[Nom1fan]

Did you turn HDR on in your display for the port your computer is plugged into?  Quite honestly, every picture you've put up here and in other threads doesn't look HDR at all.

Yes I did turn on HDR in the display for the port of the PC on the TV settings. Now Windows 10 HDR is also on, and as you can see by my System info above my system is 100% HDR compliant. Also the video file itself is HDR as you can see in the MediaInfo above. If you still think all the images don't look HDR, do you have any other clue or idea why?

[Nom1fan]

It looks like these are actually Kodi screenshots. If so, they will never have HDR or BT.2020 color profile.

These are indeed Kodi screenshots, and if they never provide HDR or BT.2020 color profile that's really strange because they look 100% exactly the same as I see them on my TV screen. In that case maybe I really am not getting HDR. The question is why?

[Warner306]

It looks like these are actually Kodi screenshots. If so, they will never have HDR or BT.2020 color profile.

These are indeed Kodi screenshots, and if they never provide HDR or BT.2020 color profile that's really strange because they look 100% exactly the same as I see them on my TV screen. In that case maybe I really am not getting HDR. The question is why?  

 If you are on Windows, the result is being converted from HDR -> SDR. The color gamut becomes BT.709 and the HDR effect only goes so far as the brightness of your SDR calibration. As has been stated, HDR passthrough is not yet supported, so your TV won't enable HDR mode.

[Nom1fan]

It looks like these are actually Kodi screenshots. If so, they will never have HDR or BT.2020 color profile.

These are indeed Kodi screenshots, and if they never provide HDR or BT.2020 color profile that's really strange because they look 100% exactly the same as I see them on my TV screen. In that case maybe I really am not getting HDR. The question is why?   

 If you are on Windows, the result is being converted from HDR -> SDR. The color gamut becomes BT.709 and the HDR effect only goes so far as the brightness of your SDR calibration. As has been stated, HDR passthrough is not yet supported, so your TV won't enable HDR mode. 

 Wait, what? Really? So what is the meaning of turning Windows 10 HDR on?
And in that case, what's the solution for me? Must I run Kodi on a dedicated Linux OS?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[wesk05]

Wait, what? Really? So what is the meaning of turning Windows 10 HDR on?
And in that case, what's the solution for me? Must I run Kodi on a dedicated Linux OS?
Thanks in advance for your help! 

On Windows, you have to use external video renderers for proper HDR10 playback. On Linux x86 as it is now, you can't get BT.2020 colorimetry output or HDR10 metadata passthrough. Your choices for proper HDR10 playback are Android TV boxes or LibreELEC/CoreELEC/OSMC running on Amlogic SoCs.

For reference, this is how the scene from The Matrix will look like in HD and UHD. To see the color difference, you have to open the images in a photo app that supports ICC profile and preferably on a wide color gamut monitor. Only 4 tiny areas (the reflections on pupil, jacket sleeve and below the collar) in the frame exceed 100 nits.

UHD - https://mega.nz/#!oEsGiYyb!IWKIME07YncqC...v4AX5i-mXI

HD - https://mega.nz/#!FJsiTYRJ!GZiD4nKMVVefN...MSV9VlFT8g

[Nom1fan]

On Windows, you have to use external video renderers for proper HDR10 playback.

Like what? Anything else apart from madVR? Since I tried that and after configuring it by the guide for hours, it worked horribly.
I'm asking because the best solution for me will include using Windows 10, since my HTPC is multi-purpose (also for games and stuff) and I won't be buying any Android TV box or anything like that.

Thanks !

[brazen1]

DSPlayer should not be horrible?  Reports all indicate it works pretty good.  If you prefer something different, you can use external player(s) with the official KODI and your Windows 10.  madVR is one of the options.  After setting it up, if you still have problems, I can teamviewer into you and check where you went wrong but hopefully all would go smooth so you can enjoy your experience.  Details linked in my signature.

[Warner306]

On Windows, you have to use external video renderers for proper HDR10 playback.

