HDR Video Playback Discussion Thread

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Thirumalai.K

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Sep 14, 2011
2,271
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Mxplayer

Stock player


Played the jazz video on Both players, looked same and it looked to have more brightness then the other non-HDR videos, but not enough like the other 1080p hdr video i played before. Colors looked great too. Played in crop mode on stock and 100% on mx.

Im unable to upload all the screenshots due to my slow net.

It might be due to values specified in the meta.
If it doesn't work with any other files, let me know.
 

eoga

Senior Member
Dec 14, 2010
112
24
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
I can understand the how it will look with / without HDR.

In general the stock mediaplayers are based on mediaplayer api. So, technically MX Player's HW Decoder (not HW+) should be able to replicate the behaviour of stock one as it's based on mediaplayer api. If it doesn't work with MX's HW & works on stockplayer, we really need to check whether the issue is on our side or nit. samsung may not be using mediaplayer api or dynamically adjust the brightness values externally based on the metadata.

We do not have a S8 device to test. It will be better if you can provide some information like what are the videos (may be some links) working & what doesn't. It might be helpful to understand the issue better.

I tried the Jazz video posted here and my S8 play the video but it doesnt play it with HDR no matter if i play it with MX player or samsung player. So far the only video that has played with HDR on my S8 but only using the samsung player is the video found on below link. MX player, plays the video but without HDR.

In this video you really can see the difference in colors and details. The only way I see you can see that you can be sure that you are playing with HDR active is because the samsung player show the legend HDR, please see the screenshot, from here and the differences in colors and details i can assure that MX player is not playing it with HDR active because colors are all wash when you compare both.

So if you want to try if a video plays with HDR or not just use the samsung player and if you see the "HDR" in the screen like in my screenshot that means that the video is playing correctly with HDR otherwise is not even if you see nice colors and the video looks good. It will look much better with the HDR active.

Is there anyway we could activate HDR on MX player or will this be a feature to be added on future releases?

http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=144
 

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Thirumalai.K

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Sep 14, 2011
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I tried the Jazz video posted here and my S8 play the video but it doesnt play it with HDR no matter if i play it with MX player or samsung player. So far the only video that has played with HDR on my S8 but only using the samsung player is the video found on below link. MX player, plays the video but without HDR.

In this video you really can see the difference in colors and details. The only way I see you can see that you can be sure that you are playing with HDR active is because the samsung player show the legend HDR, please see the screenshot, from here and the differences in colors and details i can assure that MX player is not playing it with HDR active because colors are all wash when you compare both.

So if you want to try if a video plays with HDR or not just use the samsung player and if you see the "HDR" in the screen like in my screenshot that means that the video is playing correctly with HDR otherwise is not even if you see nice colors and the video looks good. It will look much better with the HDR active.

Is there anyway we could activate HDR on MX player or will this be a feature to be added on future releases?

http://demo-uhd3d.com/fiche.php?cat=uhd&id=144

I am still unsure about Samsung's implementation. If it's system level, then MX's HW player will mostly replicate Stock Player.

Have you enabled "Video Enhancer" on Device's settings..?

Anyhow I will forward your comments to our developers.
 

eoga

Senior Member
Dec 14, 2010
112
24
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
I am still unsure about Samsung's implementation. If it's system level, then MX's HW player will mostly replicate Stock Player.

Have you enabled "Video Enhancer" on Device's settings..?

Anyhow I will forward your comments to our developers.

I havent touch that option. But I am not that it is not related to what we are talking here as you clearly can see when HDR is active or not, at least on samsung player. It will be really good if MX player developers could implement this or fix it if is a bug, as you mentioned earlier that samsung player should be using the normal implementation, which MX player should be using as well.
 

Thirumalai.K

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Sep 14, 2011
2,271
4,115
I havent touch that option. But I am not that it is not related to what we are talking here as you clearly can see when HDR is active or not, at least on samsung player. It will be really good if MX player developers could implement this or fix it if is a bug, as you mentioned earlier that samsung player should be using the normal implementation, which MX player should be using as well.

