[brazen1]

I'm using the latest drivers offered by NVidia at RGB 4:4:4 8bit now.  I used to set them up as 12bit matching refresh rates and let them dither down to 10bit but I discovered this introduced banding, so 8bit is best unless your display supports native 12bit and can properly dither to 10.  Most, including mine, are 10bit and do not like 12bits sent.  The new drivers also do not retain the 12bit setting any longer after a reboot.  The picture quality remains the same to my eyes so no great loss.  Of course we'd all like to render 10bit and match our titles but until NVidia introduces a 10bit RGB setting and not just 8 or 12, using 8 is better because of the banding.  You could still use 10bit if you wanted using 4:2:2 since it is offered but I wouldn't because it is only limited range and not full like RGB.  The same is true for older drivers so might as well use the new ones and see if NVidia gets with the program.  Alternatively, AMD is reported to output RGB at 10bit with no banding but I haven't personally tried and put little credence in the report tbh.  There could be other AMD issues unmentioned too..... or not.  Haven't tried.

[ragico]

Thanks a lot brazen1.
Very kind of you,

[bsoriano]

I'm using the latest drivers offered by NVidia at RGB 4:4:4 8bit now.  I used to set them up as 12bit matching refresh rates and let them dither down to 10bit but I discovered this introduced banding, so 8bit is best unless your display supports native 12bit and can properly dither to 10.  Most, including mine, are 10bit and do not like 12bits sent.  The new drivers also do not retain the 12bit setting any longer after a reboot.  The picture quality remains the same to my eyes so no great loss.  Of course we'd all like to render 10bit and match our titles but until NVidia introduces a 10bit RGB setting and not just 8 or 12, using 8 is better because of the banding.  You could still use 10bit if you wanted using 4:2:2 since it is offered but I wouldn't because it is only limited range and not full like RGB.  The same is true for older drivers so might as well use the new ones and see if NVidia gets with the program.  Alternatively, AMD is reported to output RGB at 10bit with no banding but I haven't personally tried and put little credence in the report tbh.  There could be other AMD issues unmentioned too..... or not.  Haven't tried.

Thanks brazen1!

So, right now in the nVidia NCP you have RGB full 8 bits for everything? Also, I noticed that in your detailed madVR settings (thank you so much for those!) you have your display color space as DCI-P3.  Does that provide you better quality than putting BT.2020?

Thank you for your continued support and guidance.

Regards,

Bart

[brazen1]

Your welcome folks, anytime.  Review those madVR setting pics again carefully.  Warner was kind enough to educate me so I updated two of them.  Please rep point him from time to time.  He deserves way more than he has and is as valuable an asset as assets come.  Yes, 8bit for everything until NVidia allows or enables 10bit exclusive setting just like 8 and 12 are now for RGB.  DCIP3 is the newest calibration setting that was provided for us.  Essentially, no displays are ready for BT2020 yet.  We can't possibly fill the spectrum of color it provides but it is part of the HDR spec for when we can.  You can calibrate to that setting but you will see a discrepancy and you can test it yourself various ways, so without going into information overload (which confuses me at times):

The reason I switched to this setting is because although HDR looked great in the past, SDR titles did not look as good as they could.  They lacked depth in color.  You could use BT.709 and both will look great but then your HDR BT.2020 title will extra process to BT.709 and why do it?  You can disable calibration and HDR will still look great but SDR won't.  It will lack depth in color.  Instead, I use the new calibration DCI-P3 which will advance into the future and it looks as good as it gets when using HDR and SDR which is perfect of course    Use pure power curve at 2.20.  You can change the 2.20 to any of the other ratios depending on your display and your viewing environment but you will probably end up back at 2.20 in the end.

[brazen1]

Using new NVidia 391.35 driver from today.  Still no 10bit RGB at 30Hz or under so staying with 8bit.  Still disables stereoscopic after HDR playback.  Played a few 3D, 2D, HDR, and SDR titles.  Also installed new LAVFilters.  Good to go.

