Another thing that would be useful is a standardized set of sample files that can be used to help identify the supported profiles for a particular device.
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Indeed. If Dolby and / or the manufacturers don’t publish that info, then a diverse set of examples could be used to test across various user configurations.
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That’s getting better, slowly, at least for standalone players.
Apple documents Profile 5 on the TV 4K (but they’re wishy-washy about the iPhone - and they really need to upgrade the Apple TV to support what the iPhone records)
Apple TV 4K - Technical Specifications - Apple
iPhone - Apple
Amazon lists Profiles 4,5,8,9 for the Fire Stick 4k - to their credit, it’s a relatively old device with good support, AND the Amazon documentation of codec support, including Levels and Profiles, is excellent:
Google lists profiles 5 and 8 only:
Roku lists profile 5 only:
Despite best-in-class capabilities, I don’t think the Shield’s are actually documented anywhere!
SHIELD TV Streaming Media Players | NVIDIA
SHIELD TV Pro Streaming Media Player | NVIDIA
I’m not aware of any devices that proclaim support for Profile 7. I’m also not aware of any devices that list the profiles they support, but in reality also support Profile 7.
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@Volts - You’ve been busy! 
I’ve said it several times before, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat, folks need to keep in mind that streaming devices and TVs are designed for streaming media, not high bit rate 4K content ripped from disk.
It’s amazing that a device like the shield is even available and mostly works with such content, that has no other source than from decrypted disks.
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So has anyone with a Sony TV tested playback of profile 7 when using an external device like Shield, Roku or Chromecast TV?
Roku state profile 5 is only supported, so I’m guessing Roku TVs and Roku devices won’t support it?
As I’ve said before, if those playback devices support that profile, then it should be displayed correctly on the TV, otherwise, it should fall back to HDR10
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This thread is quite messy. If people are going to perform tests, please make sure it’s conclusive and not just “I tried various files and they all played fine” or “no Dolby Vision files play for me”.
Statements like that help no one. You need to determine the Dolby Vision profile of the file you are testing and the capabilities of the device you are using to play that file back. Not only that, but the TV can also be important, with some older Dolby Vision TVs in particular not accepting signals at different Hz.
Use the above test files. Profile 5 should work for everyone provided you have a modern Dolby Vision TV.
Profile 7 will be more of a problem. Especially the profile 7 file that contains DTS audio for devices that don’t support DTS.
For those testing on a device without DTS support one of the profile 7 files with DTS audio will definitely not trigger Dolby Vision. This is normal, any transcoding(even just stream copies) will force HDR10.
Other things we know that will cause problems. Or profile info we know so far:
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Sony TV’s aside from the X900H will only support profile 5. There will likely be no way around this as is a picture processor limitation. Even the X900H may not support profile 7 yet. They are said to fix this with their 2021 models.
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External smart devices primarily used for streaming probably only support profile 5. This is because profile 7 is used for UHD Blu-rays and streaming services don’t use profile 7. If anyone has profile 7 files working on a streaming device like the shield 2019 then this is a big bonus. Please let us know.
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When testing an external smart device you must understand your TV may play a part too. Every Dolby Vision TV should support receiving an already decoded Dolby Vision stream if it’s at film frame rate (24hz) but older TVs in particular may struggle with 60. In other words make sure your external device sends 24hz, also sometimes worded as 23hz. You can also test 60hz if you want to, but something is wrong if DV works at 60 and not film frame rate.
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Beware of transcoding. Any transcoding will break Dolby Vision. You can’t use HD audio with Dolby Vision direct on TVs because Plex will need to transcode the audio. Even on external devices if the TV connected reports it doesn’t support certain audio then Dolby Vision may not trigger. Be sure to test with non HD audio and check if using the profile 7 test file with DTS that Plex isn’t transcoding.
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If we can get people to use a uniform testing process with the same files we will better understand where we stand with this. Please make sure to describe your full playback chain including model numbers and which of the 4 test files work and do not work with Dolby Vision.
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If it’s not working. Read the points above to make sure your test is valid. You must not expect the profile 7 file with DTS to work if your device demands DTS is transcoded. Likewise if you aren’t sending 24hz to the TV then Dolby Vision may never work.
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I agree with your suggestion to provide conclusive statements.
This isn’t completely accurate. The Sony x700 is one of very few devices known to play Profile 7 TS remuxes and correctly use the Full Enhancement Layer. But I agree with your request for conclusive statements, and I can’t speak to its compatibility with Plex.
If you are referring to the X900H being the first Sony TV to support TV-led DV over HDMI, that’s orthogonal to what it can decode internally.
Profile 7, when merged to a Single Track, is known to work on the Shield 2019, and was explicitly reported a few messages prior by @Molgaard. The general recommendation is to get a Shield Pro because of issues with the base Tube.
A concerning caveat with the Shield is that it may be ignoring the P7 FEL, and ongoing (possibly-related) reports of inaccurate colors.
I’m not aware of a simple way to test FEL playback performance - are you?
My tests:
Hisense H9G
- Profile 4 works.
- Profile 5 works.
- Profile 7 both work.
- Profile 8 works.
