HDR, does it work?
#1
Hi,

Sorry I have to ask this, but reading all other threads regarding HDR and 4K just can't give me a clear answer. So here it is:

Will I be able to play 4K HDR files on Kodi if I have hardware that supports it (for example Intel Coffee Lake), a TV that supports it (LG OLED55B6V) and a 4K HDR (10-bit hevc) MKV file?

I'm looking for a yes or no answer, with a short explaination why. The reason for this is that I want to build a custom Kodi HTPC, I will add hardware that will cover the support 4K HDR and maybe more. I want to run Kodi on a low-resource OS, but haven't researched which one is best yet, OpenELEC is the first one that comes to mind. The HTPC needs to be able to play all 4K HDR content, downloaded or directly from Blu-Ray. I'm not interested in pre-build boxes, since I want to be able to upgrade simply and possibly edit the purpose of the entire HTPC (possibly dual-boot with some gaming system like SteamOS).

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Jaspils
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#2
Yes I did a fresh install and it started working fine I guess with the addons I had it changed something but I can now play my video files and 4k hdr works hope that helps
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#3
Quote: Yes I did a fresh install and it started working fine I guess with the addons I had it changed something but I can now play my video files and 4k hdr works hope that helps

Thanks, a confirmation that it is at least possible gives me confidence to start a project.
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#4
Unless things changed recently (like today), you cannot get proper HDR10 playback with Windows or Linux Kodi installations on Intel/AMD systems. You may be able to decode and output 10-bit HEVC HDR10 content, but the HDR10 InfoFrame will be missing. You could get one of the HDFury devices to manually inject a custom HDR InfoFrame.
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#5
Quote:Unless things changed recently (like today), you cannot get proper HDR10 playback with Windows or Linux Kodi installations on Intel/AMD systems. You may be able to decode and output 10-bit HEVC HDR10 content, but the HDR10 InfoFrame will be missing. You could get one of the HDFury devices to manually inject a custom HDR InfoFrame.
Assuming the HDR-InfoFrame is the thing that makes it "HDR" when played back on my tv, I defnitely need that. You mention that it is not supported on either Windows or Linux. But is there something else that is powerfull, runs Kodi, and supports the HDR10 InfoFrame? You say HDFury devices manually inject custom HDR InfoFrames, but I don't really like the "Custom" part, I find something to play the original file with original HDR.
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#6
Also AFAIK there currently are 4 formats: HDR10, DV, HLG, and HDR10+ and 2 codecs, HEVC Main10 and VP9 profile 2.  So any statement about compatibility needs to consider that.

scott s.
.
maintainer of skin  Aeon MQ5 mods for post-Gotham Kodi releases:
Matrix see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Matrix release thread
Nexus see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Nexus release thread
Aeon MQ 5 skin and addon repo 11.1.0
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#7
(2018-01-31, 21:28)Jaspils Wrote: Assuming the HDR-InfoFrame is the thing that makes it "HDR" when played back on my tv, I defnitely need that. You mention that it is not supported on either Windows or Linux. But is there something else that is powerfull, runs Kodi, and supports the HDR10 InfoFrame? You say HDFury devices manually inject custom HDR InfoFrames, but I don't really like the "Custom" part, I find something to play the original file with original HDR. 
Yes, the HDR InfoFrame is what makes it HDR. You indicated that you want a system that can be upgraded or repurposed for another task. I am not aware of any such system that supports HDR10 playback. The newly released Gemini Lake NUCs seem to be promising. There are couple of ARM based devices that support HDR10 playback. You should take a look at this discussion: START HERE - Pick the Right Kodi Box (updated December 2017)
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#8
(2018-01-31, 21:28)Jaspils Wrote:
Quote:Unless things changed recently (like today), you cannot get proper HDR10 playback with Windows or Linux Kodi installations on Intel/AMD systems. You may be able to decode and output 10-bit HEVC HDR10 content, but the HDR10 InfoFrame will be missing. You could get one of the HDFury devices to manually inject a custom HDR InfoFrame.
Assuming the HDR-InfoFrame is the thing that makes it "HDR" when played back on my tv, I defnitely need that. You mention that it is not supported on either Windows or Linux. But is there something else that is powerfull, runs Kodi, and supports the HDR10 InfoFrame? You say HDFury devices manually inject custom HDR InfoFrames, but I don't really like the "Custom" part, I find something to play the original file with original HDR. 
 wesk05 needs to wake up so don't mind him. 

