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HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players ISO Menus - Printable Version

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RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - ragico - 2017-07-21

Hi @brazen1
The gtx 960 has finally arrived. I did follow your guide for installing drivers etc. step by step. I got a problem with UHD HDR mkv files. When I play trough MPC-BE standalone player or Kodi it plays without HDR. If in windows control panel I set HDR on, then it works but will not revert to non HDR when play ends. It also affect the windows gui and kodi gui. Unless I set "no-HDR" in windows. Is that normal? I hope not.
Everything else (2D and 3D files work ok). Any help? Thanks


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - brazen1 - 2017-07-21

(2017-07-12, 21:01)brazen1 Wrote: GPU:
This is only going to work with nVidia GTX 960 or better as long as it hardware decodes. For instance, a GTX 970 is not capable. Intel graphics and AMD are not supported either. At this time, nVidia is the only choice. Driver versions after 378.92 DO NOT work properly. You will have to downgrade them. There is no impact. Newer drivers that introduced the HDR and advanced color switch in Windows only work in Windowed mode with madVR (8bit only) and not Full Screen Exclusive (FSE) which is 10bit. PDVD renders either. Microsoft needs to update windowed mode to support 10bit and/or nVidia needs to update its API to auto switch Windows HDR and advanced color settings dynamically as it did/does using the older driver. This would allow FSE or windowed at 10/12bit with dynamic HDR mode switching. Why they introduced that switch to manual instead of dynamic I have no idea? Maybe some gaming thing. Thankfully, to get HDR mode to switch automatically in your display by reading the metadata has arrived. When and if either of these bugs is fixed, I will update the guide.

Pay particular attention to this part of the guide. Install driver 378.92.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - ragico - 2017-07-21

Thank you. I ihave installed drivers 378.92 following very carefully your guide. And I have the problem reported in my previous post 211


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - brazen1 - 2017-07-21

I don't see how? There shouldn't even be an HDR and advanced color switch in Windows.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - ragico - 2017-07-21

Thanks, pls which build of windows 10 64 bit you got? Mine is windows 10 pro 1703 creators update released in July 2017


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - brazen1 - 2017-07-21

1703 (15063.483)
If need be, I'll TeamViewer remote into your machine and look at all your settings and code. I'm positive this works. You can PM me the details. You do have the Windows CU update installed correct? Ok. I see you have it.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - ragico - 2017-07-21

@brazen1
Thanks a lot for your great help and suggestions. The problem was in the wrong drivers for the GPU.
Now every file (2D, 3D, UHD and UHD HDR) works without problem.
Thanks again. Your guide is perfect.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - alturismo - 2017-07-27

hmm, i think i will have to start from scratch when i see it should work ... i also gave up after following your guide and it didnt worked out properly.

always madvr crashes here with a black "1920x1080" windows upper left ...

may 1 general question ahead.

i would like to play everything 1080p and lower in 1080p, and only 2160p in 2160p (resolution switch), cause upscaling ... after all kinda test is my opinion meanwhile,
the TV does it the best way ...

is that maybe why i run in all those issues cause not only frame switching, also resolution switching ?


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - ragico - 2017-07-28

As far as I know there is no resolution switch and everything plays at 2160p (except 3D iso or Mkv that play correctly at 1080p)


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - brazen1 - 2017-07-30

Correct. Everything upscales to 2160p or plays it's native 2160p meaning the windows desktop (including Kodi GUI) and video. 3D mkv can be ripped to 1080 or 2160. I suggest 1080 and let it upscale too. They render the same with no gain or loss in quality but file size is a difference. Same with a 3D frame packed MVC. It will show as 1080p in info (what is being sent to the display) but what it doesn't tell you is that it's 1080p to EACH eye and your eyes interpret this as 2160p. The same is not true for a 1080p display. Why anyone would desire to force any 1080p 2D or 3D downscaled to 1080p instead of allowing it to natively upscale to 2160p is beyond me? A forced 1080p on a 2160p display looks worse than the same thing on a 1080p display. As a matter of fact, it looks terrible.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - alturismo - 2017-07-30

may a little explanation what my prefered setup is cause im not talking about any 3D material.

TV is a samsung 65KS9590, windows PC with an GTX1070.

windows is standard set to 1080p/50, so is kodi also standard.1080p50

reason, mostly watched live TV HDTV (1080i), output then 1080p to TV and let the TV do the upscaling itself to its display, same with HD tvrips in 1080p.
for my personal experience by far better picture quality compared to setup windows and kodi to 2160p, then the PC has to do the upscaling and natively output 2160p to the TV.
in my tests always picture quality lost ...

i only use 2160p for real 2160p material, like now when standard kodi plays a 2160p file the resolution switches to 2160p when playing back such a file and go back to 1080p when stopped ...
and of course is then everything upscaled to 2160p whily playback, desktop, GUI, ... but it switches the resolution and refreshrate ... and back.

dsplayer with EVR working fine like this, also stock kodi, of course no HDR passthrough Wink which is my intention Wink and some picture quality imrpovements Wink

so i assume, this setup is probably causing issues why madvr is causing issues ... when not letting everything play back in 2160p.

