Tonemapping works?

[Ponyo 22]

Hi,

This might be a stupid question, but does the Android app already do tone mapping? I couldn't find a definitive answer when searching for exoplayer tone mapping support but I just tested a video on my firestick 4k and non HDR tv and the colors look fine. On a PC with MPC-HC the colors are all washed out as expected while VLC looks the same as the firestick. Both look similar to the SDR version of the same movie.

 

[Mkilbride 76]

Must be your imagination. There's no tonemapping.

[Ponyo 22]

I don't think so. Like I said when opening the file with mpc-hc the colors are obviously washed out. But with VLC on PC and Emby on the firetv the colors of a HDR movie are very close to the SDR version. Not everything is perfect, some things lack a bit of color (for example the red Jeep in Jurassic Park) but it's not washed out. If you didn't know better you'd probably think that is how it's supposed to look.

 

I'll try some HDR test videos later but the two movies I tested appeared to work fine.

[Ponyo 22]

I made the comparison below. MPC-HC definitely looks wrong. But both VLC on PC and Emby on the Firestick 4K (poor picture, it looks like VLC in real life) look similar to what I get on my HDR tv. It certainly doesn't look obviously wrong like MPC-HC.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Ponyo

[CodeeCB 0]

Is the "looks like tone mapping" example playing through Emby on a 4K tv that you forced to transcode or am I misunderstanding? I'm hoping you aren'r referring to an issue with direct playing an HDR video - I just started using Emby and assumed I could direct play 4K W/HDR if the chain supports is (Nivida shield to a TV that all support all flavors of HDR).

[Mkilbride 76]

He means he's playing a 4k HDR video on something that doesn't support it, and he believes Emby is tonemapping it to look like it should. Which I'm pretty sure Emby doesn't do.

 

But yes, Emby supports 4KHDR if the chain does.

[CodeeCB 0]

I just tested this on my phone (Samsung Note 10+) which supports HDR10+ with Emby. My goal initially was to compare a 4K HDR file utilizing direct play VS transcoding. Initially I thought "hey, it looks the same direct and transcoded so it must be tonemapping!" however after realizing the picture was blah compared to...everything else, including the Emby menus and overlays I did further testing. I played the same file in Plex and it was a night and day difference is image brightness/contrast. Whats interesting is with Plex the video also looked exactly the same whether I was playing direct or forcing a transcode down to 20Mbps 1080p.  I will attach some screenshots, and I named the files to match so "emby 1 direct" and "Plex 1 direct" are the same spot in the move +/- a few seconds. I have 4 examples for a total of 8 pictures. Hopefully they attach ok but I can also link to a google drive folder as well. Something is off here though, I will be trying to compare on the Shield later although taking a picture of any actual differences will be trickier to get to come through in a picture. i also initially thought that perhaps Emby was playing it properly and Plex was over saturating the video but then if you look at the 2 pictures with the basketball, the Plex screenshot you can actually see the little bumps/grip on the ball and it looks very crisp and clean and then the emby screenshot the basketball is an orange blob more or less.

 

This is really bumming me out, I was super stoked to switch from Plex to Emby with the annoying focus Plex has had towards commercialization and other "features" outside of the original core purpose and the interaction and help I see people can get on the forums is a complete 180 vs the Plex support forums but drastic differences in picture quality are a no-go. I'm hoping its fine on the Shield as that's what I use 99% of the time. what I use to watch 99% of the time.

[Ponyo 22]

He means he's playing a 4k HDR video on something that doesn't support it, and he believes Emby is tonemapping it to look like it should. Which I'm pretty sure Emby doesn't do.

 

But yes, Emby supports 4KHDR if the chain does.

Well, its not necessarily that I believe it, but the fact is I am seeing a more or less correct image when playing HDR content with Emby on a Firestick. I never actually tested this with a Firestick before, only with my 2017 Shield TV and that gave the washed out image.

 

I mean I attached a picture and the tv doesn't have the washed out image you would expect when playing HDR content on a SDR tv. I'm just wondering why that is the case.

[rooser11 8]

On 5/25/2020 at 3:38 AM, Ponyo said:

Well, its not necessarily that I believe it, but the fact is I am seeing a more or less correct image when playing HDR content with Emby on a Firestick. I never actually tested this with a Firestick before, only with my 2017 Shield TV and that gave the washed out image.

 

I mean I attached a picture and the tv doesn't have the washed out image you would expect when playing HDR content on a SDR tv. I'm just wondering why that is the case.

you are correct.  firestick does have some sort of tonemapping built in that shield I believe does not do.  i've tested a couple HDR videos on an old display that has not HDR functionality (heck it only supports 1080p too).  Firestick plays HDR videos with tonemapping with slightly dim brightness overall, but the colors are definitely not washed out as if you are playing HDR on SDR display without any sort of tone mapping.  Def. a win for those who don't want to deal with transcoding + tonemapping from the server.

 

This is true when you play videos directly from Kodi too and so it is nothing to do with Emby but simply how Firestick handles HDR contents.

Edited July 31, 2021 by rooser11