[fandangos]

Thank you so much for your hard work, fandangos!

Having said that, there's still a good reason to keep this fork around. Jogal's fork, as great and universal as it is, doesn't support automatically turning HDR on and off. This is a crucial feature that's keeping me hooked to your version of Kodi. Obviously this only applies to the private APIs for Nvidia and AMD GPUs, but nonetheless it's a godsend for my system. As long as this feature isn't in the HDR Windows fork, I feel like this fork has a huge reason for existing.

I'm just sharing my two cents. I can understand if you don't want to put in the work to do so, and I'll respect your decision either way. 

That's why I made this:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=350768

To be used with his fork. )  

Still, your fork only turns on HDR when required. The other switches to HDR on startup and stays that way until shutdown, even with the script. SDR content isn't natively displayed but instead via tone mapping. 

That's not how it works.

I've made a very simple faq for people to understand it.
The kodi user interface will not be rendered in hdr, it will only start hdr for hdr content, because when Kodi starts it requests a 8bit rec.709 swapchain.

The user experience is exactly the same.

[mclingo]

I'm confident thats the best way to do it as well, seems pretty rock solid on my system, works every time, win10 1809 AMD RX5700.

Again, thanks for all your work on this.

[jogal]

That's why I made this:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=350768

To be used with his fork. )  

Still, your fork only turns on HDR when required. The other switches to HDR on startup and stays that way until shutdown, even with the script. SDR content isn't natively displayed but instead via tone mapping.  

That's not how it works.

I've made a very simple faq for people to understand it.
The kodi user interface will not be rendered in hdr, it will only start hdr for hdr content, because when Kodi starts it requests a 8bit rec.709 swapchain.

The user experience is exactly the same. 

I want to clarify things in this regard because I think there is a lot of confusion.

The best case for viewing SDR content is with Windows HDR switch = OFF. Otherwise windows performs unnecessary conversions to display the SDR content in HDR color space.

SDR => HDR (but adapted to SDR)


Case two: the user doesn't care much about quality. You can leave Windows HDR always ON. In this case, you do not need the script "Auto HDR ON"


Case 3: (future) WHEN IT WORKS WELL and does not interfere with auto display refresh rate match, the function of auto switch HDR ON will be implemented.


Current situation: with my fork the BEST option is the button to turn HDR on/off depending on the content to be displayed.

I repeat it again: the button is there because it is currently the best option (even if it is not the most comfortable).

[fandangos]

Jogal, sorry but this is incorrect.

Kodi will not turn hdr on unless hdr content is played.

Turning the windows hdr toggle on before opening kodi doesn't make any difference to sdr content since there are several requirements by Microsoft API to actually "activate" hdr for video content.

The toggle, the swapchain, populating the hdr object with metadata, etc..

And the reason that button exist is because an automatic method that can co exist with refresh rate change was not developed yet.
Until that, using the autohdr tool is the most user friendly experience and I have yet to see one comment about degraded picture quality using it.

SDR is displayed as SDR as normal.

[jogal]

My top priorities are:

1. Image quality in SDR and HDR
   
2. Stability
   
3. Merge PR in master
   
4. Compatibility with non-HDR systems (Kodi works as before for these users)
   
5. Compatibility with other platforms (which does not interfere at the compilation level and does not break anything)
   
6. User friendly experience / GUI / skinning / addons
   

[fandangos]

I totally understand that and I want to help with what I can and with the knowledge I've gained the past few moths working with hdr on windows.

Still my point is valid here. If you request DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 that's what you get despite the toggle position on windows.
So there's no conversion.

That means using AUTOHDR is totally fine and does not degrade SDR PQ.

[jogal]

AUTOHDR not degrade anything.

Windows degrade SDR rendering when HDR is enabled (from Windows settings or AUTOHDR or Kodi button)


If it was never necessary to turn it OFF... Why did the Microsoft ones put the switch there?

Think logically.

[fandangos]

AUTOHDR not degrade anything.

Windows degrade SDR rendering when HDR is enabled (from Windows settings or AUTOHDR or Kodi button)


If it was never necessary to turn it OFF... Why did the Microsoft ones put the switch there?

Think logically.

Because HDR on is terrible for reading content on a monitor.

You don't want to have your eyes peaking at a 700 nits display all the time.

Because unless you won the lottery you don't want to pay a huge electric bill because your tv is driven at the max of it's capacity.

Because you want to extend the life of the leds of your tv and having those at max all the time will shorten it's life.

Because hdr adds tons of lag to the display.

Because it produces motion blur because of the excessive light on led displays.

Because it produces light bleed on displays with poor local dimming.

You want me to go on or those are enough?

And still, the toggle will turn hdr on within the desktop, when you open kodi it disables hdr rendering because kodi requests DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 swapchain.