its all about the standard setup question, 1080p as standard and only 2160p when needed, for less upscaling loss ... atleast here.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - brazen1 - 2017-07-31

Hmmmm. I've read a few things about upscaling on the PC vs. the display. My PC and display simply don't work the ways described. It is exactly the opposite. I think my Samsung JS8500 overrides all of it. It makes no difference what player I use. None of them are set to upscale per say. Take the Windows Movie & TV app for example. There isn't even any settings for the player yet 1080p titles upscale to 2160p and report exactly that as do native 2160p titles. The display simply upscales everything including cable TV. The display reports what it's being fed, not the final product. I can however decrease the resolution to 1080p for example (with 1080p titles). This looks terrible on my 2160p display. Far worse then the same title did on my previous Samsung C8500 which was a 1080p display.

A windows 'standard' would be 2160p/60Hz, not 1080p/50Hz in the U.S. Not sure about the E.U.? You certainly aren't utilizing the full 4k resolution gain though. Even the Kodi GUI looks terrible at 1080p compared to 2160p when in the past on a 1080p display it looked good. Maybe it's a PAL vs NTSC thing? Not sure? I'm here NTSC, you're there PAL.

Why not try setting EVERYTHING to 2160p? I'm fairly certain the display is still doing the upscale when needed and not the GPU. The GPU is sending what it can before the display ever renders it afaik. Probably mostly the decoding but I'm not an expert at any of this. It sounds as if you're writing exactly the opposite of my experience? You have a better GPU than I do too so it can't be held responsible for doing a better or worse scaling job than the display? I'd also find it hard to believe all the players software I've used do a better upscale than the display. Not too sure about what I read vs the real world sometimes.......

This is why I write what I read and what actually happens are two different things, at least in my environment. To take upscale task away from GPU and replace to display is already standard afaik. Don't do anything except improve what is given to the display using various GPU and player settings. To take upscale task away from display and give to GPU is what happens when you lower your resolution to 1080p for example and thus is not as good at 'scaling' as the logic in your TV and explains why the image(s) look worse.

Perhaps this explains your 'upscale loss'? Try it. Let us know.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - alturismo - 2017-07-31

natively the pc here would be also 2160/60 of course, but as mentioned the quality of 1080 material is worth then ..
and as mostly stuff here is 50p i dont want to always have refresh active on every change, thats why i use 50 and not 60.

And setting the PC to 1080p and set refresh on start stop, the resolution also changes when playing back 2160p material (movie, desktop, kodi, ...),
so that works as it should and the TV reports also input correctly,

If i set windows to 2160p everything i always 2160, as the TV shows the input 2160 then im pretty sure the upscaling is also done by the gpu and not by the TV, cant imagine how that should work this way,
also when i remember the old dsplayer days with kodi 16 in combination with madvr and all the settings for upscaling to get the best quality.
as i tried the dsplayer madvr option ~ 1 1/2 years ago with an GTX960 and my Sony 65S9005B i had to adjust alot in madvr to come close when using 2160p default
compared to native 1080 output and let the TV upscale, on the edge what the cpu and gpu could handle ...
always talking about 1080 material ... 2160 always looking great as theres no upscaling then needed Wink

hardest job is the LiveTV 1080i material, here is the hard difference between 1080 and 2160 default resolution, that u probably cant follow as NTSC is a different story.
im using TVHeadend as backend and kodi as frontend.

fo ripped movies and so on theres no real difference who upscales (PC or TV) ... but LiveTV theres a real difference, dunno why but my experience.

but may things have changed and i ll give it a try setting all to 2160 and see if thats the clue, on wednesday i have some spare time to give it another try.

Thanks for trying to help.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - Eagle784 - 2017-08-01

I'm having some strange issues with my GT 1030 not being able to play any of the 4K HEVC sample files smoothly in madvr (non-HDR files work fine in PowerDVD 17, HDR files have glitches). Does anyone know of a way to install the 378 drivers on this card so I'm working from the same baseline as everyone else? It used to be easy to just use the inf from a newer driver, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. Thanks.


RE: HOW TO - Kodi 2D - 3D - UHD (4k) HDR Guide Internal & External Players - brazen1 - 2017-08-01

Uhg! Just looked at drivers for that new card and they don't offer the older driver for it and you already tried the inf...... You can still use the newer driver. If memory serves me right, you can still use madVR in windowed mode albeit @8bit which you may not notice any difference from 10bit. PDVD should switch to 10bit and you'll need to manually enable HDR advanced color switch in windows when viewing HDR. Everything else should be ok. Fwiw, if you use madVR for 3D, it needs to be in FSE or 3D doesn't work. PDVD won't matter.

Tests on your card in this forum https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=318937 say your glitches played fine for them testing 4k HEVC and 4k HEVC HDR. Perhaps your madVR config is too aggressive? I should probably post baseline config images here as well.......

Did you try unzipping the older drivers to a folder and installing from Device Manager instead of using the NVidia installer? No idea if this will work but it might? Hate to suggest forcing a driver though.


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