using NVIDIA Shield TV the Tone Mapping works now on PLEX with 4K HDR!
I have 2 devices connected to a FULL_HD non-4K TV, and works pretty smooth with different movies of 4K HDR. The new video player there has been relased just recently, maybe this one is able to do so and gave the push.
It shows origianl play, no transcoding, the colours are not washed out.
Check out if other devices are cabale to do so. For me it looks now pretty good and stable. I have not checked regarding audio sources, needs to be tested if there are restrictions, but should not be since video and audio are handled seperately. This is at least my experience.
The whole point of this thread is about tone mapping during transcoding. Of course, with direct play, 4k HDR won’t be washed out on a shield hooked up to a 1080p non hdr display.
Well in all fairness, HDR has been out for years and this issue still hasnt been fixed. For anyone who has moved on to 4K, transcoding is dead. So its nice to have the alternatives highlighted. Who knows how many years getting tonemapping working will take. If its ever implemented. For all we know, It wont happen ever. Another approach could be transcoding to HEVC, preserving the 10 bit colors, and have the clients tonemap when neccesary, like the Shield and the ATV does
Hey, I think we’d take that as a solution too (transcoding to hevc and letting clients tonemap). Anything would be better than the current state of affairs which has been problematic for years now… And plex’s silence on the topic is more than frustrating.
“For anyone who has moved on to 4K, transcoding is dead.” is such a gross oversimplification of the problem and untrue. Having a 4k TV and a Shield isn’t making transcoding unnecessary -we have tablets, phones, non-HDR TVs, you name it. scarbtj repeatedly hit the nail on the head on why this is the case and how terribly this reflects on Plex.
It literally says “It’s finally possible to enjoy all the media you love in a single app, on any device, no matter where you are.” on the front page of Plex and that is simply not true.
But instead of taking this gap in their raison d’être seriously, resources are thrown at profoundly baffling side projects like Plexamp and Plex Dash -woefully incomplete products that they might fix …someday?
I’ve started to only download new media in 4K, and when I can, HDR as well. I have the hardware to transcode it (a GTX 1660 with a patch can easily handle 6+ transcodes from 4k 60mbps down to 1080p 20mbps). From my side, everything is set up for me to be able to stream this library to any device, no matter the format.
This pervasive attitude of “DO NOT TRANSCODE 4K” is outdated, and absolutely wrong. Modern hardware won’t break a sweat trying to transcode 4K. And yes, HDR -> SDR tonemapping will always look worse than a pure 1080p remux, but it would still be a monumental step up from what Plex is able to offer right now. If I want that maximum quality, I’ll be watching on my own TV on the same LAN as the Plex server. If it’s my parents or girlfriend watching on their old TVs, they won’t notice the difference with a good tonemap.
And hence my statement is correct. Plex either isnt interested in fixing this, or atleast doesnt communicate what their plans are very well, and this has been the case for a long time. So by dead, I mean not working, not a feature. You can spend years complaining about it (and please do, I want the feature myself) or you can try and get around the problem.
I dont have this attitude. I have just lost faith in a sollution involving transcoding coming anytime soon.
It’s absolutely absurd that anyone could defend Plex not tonemapping HDR to SDR.
If FFMPEG can do it, Plex should be able to do it. I have a 3950x. I have the hardware that can support this transcoding. I’ve done it with other programs. In real time. Why isn’t there a way to just have a custom command line argument added in for this sort of thing?
Plex makes extremely strange decisions regarding video formats. It doesn’t properly handle 3D video files either. I really need to look into alternatives.
This’d be the absolute bare MVP, really. A blip on the “we hear you” radar from the Plex devs where a select few devices at least demonstrate that it’s possible to use Plex as advertised.
Thank you! You just saved me thousands! I had no idea there was a real difference in the intel generations post 7, they all use the uhd 630. Just a few days ago I ordered an i7 8700t and I was just about to pull the trigger on a TVs-672xt I was planning on pimping out with ram and ssd cache, and the above mentioned CPU. It would have been a total waste.
Im gonna cancel the cpu and postpone the whole NAS project. Thanks a lot for sharing this! I wish Plex devs would be as open about development regarding this feature as Jellyfin is.
From the post;
The current CPU-based tonemap method is very unsuitable for real-time transcoding in terms of speed.
I also intend to make similar attempts on VAAPI. All current Intel Gen9 series or older iGPUs do not support the hardware-based tonemap_vaapi filter, while Gen10 ICL and TGL can support it.
This is honestly getting ridiculous. FFmpeg has been able to tonemap for a while, can we at least getting an acknowledgement of the problem? HDR content will only get more frequent over time, Plex needs a solution.