[jogal]

AUTOHDR not degrade anything.

Windows degrade SDR rendering when HDR is enabled (from Windows settings or AUTOHDR or Kodi button)


If it was never necessary to turn it OFF... Why did the Microsoft ones put the switch there?

Think logically.

Because HDR on is terrible for reading content on a monitor.

You don't want to have your eyes peaking at a 700 nits display all the time.

Because unless you won the lottery you don't want to pay a huge electric bill because your tv is driven at the max of it's capacity.

Because you want to extend the life of the leds of your tv and having those at max all the time will shorten it's life.

Because hdr adds tons of lag to the display.

Because it produces motion blur because of the excessive light on led displays.

Because it produces light bleed on displays with poor local dimming.

You want me to go on or those are enough?

And still, the toggle will turn hdr on within the desktop, when you open kodi it disables hdr rendering because kodi requests DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 swapchain. 

Because HDR on is terrible for watch SDR content on a monitor.   

[fandangos]

AUTOHDR not degrade anything.

Windows degrade SDR rendering when HDR is enabled (from Windows settings or AUTOHDR or Kodi button)


If it was never necessary to turn it OFF... Why did the Microsoft ones put the switch there?

Think logically.

Because HDR on is terrible for reading content on a monitor.

You don't want to have your eyes peaking at a 700 nits display all the time.

Because unless you won the lottery you don't want to pay a huge electric bill because your tv is driven at the max of it's capacity.

Because you want to extend the life of the leds of your tv and having those at max all the time will shorten it's life.

Because hdr adds tons of lag to the display.

Because it produces motion blur because of the excessive light on led displays.

Because it produces light bleed on displays with poor local dimming.

You want me to go on or those are enough?

And still, the toggle will turn hdr on within the desktop, when you open kodi it disables hdr rendering because kodi requests DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 swapchain.  

Because HDR on is terrible for watch SDR content on a monitor.    

IF HDR would be actually ON when SDR content is played what you say is true the difference is that it's not. 

Once again, that toggle on Windows Display settings will turn HDR ON but it is also a HDR enabler.

Toggle HDR settings to ON => Desktop goes into BT.2020 and HDR is activated forcing the display to MAX brightness => Open Kodi => requests REC.709 swapchain => HDR is DISABLED => Start SDR movie, swapchain still is REC.709 => HDR remain OFF => no degradation or difference in picture quality whatsover. 

Picture is identical because HDR is OFF because of Swapchain that is not compatible with HDR. 

If what you say would be true, it means that windows is doing some kind of tonemaping from REC.709 to BT.2020 and later to REC.709, this is just and simply incorrect.

[jogal]

when you open kodi it disables hdr rendering because kodi requests DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 swapchain. 

This is false.


When you open kodi it not enable BT.2020 color space because kodi request BT.709 color space.

HDR is one thing and color space is other thing.

Basically what Windows does is activate HDR without activating BT.2020 color space and G2084 transfer (but HDR is still activated)

[fandangos]

when you open kodi it disables hdr rendering because kodi requests DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 swapchain. 

This is false.


When you open kodi it not enable BT.2020 color space because kodi request BT.709 color space.

HDR is one thing and color space is other thing.

Basically what Windows does is activate HDR without activating BT.2020 color space and G2084 transfer (but HDR is still activated) 

I know why we are arguing... it's because that you use Intel..

Listen, now I remember what users reported when I tried to accomplish hdr for Intel in the past. 
Intel drivers do not kill HDR when Kodi opens and what you are saying is correct. 

Since I use Nvidia it kills HDR rendering, I can show you in a video to make it clear. Give me a few minutes.

[fandangos]

when you open kodi it disables hdr rendering because kodi requests DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709 swapchain. 

This is false.


When you open kodi it not enable BT.2020 color space because kodi request BT.709 color space.

HDR is one thing and color space is other thing.

Basically what Windows does is activate HDR without activating BT.2020 color space and G2084 transfer (but HDR is still activated)

Here



Now can you see the difference?
It's not the same behavior if using AMD and NVIDIA compared to INTEL.

Intel follows the display setting switch.
Nvidia and AMD will follow the swapchain.

[Cinephile]

@fandangos

That clears things up, thanks. Although with Intel and NVIDIA/AMD being so differently implemented doesn’t that the defeat the purpose of merging with main Kodi?

Not sure what the requirements are so I could be wrong.

[fandangos]

@fandangos

That clears things up, thanks. Although with Intel and NVIDIA/AMD being so differently implemented doesn’t that the defeat the purpose of merging with main Kodi?

Not sure what the requirements are so I could be wrong.

There is a function that toggles hdr on/off. It would be better if this function was stripped and made into two, one to turn on and one to turn off. This is easily done.

If the on and off function would be called only when hdr content is played that would be identical for every system.