So I just stumbled across this thread tonight and READ THE ENTIRE THING. (And This One: [FEATURE REQUEST] Dolby Vision support for MKV on Apple TV 4K)
Tonight was the first time I tried to play a 4K HDR Dolby Vision MKV on the latest generation Apple TV 4K (Grey Remote) using Direct Play/Stream (No Transcoding).
To my SHOCK, the movie triggered the DOLBY VISION icon on my TV and it looked just as good as the same exact 4K DV HDR movie I bought on Apple (iTunes). I have a very distinct eye for HDR10 Vs. true DOLBY VISION. So this looked like DV to me, and I can always tell. So I started doing research on what updates iOS and Plex/PMS did to support this.
I then fired up the Plex Dash app on my iPhone and it reported the following:
You guys see the “4K DoVi” part? Is this recently new? I played other non Dolby Vision files and this tag is NOT there. So there does appear to be a difference with Direct Streaming and how Plex interprets and tags these DV files.
Furthermore, the non “DoVi” files did appear to look like sub-par straight HDR (again I can notice the difference on my 77" LG C1 OLED).
So not do beat a dead horse any further, but IS THIS WORKING like I believe it is? Or like others have said, is this just faking it and forcing the ATV/OLED to display the Dolby Vision icon, and really actually playing just the fallback HDR10 profile?
Either way, it looks really good and I was shocked to see that this “works” on Plex!
I’m hoping this is LEGIT. I usually use KODI and suffer with the HDR10 limitation since I use a Windows 10 PC/KODI/MADVR/MPC-BE Player as my main HTPC to drive my OLED. Using KODI, Dolby Atmos passthrough audio works great with my Pioneer LX-701, but DV just does the “HDR” icon deal on my TV and it is actually playing the HDR10 profile.
Needless to say, I’d drop KODI as my HTPC experience to get native DV on ATV since KODI does not support ATV natively, and since Windows 10 can’t play DV MKVs.
Please let me know. Thanks!