Kodi DS (non official but I still consider this "Kodi") with madVR will passthrough HDR perfectly using nvidia 10xx and select 9xx (well...all support HDMI 2.0(x) but not all support hevc decoding in hardware) using the Nvidia HDR API. It even worked long before MS actually introduced HDR support in a Win10 update,

It will currently not work automated with the native Win10 HDR API, but that is supposedly MS fault. If they fix that in the future (which they at some point will, no doubt), then it should be be possible to automate HDR switching with intel 7th gen CPU's with integrated GPUs as long as it supports HDMI 2.0(x)  (and is HD 620 or better, although YMMV may vary when it comes to the various lower end Intel CPUs). 

All in all, it should keep you happy until Kodi properly supports HDR.
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#9
(2018-02-01, 04:37)Soli Wrote: wesk05 needs to wake up so don't mind him. 

Kodi DS (non official but I still consider this "Kodi") with madVR will passthrough HDR perfectly using nvidia 10xx and select 9xx (well...all support HDMI 2.0(x) but not all support hevc decoding in hardware) using the Nvidia HDR API. It even worked long before MS actually introduced HDR support in a Win10 update,

It will currently not work automated with the native Win10 HDR API, but that is supposedly MS fault. If they fix that in the future (which they at some point will, no doubt), then it should be be possible to automate HDR switching with intel 7th gen CPU's with integrated GPUs as long as it supports HDMI 2.0(x)  (and is HD 620 or better, although YMMV may vary when it comes to the various lower end Intel CPUs). 

All in all, it should keep you happy until Kodi properly supports HDR.  
I'm awake  Smile . Out of the box Kodi doesn't support it. Yes, you can use external players and workarounds to make it work. It's my fault that I didn't consider those when I made my previous comment. I have highlighted the existing problems that you mention in your post. Also the OP wants to run it on a low resource OS. Is a Linux version of Kodi DS or madVR available?
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#10
Thanks for all the replies. This clears a lot up for me. To clarify, I still haven't bought any hardware, so I can get anything that would be neccesary and supported. 
Quote:Also AFAIK there currently are 4 formats: HDR10, DV, HLG, and HDR10+ and 2 codecs, HEVC Main10 and VP9 profile 2.  So any statement about compatibility needs to consider that.
Pretty much all HDR content I can get my hands on are HDR10 HEVC. Only Netflix gives me DV, but I use that through the native app on my TV. 
Quote:Kodi DS (non official but I still consider this "Kodi") with madVR will passthrough HDR perfectly using nvidia 10xx and select 9xx (well...all support HDMI 2.0(x) but not all support hevc decoding in hardware) using the Nvidia HDR API. 
It would have been cheapest to go for Intel Integraded GPU, but I already assumed I was going to buy a Nvidia GT 1030 GPU. Which should be able to run what you mention. However, I haven't heard of it before. Are there any tutorials to get this running?
Quote:It even worked long before MS actually introduced HDR support in a Win10 update,

