Automatic Switching of HDR Display Mode doesn't seem to work

[hhb97b 11]

On 8/27/2025 at 12:03 AM, softworkz said:

Under which conditions your TV shows a logo - I can't tell.

What you should see is this toggle going on (if it has been off before):

Hi

My HDR setting is off by default. I played a HDR movie in emby and pause the movie. I then looked at the HDR setting and its still off. It's not being enabled by emby.  If I enable this  setting the TV-logo comes on as I expected. 

Settings in emby is to enable HDR on both screens. According the the nerd stat the cpu context is D3D11. The primaries are BT.2020. 

So what could be wrong?

Are there any requirement/version for OS to work. I am running win11.

 

 

[softworkz 5066]

2 hours ago, hhb97b said:

Settings in emby is to enable HDR on both screens. According the the nerd stat the cpu context is D3D11. The primaries are BT.2020. 

So what could be wrong?

Are there any requirement/version for OS to work. I am running win11.

 

The refresh rate and HDR auto-switching works as follows:

• On playback start,  Emby determines on which display its window is currently located
  This corresponds to the "Current" screen detection in the "Display Control" settings
  You can see that it changes when you move the window from one display to another
• Only for this display, Emby will apply the rate and HDR switching
  • Even when you enable it for both screens
  • It won't happen when you move the window after playback start

 

If that's not what you are seeing, then we need to look further and there might be a bug.
Does HDR switching work when refresh rate switching is disabled?

[hhb97b 11]

19 hours ago, softworkz said:

 

The refresh rate and HDR auto-switching works as follows:

• On playback start,  Emby determines on which display its window is currently located
  This corresponds to the "Current" screen detection in the "Display Control" settings
  You can see that it changes when you move the window from one display to another
• Only for this display, Emby will apply the rate and HDR switching
  • Even when you enable it for both screens
  • It won't happen when you move the window after playback start

 

If that's not what you are seeing, then we need to look further and there might be a bug.
Does HDR switching work when refresh rate switching is disabled?

Hi

 

I have tried disabling refresh rate and the second monitor. HDR is still not activated. I can see that the system does detect the correct monitor(Green icon) on the "Display control" settings. I have also played  with the "don't switch back to default refresh rate", but the result are the same. HDR is not activated.

Are there any logs that I should send? and where are they located. 

[softworkz 5066]

17 minutes ago, hhb97b said:

Hi

 

I have tried disabling refresh rate and the second monitor. HDR is still not activated. I can see that the system does detect the correct monitor(Green icon) on the "Display control" settings. I have also played  with the "don't switch back to default refresh rate", but the result are the same. HDR is not activated.

Are there any logs that I should send? and where are they located. 

Yes, please. Enable debug logginh (About => Logs),

restart the app

reproduce once (play hdr movie where it doesn'T switch

Go back to logs and copy the latest EmbyClinet and mpv log.

Thanks

[hhb97b 11]

18 hours ago, softworkz said:

Yes, please. Enable debug logginh (About => Logs),

restart the app

reproduce once (play hdr movie where it doesn'T switch

Go back to logs and copy the latest EmbyClinet and mpv log.

Thanks

Hi

Here is the log file. I tried to keep it short and precise. 

EmbyClient.txt

[hhb97b 11]

6 hours ago, hhb97b said:

Hi

Here is the log file. I tried to keep it short and precise. 

EmbyClient.txt 197.12 kB · 0 downloads

Hi

I overlooked the mpv log file. So here is a new attempt with both log files

EmbyClient.txt mpv-20250830T172822914.txt

[softworkz 5066]

Thanks for the logs. 

The explanation is simple: Emby doesn't detect this video as an HDR video:

[softworkz 5066]

Let me answer your next question right away:

Quote

But it has smpte2084, bt2020, bt2020nc and it's 10bit - so it must be HDR!

No! That's a common misconception.

These a prerequisites for an HDR video but do not mean that a video is HDR.

What is also needed on top of the above is HDR metadata in the stream like:

• for HDR10
  Static metadata
  • Mastering display metadata
  • Content light level metadata
• for HDR10+
  Same static metadata like above - and
  Dynamic metadata
  • ST 2094-40 metadata
    (continuously changing as scenes are changing)

[softworkz 5066]

Two things are possible:

1. The video is actually not HDR
    
2. The video details were determined by an old version of Emby server (without detailed detection) and haven't been updated ever since
   You can try to refresh metadata on the item (or change a single letter of the file name - to be sure that it has been re-probed) and see whether it changes the data

 

[softworkz 5066]

Note: Split out to a separate topic

[hhb97b 11]

12 hours ago, softworkz said:

Two things are possible:

1. The video is actually not HDR
    
2. The video details were determined by an old version of Emby server (without detailed detection) and haven't been updated ever since
   You can try to refresh metadata on the item (or change a single letter of the file name - to be sure that it has been re-probed) and see whether it changes the data

 

Hi

 

I needed to read up on HDR as its atleast a couple of years since I have looked at. I agree that Bt2020 is only wide gamut and it can be both sdr and HDR.  The file is hdr10 and changing the file name(2), solved the issue. I'm sure as I used "label" as I have multiple version of the file and I saw the label had changed inside emby. It makes sense at you need to make the api call to the os before starting the mpv and caching the value makes it easier and faster.  

Is there anyway to reprobe my whole library without having to rename files?  I have a large library and it will take me forever to do it manaually. I have looked at the scheduled task it doesn't seem to be one. 

[softworkz 5066]

34 minutes ago, hhb97b said:

Is there anyway to reprobe my whole library without having to rename files?

Of course you don't need to rename all files. The reason why I suggested that is because it gives you a quick and reliable answer: When Emby has picked up the name change, it is also guaranteed that it has been re-probed without any doubts and without waiting (unless you have automatic change detection disabled, but then you wouldn't have seen the file name change either in Emby).

To update the library, just right-click and choose "Refresh Metadata". This may take a while...