Hi. I’ve been using Plex for years now with my Chromecast, and recently I got an LG OLED TV and a Chromecast 4K HDR, both of which support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. This means that, when playing HDR content, the brightest parts of the image can reach up to 600 nits (normal TVs usually reach 150-200 nits). This doesn’t mean that the whole image will appear brighter, only the highlights of the image reach those levels (and also there’s more color saturation and deeper blacks).
When working in HDR, it is recommended that text and subtitles are displayed at no more than 200 nits, so it is not too bright and annoying for the sight. Netflix has developed good postproduction and distribution guidelines, they are pioneers in managing color spaces for delivery, and they display subtitles at ~100 nits (I’m measuring this using a color meter).
Plex recently added a great feature to select the subtitle color, but when playing HDR content the brightness level doesn’t change between white and light grey, and with my current TV settings (which is not the brightest this TV can reach) subtitles are displaying at 375 nits (way too bright!).
Other color options are also distracting because they look too saturated.
It would be ideal if Plex could recognize when a video is streaming in HDR and lower the brightness of the subtitles automatically, and also it would be great to have more (darker) subtitles options. I think 100 nits is around 50% grey, maybe a brightness slider would be useful. Also opacity options would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Rodrigo
EDIT: Just checked HDR video scopes and 100 nits is around 50% grey, not 25%.
I don’t know exactly why there’s no change, but even if there was, the brightness difference between white and blended gray is less than 10%, this would mean that instead of displaying at 375 nits the blended gray option would be at 335. Still way too bright (200 is the proposed MAXIMUM value for graphics and text. The right values would be around 50% gray, nowhere near white.
R.
PS: Blended grey is now called light grey in the app.
EDIT: Just checked HDR video scopes and 100 nits is around 50% grey, not 25%.
EDIT 2: As HDR files have their own picture settings metadata, probably white is being a little clipped and that’s why there’s no change between white and light grey subtitles. All the color options work.
I’m going to go ahead and revive this thread because I have the same issue and cannot find a satisfying answer. I am using the Plex app on the Nvidia shield coupled with an LG OLED C8.
I have the same results as the original poster. Both the recommended options above (“grey” and “blended grey”) do not seem to significantly modify the brightness of the subtitles.
In dark scenes, using"grey" or “blended grey” the subtitles will flash on my screen like a christmas tree.
As a comparison and because I have seen them doing it right, Amazon Prime Video lets you change the transparency of the subtitles with options ranging from 20% to 100%. That way, I can set it to 50% transparency and have great viewing experience with subtitles on, with the subtitles brightness being similar to the one of a SDR movie/show.
The problem is that I like Plex’s interface. I don’t want to circumvent it with another player.
I simply wish we would have more options to tweak the SRT subtitles instead of the few that are proposed right now, with little changes to the transparency (which is what ultimately affects the brightness in HDR).
+1 on getting more options to change SRT subtitle colors.
Subtitles are way too bright in HDR mode on OLED TVs at the moment with the current color options. White, light grey and blended grey does not make a whole lot of difference.
Jumping on this too. In leiu of the next DVR feature I would like to see subtitle brightness options. With 4K HDR content starting to take over, its becoming increasingly annoying. Like starting straight into a flashlight whenever the subtitles are on.
Same here, I thought Plex would have more subtitles color options, as from a dev point of view, this seem pretty trivial (I mean you could even allow to put hex codes).
I tried both tones of the grey and yellow options and both are still too bright in HDR.
This is a no-brainer. Just got my OLED TV and subtitles feels like having razor blades in my eyes in HDR. Not to mention how much I assume they cause burn in.
Please add more color options to the subtitles as grey still looks white bright. Addtionally, add an option for transparency so we can get a more subtle tone of our subtitles.
To me the yellow color option works a temporary workaround as it’s not as bad at the regular white one. It took some time to get use to in the beginning but now I’m not even thinking about this problem anymore.
I’m posting again to keep this discussion alive.
I tried the yellow color as per the suggestion of @jonathan.klingberg
It is indeed better than the regular white one, but not really much better than grey or blended grey.
I would really like to see some more options added to subtitles customizing, particularly for HDR videos (as the current subtitles experience is brightfully annoying…). As an example, I included the subtitles options allowed in Prime Video. The “opacity” option works perfectly for HDR content. Hopefully something similar could be incorporated with the Plex player.
Keeping this thread alive and trying to get more attention to the problem
Most PGS subtitles on 4k HDR movies are beautifully tonemapped, so no problem there.
But as soon as I try to transcode that movie and also burn in PGS subtitles…well, we all know Plex struggles with that, which is why I am still looking for a way to completely circumvent that.
SRT are aplenty. We just need a solution to have them tonemapped / more transparent with HDR content. I obviously don’t know if what I am suggesting is hard or impossible to implement. If it is, I can accept that and move on to watching my movies with sunglasses :). All jokes aside though, I would love to hear some imput from a Plex employee as to the feasibility of my suggestion.
Also, if anyone else has something to suggest, I’m all ears!
+1
Waiting for this feature since more than a year now. Bought my OLED 2 years back and till now Plex doesn’t have the solution to ultra bright subtitles in HDR.
+1 here. I have had OLED TV for 2 years but didn’t realise this could be fixed, until I started playing around with HDR content on my PC with Nano-IPS LG panel (HDR600) and having washed out videos, due to Windows HDR settings, and getting that fixed by using Kodi as a desktop video app instead of VLC, MPC-HC, Potplayer, Gomplayer, etc
Latest Kodi works much better at this. C’mon Plex, this is a simple fix to a problem that is getting worse every day as more content and display devices use HDR.
On my Shield I have been using Plex 100% and Kodi 0% for the last 2 years, but now I just got Kodi 19, changed to Aeon Nox Silvo skin, switched settings to expert mode, went to Player - Language - Subtitles and switched it to Dark Grey @ 80% opacity and problem solved in 15 minutes.
CMON PLEX!! HOW MANY YEARS HAVE PASSED AND YOU CAN’T JUST ADD MORE (DARKER) COLOR OPTIONS?? THIS IS A STUPID SIMPLE FIX!! IS THIS THE CARE THAT YOU GIVE TO YOUR COSTUMERS? Wtf??