TCL 5 series 2018
- Profile 4 HDR10 only.
- Profile 5 Works.
- Profile 7 both HDR10 only.
- Profile 8 No HDR.
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Hisense H9G
- Profile 7 both work.
Can you share additional information about this? I would not expect any TV to accept a lossless audio stream, so I would expect the P7_FEL_GIJoe_The_Rise_of_Cobra.mkv sample (which includes DTS-HD MA) to require transcoding.
No the X900H should be supporting profile 7 decoding… Or at least it’s supposed to be capable. Not sure if it’s been added yet. Any support listed for profiles by a TV is all about the TV and not about HDMI. HDMI actually has next to no bearing on Dolby Vision at all.
Sony x700 is an UHD Blu-ray player. Every UHD Blu-ray player has to support profile 7 otherwise it wouldn’t play UHD Blu-ray.
Not sure if you’re aware or not (because for some stupid reason this is obtrusively complicated) but if a TV that doesn’t support profile 7 is connected to an modern UHD Blu-ray player the TV doesn’t have any limitations because the source will decode the unsupported profile 7 before it’s passed to the TV. This is why the x700 works with these files and a Sony TV doesn’t.
This is also why it’s so important to users to find out which streaming devices support decoding profile 7 because it means that users of TVs without profile 7 support (like most Sony’s) depend on an external playback device for any hope of using UHD Blu-ray rips at all.
Regarding the shield and the profile 7 FEL test it should be pretty easy to see if there’s any picture quality problems by watching UHD Blu-ray rips. If you watch an UHD Blu-ray rip using an FEL just see if there’s any picture quality issues. If there is some kind of decoding error then the same errors won’t be there when watching content with an MEL.
For the record if the shield does have a problem with FEL then that almost certainly guarantees it has no profile 7 decoder. Actually the special thing about profile 7 MEL compared to FEL is that nothing has to be decoded at all, so even devices without profile 7 support may be able to read it. What may be happening in these circumstances is the shield is passing the FEL layer to the TV for decoding mistakingly thinking it’s MEL. Of course technically the source device should not try to decode any profile 7 data at all if it can’t properly support it, so if anything that’s the shield at fault for not reverting to HDR10. In these cases the shield may be sending FEL as MEL and the stream therefore is missing the enhancement data.
But like with most playback statements, these aren’t useful. People need to post evidence of these issues and describe patterns and sample material for others to test. Blanket statements from shield owners saying it doesn’t look right doesn’t help anyone. Provide proof in the form of a photo or video and a sample of the problematic file.
Also, please do correct me if I’m wrong on this but there’s no such thing per se as a single track dual layer mkv rip. All the mkv rips are doing is copying both the HDR10 layer and Dolby Vision layer together in one container. There’s no choice, or conversation from the native disc format. This is just profile 7 being ripped into a single mkv container made to sound like the process is done differently to work with the shield. All rips to mkv using the latest version are all the same. There’s no process to convert something from one type to another. There’s no muxing of the tracks apart from the initial relationship between the Dolby meta data and the HDR10 base just the same as the discs themselves.
The Hisense supports decoding DTS audio and unlike true hd DTS hd includes a base legacy DTS layer thats supported by the TV.
So therefore any UHD Blu-ray with DTS HD audio should not be transcoded at all unless the device lacks DTS support completely. Which is a big trend now unfortunately with Samsung, LG and Panasonic now lacking it.
Makes sense, thanks.
That’s awesome from a “value” brand, while the “premium” brands are dropping DTS completely.
Will it pass the original/lossless stream to an eARC output?
That’s what confused me about your post. You asked for confirmed tests. 
There are reports on the MakeMKV forums that the X900H is working with Plex and Single Track Profile 7 files.
Hahahah indeed it is. My mistake. Embarrassing. There used to be a 700-something Sony TV and I didn’t look up the x700.
I don’t think that’s true.
The clever thing about Profile 7 is that the base layer is HDR10, agreed. A non-DV decoder can play that stream.
MEL means the enhancement layer has dynamic metadata, mostly peak brightness and scaling range.
FEL means the enhancement layer also includes expansion from 10 to 12 bits.
Many DV UHD Blu-ray discs have only MEL. The FEL data is optional. It’s difficult to see a difference between 10 and 12 bits, partly because current panels are 10 bits. The differences are verrry subtle. It wouldn’t appear as image corruption.
The Shield is processing DV dynamic metadata from Profile 7 sources. People have posted pictures of the color issues. I don’t mean to imply that Shield color problems are caused by a lack of DV support, Profile 7 support, or FEL processing issues. I don’t think the root cause has been identified.
Yes - this has changed.
On a DV UHD Blu-ray the Profile 7 Base HDR10 and Enhancement Layers are in different streams/tracks.
MakeMKV originally ripped these as two tracks in one container file. There were two valid HEVC streams in the file.
MakeMKV has changed. It now stores these in a single track. The stream is still valid HDR10. The DV enhancements are stored in additional data elements in the same track, instead of a different track.
The test files you linked are Single Track/Dual Layer, stored this new way. There’s only one video stream in them.
