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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:
Huh.. no. I have nothing personal against you. How can I? I don't even know you!
But I have a thing, call it an OCD if you like, against very vocal, quite small minorities pretending to speak for everyone else.
Because the app is now fine. The interface is great, and perfectly in line with Material Design. Try to open Google Play on your Android Phone and put the phone in landscape mode. The left menu is even BIGGER than the red menu on YouTube for TV. It takes more than half of the screen. As I can easily find the content I subscribed to. Also the suggestions are really in line with my interests. Sure few things can be improved, like the lack of resolution choices, or the too slow fast/back forward. Google could easily move some controls (like the CC and the Like/Unlike buttons) to the main, nearly empty line, instead of going to the second one. But I am not going to loose sleep over that.
In terms of performances it plays 4K content that in 1.3.11 was limited to 1080p. Yes, it may stutter, but at 2160p@60fps. And it depends on the day. Google is probably constantly changing things in the servers. 1.3.11 was regularly freezing the image for seconds with 1080p@60fps videos.
The Brand Account are now supported and it doesn't crash on me. I use it daily and if it did it, did it once only that I can remember. The only thing missing is HDR, but I am quite sure at this point that Mediatek screwed up badly with the Profile VP9.2 Codecs on Sony Bravia. Because only Plex plays in HDR vp9.2 videos downloaded from YouTube. Also because there are a couple of links in this thread to non vp9.2 videos that do play in HDR. So the app has no issues playing HDR content if the OS informs the app to do so.
Thus basically now YouTube has even more (and better) functionalities than 1.3.11. And still we have to read people saying that the app is broken? The app is functional, and now working as intended. It took nearly an year and a half, but now it's there.
The Stats for Nerds are back. Google changed their format as well. Some info have been grouped together (like Current/Optimal Res) making the window a bit smaller.
I am honestly amazed by how YouTube now goes to 4K immediately. At least with most videos I just tested. I get Netflix starting even as low as 480p. And let's forget about Amazon Video.
Is it just me or is 60p playback way worse again? I factory resetted in the meantime though. There ist really heavy stuttering at 2160p60...
Kuschelmonschter wrote:Is it just me or is 60p playback way worse again? I factory resetted in the meantime though. There ist really heavy stuttering at 2160p60...
I don't know. On my TV "The World in HDR" (2160p@60) plays as usual. Tested yesterday and now. A bit of nearly constant microstuttering and sometimes it goes temporarely to 1440p. But nothing really annoying, it's more than watchable. Instead "Costa Rica in 4K 60 fps" plays at 30fps. I am quite sure I had seen it playing at 60fps in a way or another. Not that I complain, since in general 2160p@30fps is quite smooth, even smoother that at 60fps.
Ok. Now (2nd play) The World in HDR is stuttering. It started after more than half video, though. I believe YouTube uses far too much CPU, even at 30fps. As I don't understand why. Playing the downloaded YouTube videos with Sony's Video the CPU usage is nearly irrelevant, close to 0%. And even Amazon Video is much lighter in CPU terms. But it uses an awful lot of RAM (at least I still believe that's why it can freeze for a 1/10 of a second in some cases). Then again, immediately after a reboot the vision is usually smooth.
Personally I'd give to the whole YouTube 4K experience a 9 out of 10. I am quite annoyed with the other services all starting the videos at ridiculous resolutions.
You are pretty generous. Jerky playback on my scale hardly deserves 1/10...
Indeed CPU usage of YouTube 2.0 is a problem. It used to be a fraction in YouTube 1.X.
This is great news! Thanks for the update!
How fast bandwidth do you need to make 4k 60fps work? My DL speed is 35-36MB, but never reach 4k in 60fps videos. 4k/30fps works fine
According to youtube-dl, The World in HDR is 30mbps for 2160p60 VP9.
315 webm 3840x2160 2160p60 29805k , vp9, 60fps, video only, 457.80MiB
Kuschelmonschter wrote:You are pretty generous. Jerky playback on my scale hardly deserves 1/10...
Indeed CPU usage of YouTube 2.0 is a problem. It used to be a fraction in YouTube 1.X.
But it wasn't jerky. Just not very smooth. With microstuttering I mean that the frame rate oscillates, maybe sometimes it stops for a 1/10 of a second. Then the second play it was stuttering. But generally speaking it's watchable, smoother than some PS3 games.
2160p30fps instead is perfect. Well, compression artefacts apart in various videos.. But that's how the videos have been converted in the server. And the 30 fps videos all seem to start at 2160p, and there they stay. The worst I have got has been 1440p@60fps. Which adds a lot to the experience compared to all other video streaming services, some (Amazon Video) taking even a minute or two to go full res. But also Netflix has been quite bad this month I subscribed.
Itom86 wrote:How fast bandwidth do you need to make 4k 60fps work? My DL speed is 35-36MB, but never reach 4k in 60fps videos. 4k/30fps works fine
Nope. I am afraid you're just there. I did some approximative measurements just the other day, monitoring the ethernet interface via adb shell. It could go up to 5MB/s (40Mbps). So it also says in the Stats for Nerds. Actually I have seen up to 45Mbps in the stats. That should include the read ahead. To be honest I am not really sure if those numbers are the current download speed, though.
Also, as mentioned above, sometime I do not get 2160p@60fps either. It may go up and down between 1440p@60fps and 2160p@60fps. My line is 70Mbps effective.