rPi4+LE9.1.501 washed out colors during 4K HDR10+ play

Filip · October 11, 2019 at 10:48 PM

as the title says, while playing some HEVC HDR10+ (based on MediaInfo data) the colors looked washed out (if I pause the movie, the fanart picture that pops up in the bottom left along with other controls has proper colors)

I downloaded as a separate test a free 4K sample (1m of Elysium) that MediaInfo doesn't show as being HDR and that one plays fine

the TV is an LG OLED E8, I tried both enabling or disabling the HDMI UHD deep colors from the TV settings, no improvement

I've read in a separate thread a few others complained about similar (?) issues a few months ago but no complains recently so I'm hoping there's a fix to my issue

ramis · October 11, 2019 at 11:40 PM

Hi,

no fix yet. The RPI4(Hardware) supports HDR, but the Software(Kodi, libreelec) wont support it, atm. We all have to wait for a LE release based on a a 5.X Kernel.

A Quick Solution is to buy a FTV Stick, sideload kodi and enjoy HDR Movies

Filip · October 12, 2019 at 11:43 AM

nice to hear it's work in progress, I can live without HDR for now

petersphilo · November 7, 2021 at 9:57 AM

Sorry for reviving this topic..

i just installed LibreElec 10.0.1 on my RPi4 and it seems that HDR10 media still plays with washed-out colors..

i found this thread on the Kodi forums that seems to indicate the Rpi4 will never be able to (properly) play HDR10 content:

pi 4 HEVC grey overlay and faded color.

is that right?

Thank you!!

**popcornmix** · November 8, 2021 at 5:19 PM

HDR10 encoded media played on a HDR10 capable display is supported.

HDR10 encoded media played on a non-HDR10 capable display will not have correct colours.

makima · November 8, 2021 at 5:24 PM

Quote from popcornmix

HDR10 encoded media played on a HDR10 capable display is supported.
HDR10 encoded media played on a non-HDR10 capable display will not have correct colours.

interestingly enough, a HDR10 encoded media played on a non-HDR10 capable display on Firetv stick plays okay. so it’s RPi4 limitation?

**popcornmix** · November 8, 2021 at 7:54 PM

Quote from makima

interestingly enough, a HDR10 encoded media played on a non-HDR10 capable display on Firetv stick plays okay. so it’s RPi4 limitation?

The HDR colour space is much larger than SDR, so there's no perfect way to do this, but tonemapping is an algorithm that squashes the range down in a way that looks okay. I suspect the Firetv stick has hardware support for this, but the Pi doesn't.

**chewitt** · November 9, 2021 at 1:59 AM

Most Amazon devices are using Amlogic G12A chips which have dedicated pre/post processing hardware for such things.

petersphilo · November 9, 2021 at 11:13 AM

Thank you for the info!

Indeed, my display is not HDR-capable..

I'll stick to SDR content..

i'm also exploring the idea, when no other solution is available, of transcoding content using Handbake's BT.709 Colorspace filter..

My understanding is that using the BT.709 Colorspace filter is basically turning content into SDR..

i know it's a less than ideal solution, but most 4k content is HDR by default

Thank you again for the answers!!

You are my heroes!!