Can you try the following?
It's from a user feedback.

Enable "Auto Backlight". After that Enable "Video Enhancer" (MX Player will be automatically listed there)
Then try the same file in MX Player. Hope both HW & HW+ decoders will almost match with Samsung Player like more vivid colors & brightness values. Samsung might be using this functions automatically for their video player.

Meanwhile our developers are exploring the possibilities of adding native HDR support on supported devices. As we are still not clear about the OEM's implementation we can't assure anything at the moment.
 

eoga

Senior Member
Dec 14, 2010
112
24
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
Can you try the following?
It's from a user feedback.

Enable "Auto Backlight". After that Enable "Video Enhancer" (MX Player will be automatically listed there)
Then try the same file in MX Player. Hope both HW & HW+ decoders will almost match with Samsung Player like more vivid colors & brightness values. Samsung might be using this functions automatically for their video player.

Meanwhile our developers are exploring the possibilities of adding native HDR support on supported devices. As we are still not clear about the OEM's implementation we can't assure anything at the moment.

I tried what you mentioned and still plaing the video using samsung video player is showing much better color and image than MX player, playing the same vide camp using HDR by samung video player and not by MX player, it is night and day the difference so this options are definitely not related to HDR.
 

Tinderbox (UK)

Senior Member
Mar 31, 2010
2,325
436
England, UK
The Samsung video play has a video enhancer setting (I have used it for years on my Samsung Tablet oled display), it seems to make whites whiter and the colours brighter, But in dark parts of a video you can loose detail and the image looks darker than it should so i turn it off for those parts of the video on a tablet there is a button at the top right of the screen to enable and disable it, though on a phone it might be in the menu.

John.
 

Kantana

Senior Member
May 7, 2007
177
24
Just to throw in 2 cents here, I have tested HDR10 on both S8+ SD835 version and the LG G6 SD821. Only the LG G6 shows the correct HDR colors. The S8+ shows colors to be much lighter and paler. If you doubt this then try looking for a UHD version of the Smu*fs 2 with HDR10. On the S8+ all colors appear much paler in both HW and HW+ decoders using MXPlayer.
On the LG G6 they appear in the correct bright colors using both HW and HW+ in MXPlayer.
Even using the Samsung video player on S8+ gives the same dull colors so it must be something wrong with the device codecs, perhaps not having HDR support.

---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:01 PM ----------

Just tried to screen capture on both playing the jazz demo video posted a few pages back but just blank so took a picture of both screens at once. Excuse the poor picture but I think you can guess which is the S8+ and which is the LG G6?

HDR10.jpg


---------- Post added at 09:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:29 PM ----------

Tried playing the jazz demo HDR10 on my ZTE Axon 7 as a control (no HDR display) and same results as S8+, pale, dull colors. For some reason S8+ is not rendering HDR10 correctly. Perhaps this is why Netflix doesn't support HDR on the S8+ yet?

---------- Post added at 09:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 PM ----------

Bug report on ver 1.9, if I enable decoder, HW+ audio codec for a codec that doesn't show 'hardware acceleration' when playing a video with that audio codec it will playback scrambled sound. Tested on S8+ and LG G6 using that Jazz demo HDR10 video with aac sound. Was wondering why it sounded so strange :p
 

Kantana

Senior Member
May 7, 2007
177
24
Jazz Demo displays HDR in both native and MX Player on S8, no sure what and how you're testing.

It plays but I am not seeing any of the HDR at all, it shows exactly the same as my Axon 7. From my posted pic the red balls are all showing duller shades than they should be, the saxophones, symbols etc are all dull yellow instead of the bright brass sheen they show up to be on my LG G6.
I went back and watched some of the Samsung TV HDR10 videos and saw what was missing before on my LG G6. Pretty much all the lighting from reflections on water to the sun casting a red hue on the landscape and orange shade across the sky. All this is missing when viewed in the S8+ and it appears no different than any other non HDR display.
 

mannequin

Senior Member
Feb 7, 2011
1,603
362
New York
Was using AMOLED cinema. Switched to adaptive but apart from the over saturated colors, it's the same regarding lack of HDR. Not seeing any of the HDR effects at all.

only Adaptive mode supports wide color gamut and dynamic contrast. with properly encoded videos (for example Amazon Prime mobile HDR) it boosts brightness and enables dynamic contrast (Video Enhancer) automatically. for something like that Jazz video you have to do it manually but i can guarantee you it plays proper HDR (don't be confused with Adaptive mode behavior outside of HDR content).
 

