the video. So I have a 4K and 1080p version in the same folder in same library, manually add ā(4K)ā to the end, and depending on what device Iām using Iāll know what version to select to play. Plex auto-plays the highest resolution file it seems, so on say mobile it will play the 4K HDR version, but at least this way you wont have two separate libraries. Just before you play the file you select which version best suited for the app youāre on. Still not the most streamlined way Plex could handle this, but it is the best way Iāve found so far for me and my setup.
