4k HDR washed out color

General Discussions
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I have “Earth One Amazing Day” in 4k. When I watch it on my 4k samsung tv via the Plex app for Roku (I’m using the Roku Ultra), it looks great … until I turn on subtitles. When I enable subtitles, the colors look dimmer and, frankly, worse. Turn off subtitles, and voilà, the colors look bright and good again. I’ve scanned some of the other threads on this issue, and understand that it’s because it is transcoding, and tone-mapping etc etc.

So I’m not actually asking for troubleshooting help, I’m more interested in general understanding of how Plex currently handles this case (4k HDR with subtitles, viewing on my Roku).

  • In other threads, I read that Plex transcoder is not doing tone mapping yet. But those threads are older. Is there any support for tone mapping yet, or soon, and if so, would/could/should it help in this case?
  • In theory, is there a way that Plex server could send subtitles without transcoding? I mean, subtitles in general were designed to not have to be burned into the video, so why does Plex need to burn them in?
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As soon as you activate subs, Plex starts transcoding. It needs to burn-in the subs into the picture.
But the Plex transcoder hasn’t learned yet to preserve the high-dynamic color range (HDR) of your 4k material.

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