Android tv wont play 4K Dolby Vision HEVC on latest build

[bandit8623 48]

android shield 2015

2.0.99g will not play.  i can hear sound but screen black. 

tried with  3.2.90  plays fine

also plex plays it fine.

server 4.8.0.62

adding this is local play direct.  tried to force transcode just would stop playing and that didnt work either

 

embyserver.txt

Edited December 17, 2023 by bandit8623

[Luke 37084]

HI, can you please try the latest sideload build and let us know how that compares?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

Thanks.

 

[bandit8623 48]

it plays but very choppy.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SwsB8TX9Xfrcaxxv9

[Luke 37084]

Does the 2015 shield support Dolby vision?

[bandit8623 48]

19 minutes ago, Luke said:

Does the 2015 shield support Dolby vision?

im not sure,  but plays fine using plex and the older sideload app. watched using plex and the colors and hdr were working.  tv popped up the hdr symbol

IMG20231217014103.heic

IMG20231217014701.heic

Edited December 17, 2023 by bandit8623
Added HDR photo

[bandit8623 48]

from plex.

• Codec HEVC
• Bitrate 23843 kbps
• D O V I B L Compat I D 1
• D O V I B L Present true
• D O V I Level 6
• D O V I Present true
• D O V I Profile 8
• D O V I R P U Present true
• D O V I Version 1.0
• Bit Depth 10
• Chroma Location left
• Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
• Coded Height 2024
• Coded Width 3840
• Color Primaries bt2020
• Color Range tv
• Color Space bt2020nc
• Color Trc smpte2084
• Frame Rate 23.976 fps
• Height 2024
• Level 6.1
• Profile main 10
• Ref Frames 1
• Width 3840
• Display Title 4K DoVi/HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)
• Extended Display Title 4K DoVi/HDR10 (HEVC Main 10)

• Codec TRUEHD
• Channels 8
• Bitrate 4167 kbps
• Language English
• Language Tag en
• Audio Channel Layout 7.1
• Bit Depth 24
• Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
• Display Title English (TRUEHD 7.1)
• Extended Display Title English (TRUEHD 7.1)

[bandit8623 48]

it looks like this file can fall back to hdr10 .. level 6 provides hdr10 metadata.  profile 8 should be able to fallback. dual layer file?

older app is doing it correctly.  newer apps not working.

https://professionalsupport.dolby.com/s/article/Dolby-Vision-Metadata-Levels?language=en_US

 

https://community.firecore.com/t/criteria-for-dolby-vision-profile-8/43452

 

You are correct the 2015 shield cannot play dolby vision.  but can do hdr10.

Edited December 17, 2023 by bandit8623
added links

[Luke 37084]

23 hours ago, bandit8623 said:

it plays but very choppy.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SwsB8TX9Xfrcaxxv9

What app version number was this?

[bandit8623 48]

6 hours ago, Luke said:

What app version number was this?

https://emby.media/emby-for-android.html

 

3.3.52. I used arm64

Edited December 18, 2023 by bandit8623

[jiggity 22]

On 16/12/2023 at 23:17, bandit8623 said:

android shield 2015

2.0.99g will not play.  i can hear sound but screen black.

I have experienced this as well, on a Fire stick 4k Max, but I have extra info to add for the devs to look at.

Here is a github thread discussing the problem of DV causing black screen playback issues on Amazon devices and a few workaround talks, none of it sounds easy
 

[Audiomixer 328]

On 12/16/2023 at 11:37 PM, Luke said:

Does the 2015 shield support Dolby vision?

No, only the 2019 shield will do DV.

[bandit8623 48]

On 12/19/2023 at 5:28 PM, jiggity said:

I have experienced this as well, on a Fire stick 4k Max, but I have extra info to add for the devs to look at.

Here is a github thread discussing the problem of DV causing black screen playback issues on Amazon devices and a few workaround talks, none of it sounds easy
 

well the fact it works on older emby versions ...  and plex has it working  

Edited January 1 by bandit8623

[RanmaCanada 345]

I would like to ask, is the file HDR10 or HDR10+.  I've noticed that on some Fire and Android devices that any hybrid DV/HDR files that are HDR10+ either give a black screen or do some funky middle screen half height thing.  DV/HDR10 plays fine, but as soon as the HDR10+ is added, the files fail to play.  I have no issues playing them on my Firecube 3rd gen, but sister has a 4k Max 2nd Gen and they refuse to play.

