HDR video too vibrant and saturated (only on iOS)

Plex Players Mobile Devices
1

I am trying to play these files, but both of them have very vibrant and saturated colors. This is only happening on my iOS devices.

Screenshots from my iOS devices:

IMG_0112.PNG
IMG_0112.PNG1334Ă—750 115 KB

IMG_0113.PNG
IMG_0113.PNG1334Ă—750 155 KB

Screenshots from other devices:

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG965Ă—518 154 KB

Capture2.PNG
Capture2.PNG965Ă—518 106 KB

Logs from Plex App:
PlexDebugInfo-personal.sh-8.25-6861 (2023-09-20 23.15.54 +0530).zip (2.7 MB)

Devices: iPhone SE3, iPhone 14 Pro, iPad Air 3 (All updated to iOS 17)
Plex Media Server Version: 1.32.5.7516 (Linux Server Docker Image)
Plex App version: 8.25

Despicable Me 2010 (Video File Info):

General
Format                      : Matroska
Format version              : Version 4
File size                   : 27.3 GiB
Duration                    : 1 h 34 min
Overall bit rate mode       : Variable
Overall bit rate            : 41.3 Mb/s
Frame rate                  : 23.976 FPS
Movie name                  : Despicable Me (2010) DV
Encoded date                : 2021-05-13 12:14:16 UTC
Writing application         : mkvmerge v55.0.0 ('Waiting For Space') 64-bit
Writing library             : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4
IMDB                        : tt1323594
TMDB                        : movie/20352

Video
ID                          : 1
ID in the original source m : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                      : HEVC
Format/Info                 : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile              : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                  : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                    : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                    : 1 h 34 min
Bit rate                    : 33.7 Mb/s
Width                       : 3 840 pixels
Height                      : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate mode             : Constant
Frame rate                  : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                   : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.169
Stream size                 : 22.3 GiB (82%)
Default                     : Yes
Forced                      : No
Color range                 : Limited
Color primaries             : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics    : PQ
Matrix coefficients         : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color pri : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light : 644 cd/m2
Original source medium      : Blu-ray

Audio #1
ID                          : 2
Format                      : DTS XLL X
Format/Info                 : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name             : DTS-HD MA + DTS:X
Codec ID                    : A_DTS
Duration                    : 1 h 34 min
Bit rate mode               : Variable
Bit rate                    : 6 678 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 8 channels
Channel layout              : C L R LFE Lb Rb Lss Rss Objects
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                  : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                   : 24 bits
Compression mode            : Lossless
Stream size                 : 4.42 GiB (16%)
Title                       : DTS:X 7.1
Language                    : English
Default                     : Yes
Forced                      : No

Despicable Me 2 (Video File Info):

General
Format                      : Matroska
Format version              : Version 4
File size                   : 28.4 GiB
Duration                    : 1 h 37 min
Overall bit rate mode       : Variable
Overall bit rate            : 41.5 Mb/s
Frame rate                  : 23.976 FPS
Movie name                  : Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Encoded date                : 2021-08-09 10:49:53 UTC
Writing application         : mkvmerge v60.0.0 ('Are We Copies?') 64-bit
Writing library             : libebml v1.4.2 + libmatroska v1.6.4
IMDB                        : tt1690953
TMDB                        : movie/93456

Video
ID                          : 1
Format                      : HEVC
Format/Info                 : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile              : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                  : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                    : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                    : 1 h 37 min
Bit rate                    : 34.2 Mb/s
Width                       : 3 840 pixels
Height                      : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio        : 16:9
Frame rate mode             : Constant
Frame rate                  : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                 : YUV
Chroma subsampling          : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                   : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)          : 0.172
Stream size                 : 23.4 GiB (82%)
Default                     : Yes
Forced                      : No
Color range                 : Limited
Color primaries             : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics    : PQ
Matrix coefficients         : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color pri : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 994 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light : 553 cd/m2

Audio #1
ID                          : 2
Format                      : DTS XLL X
Format/Info                 : Digital Theater Systems
Commercial name             : DTS-HD MA + DTS:X
Codec ID                    : A_DTS
Duration                    : 1 h 37 min
Bit rate mode               : Variable
Bit rate                    : 6 239 kb/s
Channel(s)                  : 8 channels
Channel layout              : C L R LFE Lb Rb Lss Rss Objects
Sampling rate               : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                  : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF)
Bit depth                   : 24 bits
Compression mode            : Lossless
Stream size                 : 4.27 GiB (15%)
Title                       : DTS-X 7.1
Language                    : English
Default                     : Yes
Forced                      : No
2

I don’t know much about Apple devices, which of the ones you listed have hardware support for HDR? Not sure if this is all on the client, or has to do with server tone mapping.

3

All these devices listed in my post support HDR playback. Sadly, I don’t own a plex pass to toggle HDR tone mapping. Additionally, I tested on Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K 1st Gen, Nokia 8.1, Google Pixel 4a, Motorola Edge Fusion 20 and Plex App on Windows 10. None of these devices had any problems. Only Apple devices are facing this issue.

4

If the device supports the same HDR data that is in the file, then the server shouldn’t be doing tone mapping, so that is one less thing to worry about.

Still, can you look at the Plex dashboard during playback to see if the Apple clients are doing Direct Play? There is a button to expand the playback info box to show more details.

If your dashboard shows Direct Play or Direct Stream then this seems to be an easily reproducible client problem.

5

Yes, the clients are using Direct Play.
Capture

1 Like
6

Subscribed to Plex Pass and I tried toggling “HDR Tone Mapping”. Sadly, it didn’t do anything.

7

Did some digging around. Looks like my files are DV Profile 7 and iOS doesn’t support DV above Profile 5. So its switching to HDR.

8

Plex Media Server tone maps only when transcoding. If the video is direct playing or direct streaming, the setting will have no effect.

What happens on the client is separate from what happens on the server. For example, Plex Desktop on Windows will tone map HDR to SDR by itself. Plex Dashboard still reports Direct Play, as that is what is happening on the server.

I’ve no Apple clients, so cannot speak to how they handle HDR media. Just an FYI regarding tone mapping.

2 Likes
9

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