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]

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@Kuschelmonschter wrote:

Yes, on my ATV1, I now have perfectly fluid pans. No constant micro-stuttering anymore. But every few seconds, there is now one clean but severe stutter, dropping a bunch of frames at once. Probably runs out of sync and compensates by dropping frames?

No, I don't have that feeling. Or better, after the initial heavy stuttering with 2.02.08, I had the feeling the in some videos did improve. Other not so much. I am checking now. Our standard test video, "The World in HDR", still seems to suffer the micro stuttering (and at a certain point it hung for some tenths of a second).

Now I have been watching a video and it was fluid. Initially I thought it was 2160p@60fps, because with "top" the YouTube's CPU usage was above 40%, but it was 24 fps. I am watching another one now, it feels like micro stuttering, the CPU is high and it is at 60fps indeed.

I mean,they have always been more than watchable, mine is a bit of nitpicking, it's just that at 24fps they play much better!

I wrote a video renderer myself for the DVBViewer. I can perfectly distinguish the two cases. Constant stuttering typically occurs when fps and Hz don't match or when frame present call and VSync are too close, so  that a frame is sometimes presented at the correct VSync and sometimes at the next because it didn't make it in time. Skipping a VSync means that to compensate it, a frame will have to be dropped. So the renderer constantly alternates between skipping a VSync and dropping a frame > constant judder. I can't see this phenomenon anymore with 2.02.08. Now I see frames being dropped in bursts every few seconds.

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Interesting stuff. Unfortunately it's compeltely out of my area of expertise. But I trust you on this! 

So, what could be different between your TV and mine? Hopefully it has nothing to do with the Motionflow settings.

[Kuschelmonschter]

Did you update to 2.02.08?

will do some more testing too...

[stormyuk]

The swordsmith video you linked looks great on my XE90 even without HDR. Really hope Sony and Mediatek can fix HDR with YouTube 

[Jecht_Sin]

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@Kuschelmonschter wrote:

Did you update to 2.02.08?

will do some more testing too...

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Yes, I forgot to mention that I have even cleared the data, and disabled the report sending to YouTube. Now I have also disabled the Motionflow. I have downloaded this video:

And played it with Video, Kodi v18 alpha and Plex. With Video and Plex it's perfect (with Plex as long as I download them with supported audio. Otherwise that stupid app converts the audio AND the video), i can really notice the difference. With Kodi.. well.. It's even worse than YouTube. Not sure why, because I enlarged the buffer size and the CPU usage isn't that high (15-20%?).

@stormyuk wrote:

The swordsmith video you linked looks great on my XE90 even without HDR. Really hope Sony and Mediatek can fix HDR with YouTube 

Yeah, YouTube does a great job converting the HDR videos to SDR. It isn't the real deal, but it's a more than acceptable approximation. Hopefully the vp9.2 codec will be fixed soon indeed!!

PS: I have got it all wrong about the YouTube bitrate. I have downloaded an app for Mac to get all possible info about a video, Mediainfo, and the bitrates  shown are always lower than 20Mbps, even at 60 fps. That bitrate in the Stats for nerds must be the current download speed at this point. I am suprised because I did Size/Lenght (in bits/seconds) in the past and I think I had got 40Mbps. I must have computed it wrong that time.

[Jecht_Sin]

@Kuschelmonschter Actually, since I know you use Kodi, I have moved the file advancedsettings.xml and now the UHD videos at 60 fps play just fine in the last nightly build of Kodi v18. And via WebDAV they stream just fine! 

I added the file (which makes a large buffer) because it helped with SPMC. But now that Kodi v18 supports the conversion from DTS to DD I think I will abandon it. Also because Kodi v18 perfomances are amanazing (apart from loading the list of videos and add-ons, though. But as a skin I am using Estuary Mod v2. I like to get me video info!).

[stormyuk]

So not sure Google/Sony are ever going to sort this with the native app, what are the options for Youtube HDR on the Sony Android TVs? Do I need to use an external Chromecast Ultra and will wireless be good enough for 4K HDR content?

Thanks.

[Kuschelmonschter]

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stormyuk schrieb:
Do I need to use an external Chromecast Ultra

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Yes. Still no Sony ATV supports YouTube HDR via native app.

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will wireless be good enough for 4K HDR content?

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4K HDR streams on YouTube are around 30mbps. You have to determine yourself whether your Wi-Fi and the predominant conditions at your TV/Chromecast are good enough.

[Itom86]

I have noticed that youtube got new design recently, but the info says it is still on 2.02.08 version. Am I missing something? Do you guys have any further info about this? 

[Jecht_Sin]

So, after the last FW update v6.2858 (for ATV2 - end 2016 and later models), still no HDR on YouTube... Not that I was holding my breath.

[stormyuk]

Pity.