Some players could play the Dual Track/Dual Layer format. The Single Track MKV format has enabled many more devices that don’t support Dual Track to play Profile 7. I suspect this includes your TVs!
Discussion and links:
https://github.com/ietf-wg-cellar/matroska-specification/issues/373
Edit: better explanation:
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Unfortunately none of those single track DV MKV releases work on C9 using neither plex nor in built player. Web rips using Profile 5 work fine, mp4s layer 7 work fine, but they are 07.06 EL+RPU. Whilst MKVs with combined layer DV are 07.06 BL+EL+RPU.
Wonder, why is that?
Have you tried the test files above? Generic statements about releases don’t really help without samples or at least media info.
P4 LG Dolby trailer video is SDR
P5 Dolby Amaze triggers as Dolby Atmos, video is SDR
P7 FEL GIjoe the Rise of Cobra is HDR10
P7 MEL GIjoe the Rise of Cobra is HDR10
P8 Glass blowing triggers Dolby Atmos, video is HDR10
Basically, MKV doesn’t work, MP4 does.
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No, it has no eARC support. But even TVs with eARC are software limited to not pass HD audio from internal apps. Probably because they don’t care about it since streaming services don’t use HD audio, and will only switch HD audio via HDMI.
What it will do is pass the DTS base layer via optical or HDMI via standard ARC though. It can only do this with DTS HD or DTS:X tracks because they contain the legacy 5.1 DTS base layer. With most discs supporting Dolby True HD/Atmos they have to come with a separate Dolby Digital track eAC3 or eAC3+ for Dolby Vision playback to be supported without transcoding.
I only really mentioned it because its said to be the only Sony TV that does, with exception. Someone should test it. Most people will Sony TVs may be out of luck when it comes to playing UHD Blu-Ray rips completely if there’s no proper external streaming support for profile 7.
I think this may be the problem though, a device that doesn’t support profile 7 should not be sending Dolby Vision data at all if the decoder doesn’t have profile 7 support, but yet it seems some devices that don’t have a decoder for profile 7 can still supporting sending profile 7 MEL, and are incorrectly sending profile 7 FEL as profile 7 MEL probably expecting the TV side to pick up on it and decode it itself. Correct behavior would be for it to not do this, and for it to only send HDR10.
It’s hard to know exactly how the spec is intended to work in these circumstances, but I’m led to believe profile 7 MEL does not need to be decoded at all and sent to the display, even though technically a device without a supported decoder should not be sending the data as Dolby Vision at all.
This may explain why on some displays the Shield has reports of colour issues. If the shield is sending FEL as MEL then it may be causing the problem.
I think we’re on two different pages here. Since support for Dolby Vision in an MKV container was created it always used this method of transporting the two tracks. I don’t think there ever was any MKV file that had two separate HEVC tracks. The Github issue you posted was before the MKV change was finalised, and refers to the changes in how it would contain the two layers when the spec was finalised. How other file formats contained two tracks beforehand is another matter, and something that has been compared in the second link you sent…but this has always been the same and hasn’t changed since Dolby Vision was added to the MKV spec.
What I’m trying to say is, the user performing tests makes it sound like there’s some kind of special conversion going on between dual and single track, but there isn’t. This is just how the MKV container works, and has always worked. There’s nothing different to how MKV contains the tracks to the disc itself, its just the fashion that it does so. Containing them as part of one track in the container does not mean the interpretation by the playing device differs. It’s just how the support was added to MKV.
EDIT* also from the makemkv link you posted you can see straight away a user with a Sony X950H attempting to direct play two profile 7 files. One with MEL, one with FEL. The MEL one works (despite the X950H having no support for profile 7) whilst the FEL doesn’t. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say TVs that don’t have profile 7 support are still playing back profile 7 MEL, its not correct behavoir, but its because MEL does not require decoding like FEL does, and something about the profile 5 decoder seems to be able to read the data (albeit possibly incorrectly).
Actually, missing bits in video files means precious little. It shouldn’t affect the quality of the image. More bits is often misinterpreted as better colour, but in fact its just smoother gradiation of one colour to the next. If there are adverse effects because profile 7 is being displayed on devices without a profile 7 decoder its likely related to other factors, and not properly supporting profile 7 to begin with.
I think the problem on WebOS is the app is generic to every LG TV, and some TVs have support for different profiles. That is something Plex will somehow need to overcome. For example, the latest 10 range of OLEDs don’t seem to support profile 7 any more, whilst the older ones do. How does Plex differentiate between clients? Not sure.
There’s more on it here: Any plans for Dolby Vision support for LG webOS?
Part of the reason playback seems to be working reasonably well on Android based systems is due to Exoplayer, I don’t think Exoplayer is used for playback on Plex when used on WebOS but I’m not sure.
In the respect of testing, make sure that Plex isn’t transcoding or copying audio/video at all in the playback info. If it is, then everything will auto fall back to HDR10. Also don’t bother testing with the LG media player - it won’t have the updates to the latest MKV spec which includes Dolby Vision support. MP4 format can only contain profile 5 data, so I’m surprised if that works, that the profile 5 MKV doesn’t. That is certainly something Plex should be able to sort out. You should definitely report the problem to Plex.