Someone in another forum mentioned a bug so I decided to test it.  If you open various windows on your desktop and have them various sizes, and then proceed to play an HDR title, when you are finished with playback and close the player, all those windows on the desktop resize smaller and congregate in the top left corner of the desktop.  There was a fix noted so I tried it even though many said there was no effect at various forums.  It worked for me.  Now if I find myself in that situation, open windows stay just as I've sized and arranged them on the desktop even after HDR playback player closes.  Here's what I did fwiw:

1st and foremost, made a system image.  Opened any folder and typed regedit in the address bar.  Navigated to this to the regedit address bar: 

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration

I deleted every folder in the Configuration folder and closed regedit.
Next I typed msconfig in any folder address bar and selected the boot tab and checked safe mode and rebooted.
In safe mode I opened DDU v17.0.8.4, previously downloaded and used it's remove GEForce experience and Clean and restart function to remove any existence of residual graphic drivers.
DDU alone does not clean the regedit entries involved but does clean others.
Then I installed the new nivida driver, adjusted it and rebooted.

Tested a few titles and checked to make sure windows open on the desktop remained undisturbed and they did.
Checked regedit to see if any of the deleted items in the Configuration reappeared and they didn't.
I see no adverse affects but in the event I do in the future, I have the system image created in step one to fall back on as if nothing ever occurred.
I see some complaints in KODI forums that KODI itself and other strange things resize after waking from sleep etc although I have never experienced the same. 
Perhaps this will help as a last resort.

[brazen1]

I have discovered what I assume is another bug introduced by NVidia drivers.  Yesterday I decided to work it out.  The problem:

Right click your volume icon with your AVR OFF or in standby using passthrough.  It should be setup for Stereo.
Now, turn your AVR ON.  It should be setup for 5.1 or 7.1 etc.  (What ever you use during video playback)
This should automate between stereo and 7.1 (for example) as you toggle your AVR off and on.  If it doesn't, you will have to manually change it.  If you forget, high bitrate audios will malfunction (audio filter errors) during video playback mode and/or youtube videos from desktop mode will not start.

Not knowing if this was associated with a Windows update or something else, I decided to install NVidia drivers working backwards to rule them out as the culprit or find a working driver to identify where the problem originated. 
Eventually the audio setup started working as intended and I've concluded it is an NVidia driver issue.  Here's what I installed and concluded using DDU between installs:

391.35-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Audio problem.
391.24-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Audio problem.
391.01-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Audio problem.
390.65-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Audio problem.  This is the driver the audio problem was introduced.
All of these drivers also cannot retain a 12bit setting after a reboot but you should be using 8bit anyway since 12bit introduces banding unless your display handles 12bit native properly.

388.59-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Does not turn HDR off after HDR playback but Audio switching problem is not present.  This was the last good driver for audio switching.
387.92-desktop-win10-64bit-international-rs3-whql.exe = Does not turn HDR on prior to HDR playback.
385.69-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Working properly for HDR and Audio switching but any mouse movement turns 3D into 2D briefly.  This is the driver I have reverted to.  This also means I will need to use FSE.
385.28-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe = Working properly for HDR and Audio switching. 
These drivers survive a reboot when using 12bit but again, you should be using 8bit unless your display handles 12bit native properly.

Understanding Nvidia has worked out many bugs, it now has these:

No 10bit selection when using RGB.
No auto switch from stereo to multiple speaker setup in Windows Audio considering if AVR state is On or Off. 
Audio Video sync for common refresh rates such as 23.976 f/ps leads to dropped frames without creating custom timings.

Confirmations would be appreciated.

[Alcarimon]

 
Create #1 .bat file as you did for the playercorefactory.xml. Name this MPCBE.bat and not MPCBE.bat.txt. Edit the following text into it and edit the drive letter you assigned to VCD. The example below shows A: presently.

Code:

Set file=%1
Set dummy=%file:iso=%
IF NOT %dummy% == %file% (GOTO playiso) ELSE (goto playbdmv)

:playbdmv
set pth=%1
set pth=%pth:BDMV\MovieObject.bdmv=%
set pth=%pth:BDMV\index.bdmv=%
"C:\Program Files\MPC-BE x64\mpc-be64.exe" %pth% exit
exit

:playiso
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /enable
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe" /d=0 %1
"C:\Program Files\MPC-BE x64\mpc-be64.exe" A:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe" /d=0 /u
exit

Hi,

first of all tsk for this fantastic solution to watch Video HDR in Kodi!!! 

but sorry, I'm a beginner and I'm going to ask you about the following asks:
- I've seen only ISO file.. well, is it possible to change It for .mkv?
- I don't understand when you say Drive Letter. Really sorry but I don't know which one I have to set. 

