HDR Video Playback Discussion Thread

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cio321

New member
Mar 3, 2019
1
0
MxPlayer washes out x265 hdr videos. Stock player can't play x265 hdr mkv or even 10bit 1080p x265 video.

So far i haven't discovered any player that supports actual hdr playback without washed out colors for x265 mkv videos for note 8.

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.
 

scarp

Member
Jul 12, 2012
5
3
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.
Well, my Note10+ N9760 does have something wrong while playing some HDR videos. Biggest wrong thing is that the red color is washed out a lot that once you see you can easily and definitely tell something with the color is not right.

For example, the movies <Big Hero 6> and <Zootopia>, Baymax's red armor is so pale that it's not even red anymore but like red plastic sunburned for years, and when the child Judy rabbit screams "blood! blood! blood!" on the stage at the very beginning of the Zootopia movie, the red ribbons and ketchup clearly do not look like blood's color.
 
Last edited:

scarp

Member
Jul 12, 2012
5
3
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.
 
Last edited:

DonMigs85

Senior Member
Aug 20, 2013
116
3
Does Xiaomi Redmi Note 9S/9 Pro offer working HDR in MX Player or VLC? It does not get bright like it did on my friend's Galaxy Note 8. Tried a bunch of files like LG Cymatic Jazz. The colors are at least not washed out
 
Sep 20, 2021
17
6
Hello,
MX Player PRO is the best player out there. I am using it on my Sony TV to play 4k HDR mkv files but it doesn't recognize mkv dolby vision files. Is not even detecting the content as HDR and the colors are like magnta/green.
I really hate KODI but for the moment I am force to stick with it for playing dovi mkv files.
Any status regarding when this type of metadata decoding it will be available?
Thanks in advance!
 
Sep 20, 2021
17
6
Hello, I found just player which is really nice. It is very lightweight and it can play anything including dolby vision mkv files without any issue. I will stick with it until mx player pro will be able to decode dovi.
 
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    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.