Kantana

Senior Member
May 7, 2007
177
24
only Adaptive mode supports wide color gamut and dynamic contrast. with properly encoded videos (for example Amazon Prime mobile HDR) it boosts brightness and enables dynamic contrast (Video Enhancer) automatically. for something like that Jazz video you have to do it manually but i can guarantee you it plays proper HDR (don't be confused with Adaptive mode behavior outside of HDR content).

Tried enabling adaptive and the video enhancer, using MXplayer. From that jazz demo HDR10 video before. Take a look and guess which one is S8+ and which one is from LG G6. As you can see the top picture is missing all the HDR effects. What is surprising is that the LG G6 has a LCD screen so logically AMOLED should have darker blacks however...

HDR10.jpg
 

mannequin

Senior Member
Feb 7, 2011
1,603
362
New York
Tried enabling adaptive and the video enhancer, using MXplayer. From that jazz demo HDR10 video before. Take a look and guess which one is S8+ and which one is from LG G6. As you can see the top picture is missing all the HDR effects. What is surprising is that the LG G6 has a LCD screen so logically AMOLED should have darker blacks however...

something is not right with your setup. i've tested that video everywhere (including 2 generations of HDR TVs) and S8 does remarkable with it.
 

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  • 2
    Hi.
    I got a Tab S3 2 days ago.
    I've tested with MX PLAYER all heavy HEVC HDR videos, 10 bits UHD 2160p @60fps, and of course all other formats and bitrates.
    EVERYTHING WORKS GREAT. All in HW or HW+.
    Even the AVC h.264 UHD 2160p @60fps "Big Buck Bunny" works perfectly and fludly in HW+ (jonathonalexander told it didn't work fluidly???).
    This Tab S3 is a must!
    Also tested European version of Galaxy S8 with Exynos 8895 and it's able to read excatly the same video files as Tab S3 with absolutly no jitter.
    Both Tab S3 and Galaxy S8 claim to work HDR file formats and it's true.
    2
    Did a comparison side by side on Note 8: "Samsung Video Player" & "MX Player"
    File: "Atmic Blonde (2017) 2160p 10Bit HDR"
    Result: MX Player plays the file without any hiccup, so does the Samsung Video Player
    But there is clearly visible difference between the contrast of both of them.
    Samsung's Stock Video Player's looks fantastic, whereas MX's is somewhat dull as compared to the former.
    In a nutshell, MX does'nt show an HDR as "HDR" .
    2
    Nothing wrong with MX Player in my S10+. It plays 10-bit HDR10 4K HEVC just fine (HW+ enabled). Video output look the same in the stock player and MX Player.

    Yea. Properly encoded HDR files play as expected. Like tigole prints, Atomos etc... psarips doesn't work because they add hdr metadata after the conversion. So yea, 4K x265 HDR works in MX and Stock Player.


    Well, I'm not sure whether it's the files to blame. As I mentioned above, my Note10+ N9760 Snapdragon does have something wrong while playing some HDR videos some of which are released by Tigole, TERMiNAL, PSA, etc, as listed below. It's also the same case with my Note8 N950N Exynos.
    Big Hero 6 (2014) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    Big.Hero.6.2014.2160p.UHD.BluRay.x265-TERMiNAL.mkv
    Zootopia (2016) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    Jojo.Rabbit.2019.2160p.10bit.HDR.BluRay.6CH.x265.HEVC-PSA.mkv
    Knives Out (2019) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    Ford.v.Ferrari.2019.2160p.UHD.BluRay.x265.HDR.DD 5.1-KangMus.mkv
    Dark Phoenix (2019) (2160p BluRay x265 HEVC 10bit HDR AAC 7.1 Tigole) .mkv


    The easiest spotted problem is the red color cos it looks like the red is reduced by almost 30% to 40%, though some other colors also look washed out more or less but not so distinguishable to me as the red color. And their maximum brightness is no higher than their SDR versions, while some of them are even lower.

