Simply because the devs say it doesn’t.
MPV player which is what PMP uses does not currently support HDR.
The Apple TV native Plex app does, but the beta Apple TV app, which now also uses MPV player doesn’t.
Even Kodi and Emby and the likes, that allow using alternative media players require specific players for HDR. So with Emby and Kodi and some workarounds you can get HDR.
Basically HDR in Windows is a shambles.
As you probably notice the HDR toggle in Windows makes everything look brighter and triggers your TV’s HDR signal. Even your Windows desktop.
Playback your movie and it too looks brighter but it’s no more HDR than your Windows desktop.
If you really want to compare then you can Google either “Kodi, Windows, HDR”
Or “Emby, Windows, HDR”
There are instructions on what you need for true Windows HDR.
Can you post some reference to this? Where are they officially saying this? Even if PMP relies on MPV this by itself is not a reason why PMP would / would not support HDR. Don’t get me wrong … I’m just trying to get a real picture on this HDR mess…
Edited my previous post.
If you’re happy and you think you’re getting HDR then cool.
I’m not being dismissive because I did exactly the same thing.
Compare PMP to a Shield or ATV 4K and you really will see you are getting a brighter picture, nothing more.
But that has nothing to do passing HDR metadata.
As for evidence regarding “PMP and HDR” or lack of, just search the forums for that term.
There are plenty of posts confirming it.
OK, thanks for help. One more question: can you suggest me a clip (sample) or a particular part (timespan) of a particular movie where I would play it on “SDR player” and compare it to “HDR player” so that I could without doubt say - ok, this is HDR because, for example, “these clouds are more blue with visible gray shadows” whereas this would not be seen when playing in SDR?
Also, if I understand correctly, NVIDIA Shield is running Android TV. Therefore “Plex for Android” would be running, but does it support HDR? Or is any other player for NVIDIA Shield which officially supports proper HDR?
Not really.
On my LG everything looks spectacular even in SDR.
The only comparisons i have done are the same movie in W10 HDR mode and the same movie on my Shield or ATV 4K.
I don’t really mess with the Shield nor do I know much about the various players that can be used. I don’t even particularly like the device.
Sorry I’m just home from a 12 hour shift and it’s been a long day.
However if you can find anything anywhere saying PMP on Windows does HDR I’m all ears. The same in reverse for the Shield. It needs no tweaking to do HDR. You can set it to play in SDR mode by default (as you should do).
The minute you play a HDR movie it will trigger the HDR symbol on the tv as does the ATV 4K.
I’ve been using the NVidia Shield TV now for about a month and I have to say I’m very impressed. The only thing really bugs me is that the Plex client can’t PGS subtitle overlays without reencoding the entire movie on the fly, and my server really can’t do that. Wasn’t a big problem, I’ve reripped some movies with forced subtitles burnt in.
The PLEX client would have to know how to decode & display a 10-bit encoded HDR video, and there is no mention of that capability for PMP on Windows 10.