After reading the git link, everything in the thread is what is happening.  Seems the 4kMax (both first and second gen) is garbage and no one should buy it.

Edited January 6 by RanmaCanada

[rbjtech 4275]

On 01/01/2024 at 22:16, bandit8623 said:

 ...  and plex has it working  

Are you sure ?

Plex is natively playing a DV8/HDR10+ file as DV, HDR10 or HDR10+ on an Amazon 4K Max Stick ?

The issue is acknowledged by Dolby, not by Amazon - so if Plex had a workaround - the thread would probably be updated ? (I'm part of the thread, so should get notified) .. ?

There is a technical workaround - simply by stripping/re-writing the packets (which is what I do..) - but rightly, Amazon should simply fix the issue.

[bandit8623 48]

28 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

Are you sure ?

Plex is natively playing a DV8/HDR10+ file as DV, HDR10 or HDR10+ on an Amazon 4K Max Stick ?

The issue is acknowledged by Dolby, not by Amazon - so if Plex had a workaround - the thread would probably be updated ? (I'm part of the thread, so should get notified) .. ?

There is a technical workaround - simply by stripping/re-writing the packets (which is what I do..) - but rightly, Amazon should simply fix the issue.

From the start I stated this on on my shield 2015.  It's playing it perfectly as hdr10. On the older version of emby(3.2.90) and Plex.  

Using new emby side load or regular installed app its choppy.

these are dual layered files have both dv and hdr10 .

 

my TV is a 2018 lg OLED it can do both dv and hdr10. But the 2015 shield can't do dv.  So since it's playing fine on 3.2.90 has to be hdr10?

I did try playing the same file on a 4kmax fire stick. It wouldn't play at all. Not even chop.. just nothing but black screen. Haven't tried Plex on the fire stick.  But this thread was started for issues playing on the 2015 shield.

[rbjtech 4275]

23 minutes ago, bandit8623 said:

From the start I stated this on on my shield 2015.  It's playing it perfectly as hdr10. On the older version of emby(3.2.90) and Plex.  

Using new emby side load or regular installed app its choppy.

these are dual layered files have both dv and hdr10 .

 

my TV is a 2018 lg OLED it can do both dv and hdr10. But the 2015 shield can't do dv.  So since it's playing fine on 3.2.90 has to be hdr10?

I did try playing the same file on a 4kmax fire stick. It wouldn't play at all. Not even chop.. just nothing but black screen. Haven't tried Plex on the fire stick.  But this thread was started for issues playing on the 2015 shield.

Ah ok fair enough - I'm just referring to the FireTV 4K Max.  I have zero issues playing any DV or HDR10 on my other DV enabled devices (Shield 2019 Pro, FireTV Cube etc) - I'm using Emby for AndroidTV - never used the new Android version (nor do I want to...).   

I've not tried DV8/HDR10+ on the Shield tbh, but as the Shield does not support HDR10+ anyway, I'd imagine it would just play DV or HDR10.   I'll check that before I convert the next HDR10+ file.  

Edited January 8 by rbjtech

[hjason7812 25]

my google tv has had the side loaded version of the app installed, the 100% original uhd movies don't play through the emby app but everywhere else they play just fine. plex plays them fine at 30gb's of data an hour vlc player plays them fine this is through emby's dlna server through another player just fine. so why is the emby app making 4k movies freeze while playing like its always buffering the video. i have transcoding off so unless emby doesn't care that i don't want transcoding and does it anyways there is no excuse as to why emby can't play 4k movies smoothly like every other app does.

Edited January 12 by hjason7812

[bandit8623 48]

17 minutes ago, hjason7812 said:

my google tv has had the side loaded version of the app installed, the 100% original uhd movies don't play through the emby app but everywhere else they play just fine. plex plays them fine at 30gb's of data an hour vlc player plays them fine this is through emby's dlna server through another player just fine. so why is the emby app making 4k movies freeze while playing like its always buffering the video. i have transcoding off so unless emby doesn't care that i don't want transcoding and does it anyways there is no excuse as to why emby can't play 4k movies smoothly like every other app does.

I have transcoding on.  and my server can handle 4k transcoding but it just freezes and doesnt even go to trascoding mode.  

