4K HEVC shows as 1080p, think I can't find any setup to fix?

[Teddyknuddel 139]

Seriously? Do I really have to explain to YOU how that’s connected?

[Luke 42978]

30 minutes ago, PeteGul said:

Ok, here is my follow-up.

Stats for nerds says it now plays in 4K, when Shield is set to 4K. But it says 1080p in the settings "quality", add pictures of both.

@visproductionMy gear i relatively new, and generally new cables and everything is HDCP 2.2 compatible, I don't see this as a problem. I do think my stuff dances good together.

@TeddyknuddelThat's right, nothing is changed on my side. 

This is a question to find what's going wrong, when everything says it is an 4K movie. Why does that not that movie show in 4K. Should not need to "trick" the system to do so.

Hi. That’s just your quality setting. I would set that back to auto.  That’s strange though. I’m surprised it’s not causing a transcode.

[Luke 42978]

Anyway back to the original example. This is an edge case due to the cropped resolution so we will have to account for that. Thanks.

[PeteGul 45]

2 hours ago, Teddyknuddel said:

@PeteGul

Why not install Kodi as a trial, use the EmbyCon or EmbyNextGen add-on for Kodi, and don’t forget to install the Emby Kodi Companion plugin; set everything to DirectPlay, and see for yourself the difference between the app and proper, smooth playback.

Used Kodi for many years, and for me it just got to cluttered. I use it much outside my house, so me and the wife like thinks to look the same regardless of where we watch things, and Emby is good at this.

But yes, Kodi is good for video and audio. VLC also, but I want the sync if played not played, where we cut of the play. Then VLC is not the king. 

This is my first "big" problem with Emby app, and it seems it is possible to work out fast for the Emby team. Even if we know "simple" fixes can take to much time.

Hope it work out quickly

[PeteGul 45]

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi. That’s just your quality setting. I would set that back to auto.  That’s strange though. I’m surprised it’s not causing a transcode.

Back to auto it goes, was just an test also. Normal is auto
No transcode is happening. Never on local play anyhow. 

[Teddyknuddel 139]

@PeteGul
I’ve breathed new life into the old Embuary skin and spruced it up a bit. It’s a bit closer to the app now. My wife and I both like it when everything looks the same everywhere. But what we don’t like is when it doesn’t work properly. The app itself may well be good, but as soon as HD sound and 4K are used together, the app fails completely. And I don’t see why I should have to watch in lower quality just because the programming lot can’t be bothered to sort it out. Too lazy to test their own work, which is why a new release is now being rolled out every single day.

[Neminem 1863]

@TeddyknuddelI guess you have issues with Emby.

Here is how to report a problem

 

[Teddyknuddel 139]

1 minute ago, Neminem said:

I guess you have issues with Emby.

No – I’ve just got a better player. The Ugoos AM6b Plus. It plays Dolby Vision 7 FEL perfectly with CoreELEC. No Android app can hold a candle to it.

[Teddyknuddel 139]

Anyone who mocks without being able to refute what has been said ultimately only exposes their own narrow-mindedness – and thus becomes exactly what they are mocking.

[Lessaj 549]

I have no issues with Dolby Vision profile 7.6 content on Emby for Android. Have you reported a media playback issue with an example? Otherwise you're just polluting someone else's topic.

[Teddyknuddel 139]

You're confusing “it plays” with “it plays correctly and to the full capability of the source.”

The fact that Emby for Android plays Dolby Vision Profile 7 content on your device proves exactly one thing: your device accepts the stream and produces a Dolby Vision picture. It does not prove that the complete Profile 7 FEL data is being processed and reproduced with the same fidelity as on a playback chain that fully supports FEL.

And that's actually the point of my criticism.

A proper Direct Play path should simply hand the original media to a capable playback engine instead of unnecessarily putting the Android app/player layer between the source and the hardware. That would eliminate an entire class of compatibility, format-detection and playback problems.

It is also directly relevant to the problem discussed in this thread. If a genuine 4K HEVC source can end up being treated as 1080p, the obvious question is why the app isn't simply handing the original 4K stream to the playback hardware/player and letting it do its job.

The same applies to Dolby Vision. “My TV switches to Dolby Vision and I have no problems” is not evidence of full-fidelity Profile 7 FEL reproduction. It only tells us that your particular playback chain produces an acceptable result to you.

