HDR grey bars

[guymyer 1]

My 4k HDR content is showing grey bars on top/bottom instead of black. Other apps dont have this issue so I'm assuming it's an emby thing instead of a TV issue. I see older posts on this issue but no solutions, is this being worked on?

 

I have a Sony Bravia, so using Android TV app. I've tried beta and release.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  We have not discovered any reason for this.  When the other topic went quiet I assumed people had solved it with their TV settings.

[guymyer 1]

Well issue still exists, at least for me. Instead of solid black, I get grey bars. There are darker blacks in my movies, so this is quite distracting. I notice the color adjustments when I start a movie.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[guymyer 1]

Well... I'm still having this issue but after lots of research I've found the cause and hoping emby can add a fix of some sort. 

 

Issue is HDR uses a brighter backlight, so if a videos aspect ratio doesn't fill the tv you'll see the backlight turn the empty space gray. Say you have a 21:9 video playing on a 16:9 tv, the empty space isn't filled with black properly. It's as if the pixels are just off, so you see the backlight come through. If you reencode the video with black padding the issue is resolved. That's why some videos will show black while others don't show true black.

 

Is it possible to have emby add black padding to help fill the screen? 

[guymyer 1]

To add... If I use kodi with emby plugin, there is black bars for her files. So this definitely could be fixed software side. I hope so because I'd much rather use emby native app than kodi.

 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Oddbin 0]

Thought it worth pointing out that I also have this issue. I get the same issue no matter the 4k HDR file I used. I have tested several files from the likes of 4kmedia.org and a few from the kodi wiki. Netflix and Amazon are fine as is using Kodi/SPMC as the player. Emby has this issue as does Plex I believe.

 

Device being used is a KD55X8509C, running android tv 7.0, with the latest Emby server and client.

 

Let me know if you need any more info that can help us track this issue down.

 

 

Edit: Added the Android TV OS version.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Oddbin

[nobody01 89]

I’m using a XF9005 and I don’t have this issue.

[marley 0]

I'm using a Sony A1 oled tv and I have the same issue with grey bars instead of black bar letterboxes when playing HDR10 content.

 

Is there a solution for this issue or a solution in the works?

[Luke 42077]

How gray is it?

[marley 0]

Really grey

[marley 0]

Some more info:

 

The issue persists when using VLC as external player in Emby.

 

But not when playing the videos directly with the Sony stock video player.

 

The Sony player is however not shown as an option when 'Use External Player for Videos' is set in Emby.

[ebr 16169]

The Sony player is however not shown as an option when 'Use External Player for Videos' is set in Emby.

 

Because it isn't an Android App I would imagine.

[marley 0]

So is the conclusion that this issue cannot be fixed in the Emby app but rather via the Sony firmware and/or the Android TV OS?

[nobody01 89]

Yup...

 

Affects Plex and Kodi too.

 

Roku seems to be ok apparently.

 

https://forums.plex.tv/t/grey-bars-in-hdr-instead-of-black/197887/101

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=328294

[gsa 0]

Looks like the developers at Plex figured out a solution for this: https://np.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/9qok7y/plex_we_need_to_talk_about_your_androidtv_client/e9adcwm/

 

Any chance we can get this worked into Emby too?

[Oddbin 0]

Any news on a fix for this or implementing the "work around" that was posted in the above link?

[nobody01 89]

Kodi Leia B5 has been fixed.. Will try and source the changes

[TheMafia 8]

Just letting you guys know that I am having the exact same issue. TV is a Sony KD-75x8500e. Latest Emby server and Android app for my TV. 

The grey bars are too distracting. I hope you can find a fix.

 

Thanks

[marley 0]

Latest Sony firmware update to android 8 solved the hdr grey bar issue on my Sony A1...

[ebr 16169]

Latest Sony firmware update to android 8 solved the hdr grey bar issue on my Sony A1...

 

YAY!

 

Thanks for letting us know.

[r32godzilla 1]

Cool will have to check my Sony x9000f. Still had grey bars other night and I thought it auto updates Android.

[HanzoX7 11]

Latest Sony firmware update to android 8 solved the hdr grey bar issue on my Sony A1...

 

Hi,

 

I'm running the latest firmware for my XBR-55X805E and I get the grey bars when playing HDR content on the latest Emby app for Android TV... TV's firmware version is v6.6520, which can be found here.

Kodi, the stock Video app nor the Netflix app suffer from this.

 

That page lists an A1 model, just not sure if maybe it's for a different one that got a different firmware addressing that issue. Could you share what's the model of your A1 so I can raise it in their support forum?

[r32godzilla 1]

Yeah sorry to burst the bubble here but the issue is still occuring on my X9000f. After doing some more testing the issue is with H265 HDR files that have a vertical resolution of less that 2160 pixels. ie 3840 x 1600 etc. 3840 x 2160 videos are fine. Hopefully this helps give the devs more info to go on towards getting a fix for this.

 

Cheers!

Edited August 19, 2019 by r32godzilla

[HanzoX7 11]

Yesterday, I was fiddling with some HDR movies and noticed the lack of grey bars. I was surprised by this and checked the release notes. The 1.7.92 version of the Emby Android TV mentions "Work around Sony gray bar problem on HDR cropped content", which is AMAZING. I want to take the time to thank you for the work. It's probably not easy to work around the crap that TV manufacturers do, specially Sony.

 

My premiere subscription is up in a few weeks and this certainly makes it worth the renewal. 

Edited March 17, 2020 by HanzoX7

[Luke 42077]

Yesterday, I was fiddling with some HDR movies and noticed the lack of grey bars. I was surprised by this and checked the release notes. The 1.7.92 version of the Emby Android TV mentions "Work around Sony gray bar problem on HDR cropped content", which is AMAZING. I want to take the time to thank you for the work. It's probably not easy to work around the crap that TV manufacturers do, specially Sony.

 

My premiere subscription is up in a few weeks and this certainly makes is worth the renewal. 

 

Thanks for the feedback !