Hello,
I’m wondering when will Plex start working or maybe finish work on update to play HDR as TVs are playing or blu ray players from PC?
I would honestly purchase full license if plex was able to play HDR content directly from PC with dolby atmos. My TV XF90 doesn’t support earc so using plex on my tv is just pointless. HDR has been readily available for 3 years now. What’s the bloody hold on HDR update for the plex media player?
Get that thing going guys and you will have my 120$.
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Plex typically doesn’t publicly post timelines or roadmaps.
There are quite a few different factors, including if the OS supports HDR (macOS and Linux currently don’t), and mpv (the player engine behind Plex Media Player) passing the HDR metadata through to the OS. There are options (such as the NVIDIA Shield) that allow passthrough of HD audio and support HDR, and then others (like the Apple TV 4K), which support 4K HDR media, but do not pass through the audio.
I understand that they don’t publicly post but maybe they have some info whether they are even working on it or perhaps say “when it’s done” or “soon” or "we’re almost done"etc…
Yeah I know the android devices do decode HDR so as the VLC media player itself also reads correctly HDR correctly or as close to it as possible because it is the only media player out of all that 4k HDR content looks brighter and dimmer and more colorful to the rest of the players even with those that have filters and madVR and other addons but even still I don’t know if i’m getting 100% correct HDR metadata.
I would love if Plex could make their media player read HDR 100% and be the player that we can watch HDR content from.
Seems to be possible, if you have the correct hardware - a GPU, either internal or discrete, that handles H.265 10/12 bit video. Also, you need to change the default settings in Plex Media Player to enable audio passthrough.
See these two threads:
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I just tried in TV mode on Windows 10, and no, it Plex doesn’t play HDR content in HDR.
It’s a limitation of the underlying player that PMP uses (MPV). MPV tonemaps HDR to SDR, so you won’t get passthrough until they add it, or Plex allows external players (or they choose a different playback engine).
If you want HDR (and HD audio) passthrough with Plex, get an Nvidia Shield, or run the Plex add-on for Kodi with a compatible external player/renderer (ie MPC-BE + MadVR). The latter chain is not pretty, but if you’ve got a beefy GPU, it can yield spectacular results.
Well are you maybe able to help me setup MPC-BE with madVR? I do have beefy enough GPU. RX480.
So far i’m using VLC 3.0.6 which has native HDR support and it does look awesome but if MPC-BE with madVR does a better job then i would use that but for some reason it will not start (MPC crashes in 4k with HDR enabled). I have sony XF90 55 inch TV.
PC:
i5 6600k @ 4.7 ghz (stable 24/7 passed 24 hours multiple stress tests)
RX 480 8 gig
16gb ddr4.
Yeah unfortunately it does not work. I tried that already. 
Why would I get an NVIDIA Shield for a monitor that is right next to my computer (that is already plugged into my monitor)?
The fact that the Plex desktop doesn’t support HDR is simply ridiculous. There is no reason, especially when they have an actual TV mode designed for being hooked up to TV’s (which are probably HDR).
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Absolutely, in your case a Shield doesn’t make sense since you already have a PC + monitor. I wasn’t replying directly to you though, just commenting on two of the main avenues for direct HDR passthrough/playback. I will generally @ someone or reply like I did here if I’m interacting individually, wasn’t trying to call you out in particular.
The state of HDR is a ridiculous mess on HTPCs, but Plex on Mac and PC has never used their own video engine AFAIK, so expecting them to step in with a new desktop video engine seems off base. Could true HDR playback support be better with Plex? Well considering it’s nonexistent on desktop platforms, absolutely yes. But it’s not as simple as them saying “if file is HDR, play in HDR”. If you’ve found an open source desktop video engine/renderer that offers native HDR passthrough (not tonemapping), pass it along. MadVR is the only renderer I know of that can passthrough HDR on my RTX 2070, but it’s not open source. That’s why I’d like to see external player support added back. It’d “solve” this problem by letting an end-user who doesn’t want HDR tonemapped to do the legwork with configuring an external player that does support HDR. From what I’ve seen, the MPV devs aren’t in a rush to add HDR passthrough.
