YouTube HDR... finally

[Kuschelmonschter]

YouTube HDR content is finally available!

You will find a playlist here. However, these clips will be played as SDR on Sonys for now.

With youtube-dl you can find vp9.2 encodings for those clips:

330          webm       256x144    144p60  156k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 2.38MiB
331          webm       426x240    240p60  256k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 3.87MiB
332          webm       640x360    360p60  485k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 7.35MiB
333          webm       854x480    480p60  909k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 13.83MiB
334          webm       1280x720   720p60 1991k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 28.18MiB
335          webm       1920x1080  1080p60 3201k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 49.70MiB
336          webm       2560x1440  1440p60 11166k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 170.23MiB
337          webm       3840x2160  2160p60 20122k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 335.45MiB

Those are webm however which the native Video app won't play.

We will see whether we will get support for it soon, even for the early 2016 models with the old MediaTek SoC from last year. At least Sony promised that back at CES:

Spoiler

YouTube will also start streaming in HDR quality later this year, using a new VP9-Profile 2 codec that brings HDR support to Google’s VP9 video format. Sony’s Motoi Kawamura, Head of TV Product Planning for Sony Europe, confirmed to FlatpanelsHD that the 2016 models will support VP9-Profile 2 and be capable of streaming YouTube in HDR. We saw a demo at CES and it looked very good.

Source

[Jecht_Sin]

---

@rooobbwrote:

@sfortis it works !!! It shows me a grey screen if I select the 4K Alt Version, but if I select 4K MiTv and Legacy it starts and my A1 tv switchs to HDR. Very good hints!

---

Same here with my XD80. It works, but it may take a manual selection of the VP9.2 (HDR) stream. I tested this app one year ago, and it was a bit of a mess. I am glad it much improved.

One thing, though. The BT.2020 colour range doesn't get applied. Try this video and switch between Auto and BT.2020 in the Colour Extension (? I am translating from Italian) settings:

Or even better (for me since I have the orginal), this one:

They always use BT.709 and especially on the NASA video I know the colors are wrong (too purple and kind of washed at the beginning, also the Sun gest greenish). In the first video the tomatoes are brown.. Which is the same issue I have when I play  VP9.2 (HDR) videos with Plex. And my understanding was that it is where the API is bugged (and maybe why the official app doesn't play them in HDR).  Not all YouTube VP9.2 videos use BT.2020, though. They may use BT.709 indeed and switching manually to BT.2020 the colors get oversaturated.

Then I am not sure if it's just me, but all the 4K  videos I tested played at 1080p (checked in Stats for Nerds).

But nice finding anyway. Kudoed!

PS: @Itom86 there aren't security issues. The login is managed by Google via YouTube account activation. The only (surprising?) thing is that it seems this app managed to obtain write permission on the external devices. At least I have got a notification after the first run (not sure what that would be used for. Can we download the videos?).

[rooobb]

@Jecht_Sin 

The first video do not play on my a1 in hdr but the second one instead plays nicely with th right colours not greenish sun. Colour set to auto.

As you can see in the stats the video is play in in 4k 60fps

[Jecht_Sin]

@rooobb Hmm.. no. I think you're reading the stats wrong. 2160p is the video stream resolution. But the display resolution (second number) is 1080p. Try to switch to a 1440p stream and you'll see 1440p/1080p. Basically the video gets downsized. And it's also pretty clear to the nude eye because I have seen some pretty bad pixelation. But you can check the stats for the same video from the official app (the names are different and the numbers should be inverted, but you can see how I get 2160p in both numbers):

Regarding BT.2020/BT.709 the only way to test is is too see if switching from auto to BT.2020 or BT.709 the colours change. All videos I tested play as BT.709 at least in my TV. Then in some switching to BT.2020 the result was awful in others (like the two I posted) it looked more natural and in line with original in the case of the NASA video (and both in line with the SDR version).

[stormyuk]

So we get HDR but lose 4K with that software? Oh dear. I think I will stick with resolution thanks, good find though.

Why the hell can't Google/Sony sort this out?

[Jecht_Sin]

@stormyuk Well, it seems so. But I have opened a bug report in GitHub, it may get sorted.

@rooobb Regarding the BT.2020 issue, I took some pictures (they should be self explaining):

If in your A1 BT.2020 looks like AUTO then I believe you have to blame our inferior TV models for the lack of HDR on YouTube! 

Actually.. Blame Mediatek as usual. From what I can see they are making the VP9.2 codecs. Although it is like beating a dead horse! 

[Itom86]

@Jecht_Sin

I can confirm, that all the HDR videos are BT.709. I just tested a handful of them and you are right. 

[rooobb]

I do not have access anymore to the tv...😁

So I'll check later. Regarding the colour space you know which is the source one? 

[stormyuk]

---

@pero_85wrote:

Hi

I created my account just to write how grateful I am for you for providing the solution! Now we have 4K HDR in YT and it looks great and works flawlessly! Thanks so much

---

Can someone post an idiots guide how to install this on the TV. I went to the page on the TV but it won't allow me to download?

Thanks

[Jecht_Sin]

---

@rooobbwrote:

I do not have access anymore to the tv...😁

So I'll check later. Regarding the colour space you know which is the source one? 

---

Sure. Info gotten with MediaInfo for Mac (download) for the LG NASA video downloaded with youtube-dl: 

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : VP9
Codec ID                                 : V_VP9
Duration                                 : 2 min 22 s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 59.940 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant

 I think PQ establishes it is an HDR video (but I am not really sure. Still learning). And the colour space is 100% BT.2020. It seems that's where the API failed since when I tried with Plex. WIth the other failure being apps like Video unable to switch the TV to HDR when playing a downloaded HDR video (VP9.2) from YouTube.

Also, with the cooperation from a guy in the Apple TV forum, we found out some good parameters to convert VP9.2 videos to HEVC HDR with ffmpeg: link.  BT.2020 is forced in the conversion, and once converted the colours are much more vibrant (and realistic) than straight out from the Smart YouTube TV app (which always uses BT.709).

So why Smart YouTube TV does play in HDR while the official app doesn't? My idea is that S-YouTUbe has direct access to the streams, and plays them (or at least tries) no matter what. Since the VP9.2 at least partially works we get to see the videos in HDR (but with the wrong colour space).

The official app instead should do an enumeration of the supported formats first. VP9.2 may fail and so it requests the highest SDR stream. Because the official app does play in HDR some rare HDR video in AVC format, it isn't a matter of HDR not supported in the app. The links to those videos are lost in this thread if one feels like looking for them.. 

PS: Still, even forcing BT.2020 some videos may have a bit of a weird look. A bit over saturated. The ones I play in HEVC (downloaded as such, probably the originals) usually look a bit more natural.

[rooobb]

@Jecht_Sin my super expensive A1 do work exactly like yours  so in Auto it recognize BT709

I'm not so sure about the actual resolution on display, since if you look at the available source like this app can do it says the HDR 4K version is a 19,5 mbps bitstream exactly as the nerd stats says... so the flow is correct maybe the renderer is worng in the stats or actually it recognize the tv as a FHD and downsize it... don't know how to establish that.

In any cas in my opinios this app demostrate:

a) mediatek/Bravia are capable enough to decode vp9.2 HDR video streaming

b) cannot imagine that someone is so smarter than google developers, so there should be a non-technical reason why the official app support is delayed. And since Sony too is not complaining too much, there should be a commercial agreement underneat.

My personal opinion only