TKS 

Roberto 

[brazen1]

The method in this guide plays any file.  Doesn't matter if you are using an iso or an mkv container.  Since you are only using .mkv, the drive letter is not important for you.  But to answer your question:

"C:\Program Files\MPC-BE x64\mpc-be64.exe" A: <---------

"A" is the letter you assign to Virtual Clone Drive or what ever letter you want to assign it as explained in detail in the guide.

[garretn]

Just throwing this out there in case anyone took a long time to realize it like I did for UHD HDR playback. If your TV supports UPNP/DLNA, turn on the UPNP server in Kodi settings and browse to Kodi directly on your TV, watch the movie. It's not within Kodi, and watched status doesn't update, but its also hassle-free. Your TV will detect the metadata just fine, and at least my Samsung TV had zero issues with the MakeMKV-made direct UHD-rip mkv container.

[Alcarimon]

WOW! I studied on my TV and with win setting and now almost ok. in a first time I setted HDR mode in win setting but it made a lot of problem when fullhd film runs. 

Only one problem.. when I'd  like to shout down  the MPC-BE to come back to Kodi home I can't do it because  Kodi doesn't go back  to runs normally but with almost black screen.  So it's impossible to use it.

Is it a screen resolution problem? Have you any ideas?  

Any way... really really good!! TKS a lot!!

[Alcarimon]

WOW! I studied on my TV and with win setting and now almost ok. in a first time I setted HDR mode in win setting but it made a lot of problem when fullhd film runs. 

Only one problem.. when I'd  like to shout down  the MPC-BE to come back to Kodi home I can't do it because  Kodi doesn't go back  to runs normally but with almost black screen or mini windows.  So it's impossible to use it.

Is it a screen resolution problem? Have you any ideas?  

Any way... really really good!! TKS a lot!!

[brazen1]

Do not turn on Windows HDR setting.  Never.  It is not impossible to use this method.  It works perfectly.  Your resolution in Windows graphics setting and in Kodi setting is the same - Your highest native resolution.  Make sure 'Use a fullscreen window' is checked and enabled.  Follow the guide instructions.  If there is something specific in the instructions you are not certain you understand, ask.

[masters01]

Awesome guides you made here brazen1, kudos. From what I understand if I use only mkv's for 3D MVC I can just use MPC-BE instead of Power DVD software and still follow your guide ?

And HDR is this the real deal (full HDR metadata passthrough) ? No forced HDR activation , thus tricking your TV but no real HDR on screen right ?

[brazen1]

Thank you.  Correct.  You can use MPC-BE/HC or PDVD for 3D MVC.  Since your source is only .mkv, you won't be able to use menus so MPC-BE/HC is a good choice and yes, follow the guide exactly.

Yes, HDR is the real deal and passes through.  I don't know what you mean by forced HDR activation?  Nothing is being tricked.  If your source is HDR, your display goes into HDR mode and plays HDR perfectly just as it would with a physical disc.  This occurs automatically and dynamically switches as needed.  I would suggest ripping your entire disc 1:1 and using DVDFab Player to mimic it precisely as the physical disc in a dedicated player but you can partially rip it to mkv and use MPC-BE/HC if you desire.    If you mean HDR converts to SDR:  You only need to change some settings to convert an HDR into SDR mode if your display is not capable of HDR.  This too is automatic and dynamically switches.  Understand, there is no tricking or unreal rendering going on.  This method provides a better picture than a dedicated player with a physical disc ever will by fine tuning many aspects a dedicated player simply isn't capable of.

Please star rate the thread at the top page as you see fit.

[Alcarimon]

Hi Brazen1,

Sorry.. another problem... i can’t use 5.1 sound with MPC. With KODI player no problem;
in Kodi i’ve setted with the only choise to work on 5.1 channel so in the first option Direct sound and i’ve activated the passthrough with AC3, DTS etc..

😶😱😦

Tks
Bye