Hey sorry for the delay I saw you posting over on doom9’s MadVR thread, it sounds like you’ve got it working, but colors are off a bit? It sounds like you may have the Windows HDR toggle on as well, which I don’t use. My setup is a little different than yours (Nvidia instead of an AMD GPU), so I can’t say if you’ll have the same experience I’ve had.
I paired MPC-BE with LAVFilters and MadVR is set to passthrough HDR metadata to the display. This trigger’s Nvidia’s HDR mode for playback, not the Windows mode. I’ve got GotG2 and can check to see what it looks like on my setup this weekend most likely.
If you haven’t already, Warner306 compiled a pretty thorough guide on Kodi+MadVR and its various settings. I know AMD cards handle HDR a little differently than Nvidia’s just because they are different companys with different HDR APIs.
Yeah have managed to work it but theres no orher hdr i can use beside pc and the tvs android and its quite dodgy to run 4k HDR on tv with streaming.
Whats even mire strange is vlc 3.0.6 looks more correct with HDR reproduction compared to madVR. Is vlc really precise? I see a lot of people dislike vlc and stating madvr is the go to yet all the evidence points towards VLC as the superior. No need for extra configuration. No meed for medling just point and shoot with more correct tone and reproduction.
Are you able to maybe compare vlc and madvr on your side this weekend when you get the chance and tell me if your setup has better tone or the VLC or if they are identical.
I think i really confused some peeps there now and i have shook their “madvr master of all” fundamentals with the response i received.
Hey @dzonibegood_gmail_com sorry again, was finally able to compare VLC to Kodi+Plex+MadVR (via MPC-BE and LAVFilters).
VLC appears to be doing similar to what Plex’s video engine (MPV) is doing–namely it tonemaps HDR/Rec. 2020 to Rec. 709 for playback. Viewing on my tv (Sony x900e) in normal Windows 10 color mode, it blew all the reds out. In the scene from GoTG 2 you had pulled up where Yondu greets Stakar, Stakar’s face was pink. Enabling Windows HDR mode restored the correct coloration, but it was not as good as MadVR’s NGU Chroma upscaling. I’m feeding this all through an Nvidia RTX2070 though, so HDR is invoked through Nvidia’s API, not the Windows mode. The experience with HDR passthrough will be different for your AMD card and I’m not sure the exact steps. With my setup, the main areas to confirm settings were in:
- Devices–>(device)–>calibration - I declared the TV calibrated to BT.2020 with a gamma curve of 2.2
- Devices–>(device)–>hdr - passthrough HDR to display and check box for send HDR metadata to display.
With all of this stuff though, it’s absolutely viewer subjective. There are tons of people who prefer tonemapping over passthrough, as I think a lot of TVs screw up HDR passthrough due to subpar processing. My Sony looks noticeably better when HDR is passed through vs tonemapped, so I prefer that route.
If VLC works easily and you like the results, there isn’t necessarily a reason to dig deeper. You aren’t doing anything wrong with your setup, VLC is converting the HDR color data to be better suited for playback without dealing with specific card vendor’s HDR APIs (as far as I can tell that’s how they’re doing it, but could be missing something).
So still no word on PMP HDR support? MPV supports HDR (at least it says it does), so there is no reason for PMP to not support HDR. In addition the tone mapping to SDR is really bad, so it basically makes HDR movies unwatchable.
Correct. Plex typically doesn’t post ETAs or announce features in advance.
This is still the case, and I’ve found the tone mapping works really well. What’s the tone mapping look like that you’re seeing? Perhaps post a screen shot?
The tonemapping just looks like the video has low contrast (washed out). And I don’t want tone mapping in the first place if I am playing the video on an HDR display.
Given we don’t support playing with PMP on a HDR display, that’s probably why it looks washed out. Was does it look like on an SDR display?
Is there a place we can receive more dedicated support responses? We are paying, after all