[hjason7812 25]

3 hours ago, bandit8623 said:

I have transcoding on.  and my server can handle 4k transcoding but it just freezes and doesnt even go to trascoding mode.  

Mine can handle it as well there's an issue with the app that doesn't allow emby to run true 4k movies for some reason. But I can watch them just fine through another player app on my TV through the emby media server files through dlna. It's strange and I hope Luke and the others can figure out what the issue is and fix it because it's very annoying to say the least. 

[bandit8623 48]

any movement on this ?  another dovi file wont play on emby...  playes fine on plex.....

no transcoding on plex

emby just fails to play on android.   shield 2015.

plays fine on windows latest build.

the transcode i dont think is rel.  no new file came up when paying.

hardware_detection-63841922256.txt ffmpeg-transcode-a0cfba87-f901-4176-ad43-6c9596300add_1.txt embyserver-63841922239.txt

Edited January 27 by bandit8623

[RanmaCanada 345]

Well your copy of Oppenheimer is more than likely the problem as it's a fake HDR10+ DV file.  The UHD is HDR only, so the release group has used the DDVT Tool to create a fake DV and HDR10+ file.  I did mention in the past that this tool would come to bite people in the butt because of the way it handles files, and here we are.  You should really just grab the DDVT file and remove the layers that they have added.

But of course, no one will listen and will continue to blame the devs for not supporting a Frankenstein format.  We already know that Plex strips the layers on the fly, which is not an ideal way to handle things.  I would strongly suggest you follow the link, read, and comment so the dev knows what's up with it breaking files, but do not mention any pirated material.  There was an update yesterday from them to resolve some issues.

[bandit8623 48]

2 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

Well your copy of Oppenheimer is more than likely the problem as it's a fake HDR10+ DV file.  The UHD is HDR only, so the release group has used the DDVT Tool to create a fake DV and HDR10+ file.  I did mention in the past that this tool would come to bite people in the butt because of the way it handles files, and here we are.  You should really just grab the DDVT file and remove the layers that they have added.

But of course, no one will listen and will continue to blame the devs for not supporting a Frankenstein format.  We already know that Plex strips the layers on the fly, which is not an ideal way to handle things.  I would strongly suggest you follow the link, read, and comment so the dev knows what's up with it breaking files, but do not mention any pirated material.  There was an update yesterday from them to resolve some issues.

clearly plays just fine on plex.  How can plex do it?

and a really old version of emby plays it fine as well. 

file also was transcoded properly playing on a family members 5th gen fire stick using emby.  but it wont play or get transcoded on my shield 2015

----

End of day it should play it or tell the server to transcode.  its doing neither.  there is a reason built a powerful server.

Edited January 27 by bandit8623

[RanmaCanada 345]

Again, people who don't understand "standards".  

End of the day, files should conform to the standards that were created.  You should not expect devs to be able to magically make every single file play, especially when it's outside of the standards of the player.  As stated, Plex possibly strips the layers on the fly.  Your bad choice in pirated content is your problem.

[bandit8623 48]

13 minutes ago, RanmaCanada said:

Again, people who don't understand "standards".  

End of the day, files should conform to the standards that were created.  You should not expect devs to be able to magically make every single file play, especially when it's outside of the standards of the player.  As stated, Plex possibly strips the layers on the fly.  Your bad choice in pirated content is your problem.

 so vlc can play. plex can play..  mega codec pack can play.  kode can play.

but emby cant play so its not an emby issue?  ha. 

emby for windows even plays it fine. see below its working and transcoding. 

 

so clearly an emby issue on the google android devices/2015 shield

Edited January 27 by bandit8623
added showing windows playing fine on emby

[hjason7812 25]

16 minutes ago, bandit8623 said:

 so vlc can play. plex can play..  mega codec pack can play.  kode can play.

but emby cant play so its not an emby issue?  ha. 

emby for windows even plays it fine. see below its working and transcoding. 

 

so clearly an emby issue on the google android devices/2015 shield

I found out that emby plays dv but only certain ones. But the files need to be played with the automatic setting for quality that way emby plays them directly..

Also noticed even though the file is dv it won't always play them. It plays files that are fel just fine but anything else it doesn't play dv at all just hdr.. so there's something missing in the emby package where it doesn't want to play dv on Mel and other files only fel ones.