Like what? Anything else apart from madVR? Since I tried that and after configuring it by the guide for hours, it worked horribly.
I'm asking because the best solution for me will include using Windows 10, since my HTPC is multi-purpose (also for games and stuff) and I won't be buying any Android TV box or anything like that.

Thanks !

If HDR passthrough with madVR looked horrible, you might prefer the tone mapping in Kodi to your HDR display. That would be surprising. There is also DVDFab Player, but I wouldn’t expect any radical differences if you can get actual HDR playback working.

I’d download MPC and check to see if you actually enabled HDR passthrough. Just stick with the default settings, select hardware decoding, madVR as the renderer and hdr passthrough, and play something.

You could simply add MPC as an external player in Kodi if it looks any better, just to handle the few HDR movies in your collection.

Otherwise, I’d invest in a cheap Kodi box that supports HDR or wait for support from Linux.

Edit: I just looked at your at system info in the first post. Are you using a Samsung display that supports HDR playback?

[Nom1fan]

DSPlayer should not be horrible?  Reports all indicate it works pretty good.  If you prefer something different, you can use external player(s) with the official KODI and your Windows 10.  madVR is one of the options.  After setting it up, if you still have problems, I can teamviewer into you and check where you went wrong but hopefully all would go smooth so you can enjoy your experience.  Details linked in my signature.

 DSPlayer with madVR just failed to smoothly play a lot of my videos Even after hours of following the huge guide very carefully.
Wow TeamViewer is a really nice offer on your part! Thanks so much!! I just might take you up on that

[Nom1fan]

On Windows, you have to use external video renderers for proper HDR10 playback.

Like what? Anything else apart from madVR? Since I tried that and after configuring it by the guide for hours, it worked horribly.
I'm asking because the best solution for me will include using Windows 10, since my HTPC is multi-purpose (also for games and stuff) and I won't be buying any Android TV box or anything like that.

Thanks ! 

If HDR passthrough with madVR looked horrible, you might prefer the tone mapping in Kodi to your HDR display. That would be surprising. There is also DVDFab Player, but I wouldn’t expect any radical differences if you can get actual HDR playback working.

I’d download MPC and check to see if you actually enabled HDR passthrough. Just stick with the default settings, select hardware decoding, madVR as the renderer and hdr passthrough, and play something.

You could simply add MPC as an external player in Kodi if it looks any better, just to handle the few HDR movies in your collection.

Otherwise, I’d invest in a cheap Kodi box that supports HDR or wait for support from Linux.

Edit: I just looked at your at system info in the first post. Are you using a Samsung display that supports HDR playback? 

It's not that using DSPlayer with madVR looked horrible, it worked horrible. That is, all 4K HDR movies stuttered into oblivion and were unwatchable.
As far as I remember I tested it with MPC and madVR as well and got the same stuttered result. I can test it again.

I am using a Samsung 75" NU8000 TV. I have turned on HDR for all the display ports in the TV settings (For both PS4 HDMI input port as well as the PC's).
Is there something in my system info that makes you think HDR is not supported?

[Wanilton]

@Nom1fan

Look line 33 in your system info, say

Monitor Capabilities: HDR Not Supported (BT2020RGB BT2020YCC )

Kodi in windows have support 10 bits via advancedsettings.xml file, have new improvements in directx by afedchin.

Code:

<advancedsettings>     
<video>  
  <allowdiscretedecoder>true</allowdiscretedecoder>
 </video>
  <try10bitoutput>true</try10bitoutput>    
</advancedsettings>

About try10bitoutput = added 10bit output if supported. Allow output 10bit videos without converting them to 8bit.
About allowdiscretedecoder = added the possibility to use a separate device for decoding (disabled by default). it allows avoiding lockups of device's context.

[Warner306]

 

It's not that using DSPlayer with madVR looked horrible, it worked horrible. That is, all 4K HDR movies stuttered into oblivion and were unwatchable.
As far as I remember I tested it with MPC and madVR as well and got the same stuttered result. I can test it again.

