I need my plex app on my macbook pro to output true hdr, right now it doesn’t do that, it looks dark and not right.
Why does hdr work on safari plex, and google chrome plex?
I need hdr to work on the actual plex app on my macbook pro as I need it to also give surround sound. Browsers don’t do that.
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I have been trying to fix this issue since I got a new HDR TV hooked up to my Mac Mini M4 (Sequoia) on Black Friday.
I can play HDR using the Plex app on my LG TV (awkward!), Using the Plex media server through Chrome it looks great (but no multi channel audio), However it looks terrible in Plex app and Plex HTPC! I also need the Multi Channel output to my receiver to work, so browser viewing is not an option.
I just want to use Plex HTPC like I have for close to a decade, but just to be able to view HDR content and not have it look terrible on my new TV.
Basically Plex app and Plex HTPC run on mpv, an open source media player easily capable of playing beautiful HDR video on Mac. HDR10 content looks great in Plex Media Server playing in Chrome, Movist, Infuse, IINA (runs on MPV 0.35), and MPV (0.39.0) with the below settings added to mpv.conf.
cocoa-cb-output-csp=bt.2100-pq
hwdec=auto
target-peak=1600
target-prim=bt.2020
target-trc=pq
vo=libmpv
Thankfully Plex developers made it easy to edit the mpv.conf inside of ~/Library/Application Support/Plex (or Plex HTPC)/, I thought adding the same configuration there would do the trick but no dice. Through trial and error I found that vo=libmpv just breaks playback with an error message, I think Plex is forced to use vo=gpu. The magic line cocoa-cb-output-csp=bt.2100-pq only works with the latest mpv (vo=libmpv), and target-colorspace-hint=yes does nothing at all.
Is there a magic mpv command I am missing that will enable HDR in Plex and Plex HTPC on Mac? It should be trivial as mpv 0.39 can do it, as well as IINA which is running mpv 0.35. Why leave this as Windows only feature? It works through Chrome on Mac, other mpv based players, just NOT Plex or Plex HTPC??!!
PS - I also tried replacing the libmpv.2.dylib based this guide by installing mpv via homebrew and replacing the libmpv.2.dylib inside of the Plex app, but that just broke Plex (the new one is also 3.6 Mb vs 13 Mb on the original?)
Screenshot below for comparison, PMS through Chrome and Safari look just like IINA, Plex App is identical to Plex HTPC.
In order to get the video rendering out of Qt’s render pipeline, we changed from an OpenGL context to an NSView for MPV rendering. This is why vo=gpu is used because it was necessary when setting wid to an NSView*.
This rendering mechanism was removed in a subsequent version of MPV and so we had to go another route for future MPV upgrades. We currently have a 0.38 version of MPV in internal testing where we are using vo=libmpv rendering into a subclass of NSOpenGLView. I would’ve preferred to use vulkan via MoltenVK but it still has a few issues.
Thanks for the quick reply gbooker. Great to hear that an update is in the works!
In the meantime is it viable way to compile and swap in a working 0.38 libmpv.2.dylib (as described here) to get a newer version of mpv working with the current Plex HTPC?
… or is the beta version of HTPC using mpv 0.38 available with Plex Pass (if so I will upgrade at the drop of a hat!)
Thanks!
No, for two reasons:
- HTPC set
vo=gpuon MacOS and gives it anNSView*inwidfor it to render in that view. This mechanism was removed in 0.37 (See the release notes). Changing this requires changing code outside of MPV. - The
loadfilecommand changed in 0.38 in an way that’s not backwards compatible (See the release notes). Changing this requires changing code outside of MPV.
Ok so there’s no way to get HDR working in Mac using the current build of Plex / Plex HTPC, do we have a timeline of when the currently in-testing version will be available for beta / release? Looking forward!
nudge!?
FYI, newer versions of the apps are out which use MPV 0.38 and thus also use vo=libmpv for rendering the video.
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This is great! I missed this reply, just getting to try it out now, vo=libmpv in mpv.conf no longer breaks playback on the latest HTPC build.
I added the same settings to ~/Library/Application Support/Plex HTPC/mpv.conf in that gave me great results with MPV (both 0.38 and 0.39), but I am still not getting HDR out of Plex HTPC? The entire highlight range is completely flattened to solid white and the same green tint as before, what am I missing to get the same output as MPV?
Thanks in advance!
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Is there any update with this? It sucks not being able to playback HDR through the mac HTPC app.
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so with this vo=libmpv use, what next for HDR thing to work?
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Is there any update with this?
MacOS Plex app doesn’t play HDR videos properly on my external monitor. It works fine in browsers like Chrome.
Almost a year later the answer is still no, even with the July 30th release, colors are off with the same MPV settings that look great running MPV outside of HTPC.