It will currently not work automated with the native Win10 HDR API, but that is supposedly MS fault. If they fix that in the future (which they at some point will, no doubt), then it should be be possible to automate HDR switching with intel 7th gen CPU's with integrated GPUs as long as it supports HDMI 2.0(x)  (and is HD 620 or better, although YMMV may vary when it comes to the various lower end Intel CPUs). 
I was aiming at an Intel Core i3-8100, which has the HD 630 iGPU and supports 4K HDR playback, in combination with an "ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac", one of the few motherboards with HDMI 2.0(a) outputs. So if this ever gets fixed, my iGPU should be sufficient.
Quote:Also the OP wants to run it on a low resource OS. Is a Linux version of Kodi DS or madVR available?
As Weks05 mentions, most of this information assumes I run Windows (10). But my first thought would be to get an OS that is less resource-hungry and just aims for best performance for Kodi. Is that even possible in my case, and are the mentioned workaround for HDR available for not-Windows operating systems?
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#11
(2018-02-01, 05:09)wesk05 Wrote: I'm awake  Smile . Out of the box Kodi doesn't support it. Yes, you can use external players and workarounds to make it work. It's my fault that I didn't consider those when I made my previous comment. I have highlighted the existing problems that you mention in your post. Also the OP wants to run it on a low resource OS. Is a Linux version of Kodi DS or madVR available? 
 MadVR is not an external player but a video renderer that uses Windows directshow API, it integrates with KODI DS seamlessly and it's own right it's not a "workaround", although it can be argued that it is a workaround from the perspective of using vanilla Kodi.
Since the OP is building a custom HTPC, it can also be argued that Win10 is for all intents purposes also a resource OS, and besides it might also be used for gaming which means a Nvidia card is likely to be installed anyways.
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#12
Quote:Since the OP is building a custom HTPC, it can also be argued that Win10 is for all intents purposes also a resource OS, and besides it might also be used for gaming which means a Nvidia card is likely to be installed anyways.
For gaming I don't neccesarily need Win10, I was also thinking about SteamOS somehow as dual boot next to the OS Kodi will run on. But gaming is low priority on the HTPC and will likely not be used or even installed in the first few months. Installing a Nvidia card was always one of my expectation so that is calculated in my budget.
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#13
(2018-02-01, 15:05)Jaspils Wrote:  As Weks05 mentions, most of this information assumes I run Windows (10). But my first thought would be to get an OS that is less resource-hungry and just aims for best performance for Kodi. Is that even possible in my case, and are the mentioned workaround for HDR available for not-Windows operating systems? 
 No. There are too many variables in Linux atm. Drivers, underlaying gfx libraries, Kodi itself. 
I can imagine it might be hacked into LE at an earlier point (there are some clever devs there) but that would still at least require that the GFX driver supports it.
If we're lucky..Ubuntu 20.04 will be the earliest LTS release that will support all of this.
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#14
(2018-02-01, 15:27)Soli Wrote:
(2018-02-01, 15:05)Jaspils Wrote:  As Weks05 mentions, most of this information assumes I run Windows (10). But my first thought would be to get an OS that is less resource-hungry and just aims for best performance for Kodi. Is that even possible in my case, and are the mentioned workaround for HDR available for not-Windows operating systems? 
 No. There are too many variables in Linux atm. Drivers, underlaying gfx libraries, Kodi itself. 
I can imagine it might be hacked into LE at an earlier point (there are some clever devs there) but that would still at least require that the GFX driver supports it.
If we're lucky..Ubuntu 20.04 will be the earliest LTS release that will support all of this. 
That explains. Since I'm not a dev myself, I would simply have to wait till it is supported, and use Windows-based Kodi DS with MadVR till that time. Do you happen to know any tutorials to implement this?
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#15
(2018-02-01, 15:26)Jaspils Wrote:
Quote:Since the OP is building a custom HTPC, it can also be argued that Win10 is for all intents purposes also a resource OS, and besides it might also be used for gaming which means a Nvidia card is likely to be installed anyways.
For gaming I don't neccesarily need Win10, I was also thinking about SteamOS somehow as dual boot next to the OS Kodi will run on. But gaming is low priority on the HTPC and will likely not be used or even installed in the first few months. Installing a Nvidia card was always one of my expectation so that is calculated in my budget.  
 To be perfectly honest. The new Apple TV 4K does it all if you can live without addons and Atmos sound (at least for the time being) . It supports auto refreshrate and auto HDR/SD switching for all native app, and I also think MrMC (forked Kodi without most of the addons) supports this?
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