Those are two completely different claims.

So no, I don't need to report your personal playback experience as a separate bug in order to make the technical point. I'm criticizing the limitation of the playback architecture itself.

If all you require is “the movie plays and Dolby Vision appears on my screen”, then apparently you're satisfied.

If the requirement is original 4K media being passed through without unnecessary intervention, with the complete capabilities of the source and playback hardware preserved, then that's a different standard entirely.

And that is precisely why proper Direct Play would solve or prevent many of the problems being discussed here — including the 4K/1080p issue raised by the thread starter.

Your statement “I have no problems” therefore doesn't refute my argument. It merely tells me that you don't perceive the limitations as a problem.

[yocker 1845]

4 hours ago, Teddyknuddel said:

It is also directly relevant to the problem discussed in this thread. If a genuine 4K HEVC source can end up being treated as 1080p, the obvious question is why the app isn't simply handing the original 4K stream to the playback hardware/player and letting it do its job.

It's most likely a problems with TV's and AVR's. Setting Kodi to match resolution also sets the TV to 1080p for me.
My old Sony with Android could correctly match resolutions to the source, my new LG doesn't do that.

I havn't tested connecting a computer to the TV and see what it does when setting different resolutions though but that could prove/disprove if it's the TV or the match resolution feature.

If you are not satisfied with the player that Emby uses (Exoplayer made by Google i believe for Android) then you can set it to use another one, like for example VLC.

I would also argue that not having FEL doesn't change much, as i doubt many TVs (if any) use a 12bit panel anyway.

Edited 2 hours ago by yocker

[Teddyknuddel 139]

The reference to the AVR or TV signal processing does not go far enough here. If the app misinterprets or downscales the native resolution even when the input chain is correctly connected, the problem lies with the software’s stream handling and not with the underlying hardware.

As for external players such as VLC: this does not fully resolve the underlying problem either. External players disrupt seamless integration with the Emby interface (e.g. lack of server synchronisation, erratic playback resumption or lost audio tracks). This is precisely why a clean Direct Play architecture, which works exactly like specialised hardware players with CoreELEC, is irreplaceable.

On the subject of FEL and 12-bit panels: Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL is not simply about the panel’s colour depth, but rather that the Enhancement Layers (FEL) contain additional image information, metadata and bitrate corrections which are completely lost when falling back solely to HDR10 or inferior processing layers. Even if the panel operates internally at 10-bit, the system discards essential data from the master without a genuine FEL.

[yocker 1845]

23 minutes ago, Teddyknuddel said:

The reference to the AVR or TV signal processing does not go far enough here. If the app misinterprets or downscales the native resolution even when the input chain is correctly connected, the problem lies with the software’s stream handling and not with the underlying hardware.

As for external players such as VLC: this does not fully resolve the underlying problem either. External players disrupt seamless integration with the Emby interface (e.g. lack of server synchronisation, erratic playback resumption or lost audio tracks). This is precisely why a clean Direct Play architecture, which works exactly like specialised hardware players with CoreELEC, is irreplaceable.

On the subject of FEL and 12-bit panels: Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL is not simply about the panel’s colour depth, but rather that the Enhancement Layers (FEL) contain additional image information, metadata and bitrate corrections which are completely lost when falling back solely to HDR10 or inferior processing layers. Even if the panel operates internally at 10-bit, the system discards essential data from the master without a genuine FEL.

Emby wants to use a resolution of lets say 3840x1600, the TV can't do that resolution so Emby falls back to 1080p which is the safest thing to do. Pretty sure the scaling will be done on the TV and not Emby.
I guess a "closer to" rule based on display device EDID could be made in Emby to avoid that but falling back is always the safest thing to do.

Not sure i understand you here.
Direct play is bit to bit perfect copy sendt to the player. The player used might strip things like the FEL layer but that is the player/device's problem IMO.
I agree that watchtime tracking is a problem with external players, i would love better integration with for example VLC, it is how ever a solution (a bit flawed i agree) to people wanting to use other players.

Not talking about falling back to normal HD.
What i meant was that the difference between Dolby Vision with and without FEL on normal TVs is so minute that a blind test would be most about luck other than actual visual differences unless you have a studio display.