I am using a Samsung 75" NU8000 TV. I have turned on HDR for all the display ports in the TV settings (For both PS4 HDMI input port as well as the PC's).
Is there something in my system info that makes you think HDR is not supported?  

If you want further support, take this discussion to the DSPlayer thread, as this no longer has anything to do with any fault of Kodi. System info says your display doesn't support HDR, but the EDID tab in madVR would be more important (under devices). It obviously does support HDR. You have to work with what you've got. HDR content is very restrictive and using external players can be clunky but is the only workaround for Windows users for the foreseeable future.

You don't need a guide to get 4K playback working. Start with MPC-HC. Reset madVR to its defaults from the installation folder. Set both the CPU and GPU queues in general settings to 6 and the present queue to 6. You are probably overtaxing your GPU and also running out of VRAM. The default settings with slightly lower memory queues should produce smooth playback if you enabled D3D11 (Automatic) hardware decoding in LAV Video with HEVC and UHD checked. DXVA2 copy-back should also be tried if things are still not smooth.

[drpizznock]

The TV is a Samsung 75" NU8000 it shouldn't have any problems with signal. https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=333330

[Nom1fan]

@Nom1fan

Look line 33 in your system info, say

Monitor Capabilities: HDR Not Supported (BT2020RGB BT2020YCC )

Kodi in windows have support 10 bits via advancedsettings.xml file, have new improvements in directx by afedchin.

Code:

<video>
  <try10bitoutput>true</try10bitouput>
  <allowdiscretedecoder>false</allowdiscretedecoder>
</video>

About try10bitoutput = added 10bit output if supported. Allow output 10bit videos without converting them to 8bit.
About allowdiscretedecoder = added the possibility to use a separate device for decoding (disabled by default). it allows avoiding lockups of device's context.  

I'm really sorry guys, my System Information link was of an old pastebin link.
I updated it in my original post and now you can see HDR is supported.

But still, regarding this try10bitoutput setting, do you think that will allow Kodi 18 to actually passthrough HDR playback without any external players?

[Nom1fan]

 

It's not that using DSPlayer with madVR looked horrible, it worked horrible. That is, all 4K HDR movies stuttered into oblivion and were unwatchable.
As far as I remember I tested it with MPC and madVR as well and got the same stuttered result. I can test it again.

I am using a Samsung 75" NU8000 TV. I have turned on HDR for all the display ports in the TV settings (For both PS4 HDMI input port as well as the PC's).
Is there something in my system info that makes you think HDR is not supported?    

If you want further support, take this discussion to the DSPlayer thread, as this no longer has anything to do with any fault of Kodi. System info says your display doesn't support HDR, but the EDID tab in madVR would be more important (under devices). It obviously does support HDR. You have to work with what you've got. HDR content is very restrictive and using external players can be clunky but is the only workaround for Windows users for the foreseeable future.

You don't need a guide to get 4K playback working. Start with MPC-HC. Reset madVR to its defaults from the installation folder. Set both the CPU and GPU queues in general settings to 6 and the present queue to 6. You are probably overtaxing your GPU and also running out of VRAM. The default settings with slightly lower memory queues should produce smooth playback if you enabled D3D11 (Automatic) hardware decoding in LAV Video with HEVC and UHD checked. DXVA2 copy-back should also be tried if things are still not smooth.  

Okay. Thank you very much! I will try you suggestions and report back.

EDIT: OK, I downloaded this unofficial MPC-HC build and tried using it with madVR reset to default.
In LAV Video I tried setting D3D11 (Automatic) but I had no such option. See the screenshot below:



So I ended up selecting DXVA2 (copy-back). The result is quite smooth apart from a short sutter when I start playing but from there on it is smooth.
The thing is it's hard for me to see much difference compared to Kodi 18 regarding the color.
Perhaps in The Matrix it's hard to tell. Are there any good HDR samples that you know of?
Perhaps I should try using those to compare and really get some confidence regarding the difference because right now I just have no idea.

Thanks again!