Question hdr video playback on pixel 6 pro

[whatsisnametake2]

it's my understanding that playing back hdr video content should kick the display into high brightness mode to achieve the proper effect. I'm not sure this is happening on my 6 pro. I have various shows and movies that I use to test hdr playback and know very well what they should look like. on the 6 pro they all play back way too dark. tried using plex and mx player, both of which usually support hdr playback. however when viewing hdr content on youtube, for example the channel 'mostly walking', footage looks the correct brightness. the phone also gets a bit warmer, leading me to believe it's behaving correctly.

so so far, I don't think it's working properly for movie local content in hdr. because of this I'm thinking of rooting to allow me to force into high brightness mode for video playback.

interested to hear other experiences.

 

[ismailonrails]

it's my understanding that playing back hdr video content should kick the display into high brightness mode to achieve the proper effect. I'm not sure this is happening on my 6 pro. I have various shows and movies that I use to test hdr playback and know very well what they should look like. on the 6 pro they all play back way too dark. tried using plex and mx player, both of which usually support hdr playback. however when viewing hdr content on youtube, for example the channel 'mostly walking', footage looks the correct brightness. the phone also gets a bit warmer, leading me to believe it's behaving correctly.

so so far, I don't think it's working properly for movie local content in hdr. because of this I'm thinking of rooting to allow me to force into high brightness mode for video playback.

interested to hear other experiences.

Yes I'm having the same issue, I was trying to play some HDR content on MX Player Pro, and video looked very dark, then I copied that file to iPhone 13 Pro Max and played in infuse and it looked way better and brighter, then I felt something is wrong with my Pixel 6 Pro, so I downloaded VLC and video was still dark, then I played that video in Google Photos and it was same.

also there was an instant when I was playing HDR video on Youtube and HBM was not kicking in, but that got solved by restarting my phone.

Are you on December update or November? I'm on December update, I suspect that is the issue.

 

[Morgrain]

it's my understanding that playing back hdr video content should kick the display into high brightness mode to achieve the proper effect. I'm not sure this is happening on my 6 pro.

No. "Just" playing HDR content does not trigger the HBM. HBM gets triggered by high ambient lighting, and that's about the only trigger of importance. Get a flashlight and shine it next to the ambient sensor, you will notice the increase in brightness. Google does not give you a handy tool/way to manually force HBM, except you are willing to root.

 

[wilpang]

Is that meant to happen on Google Photos or do you need an external app to auto brightness for HDR content? I'm not sure if HDR is broken as on Vanced HDR doesn't work either but is fine in stock YouTube app.

 

[whatsisnametake2]

I ended up rooting to get high brightness mode control, amongst other things. all the usual video playback apps are definitely not kicking in to high brightness mode because when the brightness is on full during playback of an hdr video and I activate HBM, you see it notch up in brightness. it's better, probably just about ok now, but i've definitely had better phones for this. it's a combination of total nits and the tuning of the screens gamma. the s20 plus I had was stunning for hdr. some content you even had to turn it down. there's an image file you can use called something like nearlydark.jpg with numbers on it of decreasing brightness. it's a good ruler for seeing how well any given screen is going to perform in this area.