HDR tone mapping - Client side or lighter processing?

[mascrugli 1]

Hi,

I currently run my server on a raspberry and am not always able to run a transcoding if the videos in question is in high quality.
Is there any way to process client side HDR tone mapping? multimedia players such as mpv can handle HDR tone mapping without necessarily using a transcoding (embyserver case H265-> H264).
Or, is there a way to process server-side HDR tone mapping but without an entire video re-encoding?
Thank you.

[Luke 42079]

HI, what Emby app are you referring to? In Emby Theater for Windows Desktop, iOS and Apple TV, we have client-side tone mapping using mpv.

[mascrugli 1]

Android TV is there no way to enable it there too?

[vdatanet 1617]

51 minutes ago, mascrugli said:

Android TV is there no way to enable it there too?

Yes, using Nvidia Shield and Mi Box (not sure I sold mine long time ago)

[Carlo 4561]

Yes as @vdatanet mentioned some Android Boxes can do this themselves if you turn on the option in the system menu (OS not Emby).

Both the Shield TV and MiBox S can do this for sure.

[mascrugli 1]

Thanks for the reply. As soon as I can, I will test this feature on my chromecast with google tv.

[Luke 42079]

On 7/16/2021 at 5:19 AM, mascrugli said:

Thanks for the reply. As soon as I can, I will test this feature on my chromecast with google tv.

@mascrugli please let us know how you get on. Thanks !

[mascrugli 1]

I tested the Google TV, in addition to not supporting HDR tone mapping, with the latest updates is not possible to view HDR content in monitors that do not support it. When trying to play HDR video the Emby application stops working.

I tried Mibox S. I can say that I am satisfied with the HDR tone mapping option. But it's not great. Both in HDR to SDR conversion and non-HDR video playback, color management is not as good as in other devices.

Sure, nVidia shield should be better in terms of performance, but at a much higher price.

[ebr 16184]

1 minute ago, mascrugli said:

When trying to play HDR video the Emby application stops working.

Hi.  Can we please look at an example of this?

 

[MrPaulo 8]

I dont have transcodong enabled on the server. On an older 1080p tv i started getting a message that it hdr content would not show correctly. Also dolby video started appearing with the wrong colours. I am convinced this worked before. I have an nvidia shield with the latest client from the playstore on this tv.

Is there any setting that i might have changed by mistake?

Btw - content works fine on a LG with dovi support with a shield client.

 

Thanks on advance.

Paulo

 

[ebr 16184]

On 10/14/2024 at 1:02 PM, MrPaulo said:

I dont have transcodong enabled on the server.

As stated under those options, that is going to restrict the system's ability to properly play your content.

[MrPaulo 8]

2 minutes ago, ebr said:

As stated under those options, that is going to restrict the system's ability to properly play your content.

Hi @ebr,

Thanks for your response.

I have emby server in a docker container in a synology. it works fine for local and remote playback but it does not have the muscle for transcoding. Emby android client is flawless except for this - Does this mean that tone mapping on the client side is not possible - is there a way to enable this? I am running shield clients on all my TVs.

Reason for asking is that with bandwidth not being an issue nowadays, the trend is instead of transcoding to push processing to the client side. If this is not possible today is it realistic to expect this on the roadmap?

[Luke 42079]

On 10/16/2024 at 11:34 AM, MrPaulo said:

Hi @ebr,

Thanks for your response.

I have emby server in a docker container in a synology. it works fine for local and remote playback but it does not have the muscle for transcoding. Emby android client is flawless except for this - Does this mean that tone mapping on the client side is not possible - is there a way to enable this? I am running shield clients on all my TVs.

Reason for asking is that with bandwidth not being an issue nowadays, the trend is instead of transcoding to push processing to the client side. If this is not possible today is it realistic to expect this on the roadmap?

Hi @MrPauloEmby will always try to direct play whenever possible, and there is nothing you need to do in order to enable that. So yes, that is realistic.

Those options exist only to force it, even in situations in which the Emby client app has determined it can't or shouldn't direct play. So that's what you need to be aware of in terms of the potential to cause playback failures.

Does that answer your question?

[MrPaulo 8]

Hi Luke,

 

It does. Thanks.

Is there a way to debug what triggers the client ask the serger for a transcode?

Is there some grep i can do on the logs of the server for example?

Reason for asking is to figure out how to convert video files. For example sometimes changing the audio track triggers a video transcode.

Regards,

Paulo

 

[Luke 42079]

19 hours ago, MrPaulo said:

Hi Luke,

 

It does. Thanks.

Is there a way to debug what triggers the client ask the serger for a transcode?

Is there some grep i can do on the logs of the server for example?

Reason for asking is to figure out how to convert video files. For example sometimes changing the audio track triggers a video transcode.

Regards,

Paulo

 

Hi, the stats feature in the video player will show the transcoding reason. Have you looked at that?