    Actually, the sad thing I have just found out is that even the HDR10 movies that I always thought played perfectly with MX Player Pro on my Note10+ because the brightness is higher than usual such as <The Secret Life of Pets> #1 and #2 are actually not played in the right color!!! I just compared them with their regular non-HDR version. The red color is sadly surprisingly still somewhat paler with the HDR playback!!! Red looks about 10% reduced. Not so bad as other HDR movies so you don't instantly tell or even see it as correctly played because the excellent brightness cheated you into believing so until you compare the it with its SDR version. So really this leads me to feel no HDR movie is completely supported on cellphone yet.
    The Secret Life of Pets (2016) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv


    For example, The Secret Life of Pets (2016), check 00:06:25~00:06:45 the red stand mixer machine used as a massage machine by the sausage dog. Not really red. (Looks to you quite real red? Try compare it and you 'll see it's actually orange-ish red)

    It's the same case when the same HDR movie's playback is compared between my Note10+ and my computer.
    (PS: Those 2 movies are by far the only 2 HDR movies that I find produce the highest brightness, quite noticeable but sadly still only 10% higher than their SDR versions when both version are at maximum brightness)

    The best scenario is a bitter sweet thing which is that I do find below HDR movies produce correct color, but the brightness is way lower than their SDR version by about 15% to even 40%. So SDR versions turned out to be even much more enjoyable on the phone.
    Frozen (2013) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    Frozen II (2019) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    Cars (2006) (2160p BluRay x265 10bit HDR Tigole).mkv
    Fast.and.Furious.Presents.Hobbs.and.Shaw.2019.2160p.HDR10Plus.BluRay.8CH.PSA.mkv


    Yet, on the other hand, I do find all the 10 demo HDR videos I have are perfectly played back on my Note10+ with MX Player Pro. Red is genuine red, not even a little less as played on my computer. Besides, the brightness is way higher than the HDR movies brings though the HDR movies are for sure correctly recognized as HDR and do have brightness boosted when you check the Android UI interface during the playback. But they just do not work the same way. Like the demo videos doubled the brightness while HDR movies just don't get brightness gain. Like HDR movies are played in an isolated section that brightness boost does not apply.
    Samsung.HDR.4K.DEMO_Chasing.the.Light.Main10@L5.2@High.ts
    LG.4K.DEMO_NASA-HDR.mp4
    Sony 4K HDR Demo - Mont Blanc.mp4
    Samsung 4K HDR Demo - Wonderland 1.ts
    Sony Swordsmith HDR UHD 4K Demo.mp4
    (Got this one here from this thread)
    ETC.

    So, I don't know what's the cause and reasoning. Seems a little complicated.
    But at least when it comes to HDR movie files, I do tend to believe that it does not make any difference which team group released the mkv file. The source file, such as the remux file, is probably what makes the difference.

    HDR on cellphone is more like a bragging fact. HDR movies are still not fully well supported.
    NOT ENJOYABLE for movies.
    1
    Hi.
    Also tested European version of Galaxy S8 with Exynos 8895 and it's able to read excatly the same video files as Tab S3 with absolutly no jitter.
    Both Tab S3 and Galaxy S8 claim to work HDR file formats and it's true.

    while you're right that it "works" in HW+ mode, it appears that MX player doesn't support HDR10 playback. it's easy to test if you play the same file in stock S8 video player which has no problems with local HDR playback. in fact, i wasn't able to reproduce HDR in any available 3rd party players.
    1
    Have you had any luck with this?
    Yea. Properly encoded HDR files play as expected. Like tigole prints, Atomos etc... psarips doesn't work because they add hdr metadata after the conversion. So yea, 4K x265 HDR works in MX and Stock Player.