[x86-64][CroqueMr Builds] Dolby Vision w/FEL, HDR10+, and 3D

It's important to understand that DV is not 'a' standard, it's a collection of them. It is technically possible to implement support for all DV requirements on PC boxes. However there are quite a few technical barriers towards that happening. There are also a pile of legal issues. The technical requirements are slowly being chipped-away at, so there is full support for Kodi on Android (on licensed hardware that follows standards) but only partial support for Kodi on Linux; there are still things missing in ffmpeg and the Linux kernel DRM architecture and hardware-specific drivers. As a result there are many dissinformation threads from DV "experts" in forums that reflect the disconnect between their opinions on on how things work, and actual facts

There is currently only one known open-source implementation of FEL 5/7 and that's in OSMC, and the term open-source means only that it doesn't depend on closed-source Dolby libraries. However this open implementation depends heavily on the Amlogic vendor kernel (with its own proprietary DRM architecture) and intentionally uses OP-TEE secureworld to prevent an army of Dolby lawyers from inspecting how it's been done, so the open implementation is effectively closed.

Quote from ht2tweak

Another development on DV with Linux.

Cool, but I guess it's illegal.

Quote from ht2tweak

Small detail 😉😅.

Shutdown by Dolby would hurt.

It all depends on how the implementation has been done. If Astra decided to decompile/reverse Dolby blobs then the outcome is illegal. If it's been done under "clean room" conditions (which arguably might be impossible with AI agents that learn from other users input) then it's probably harder for Dolby to challenge. Either way, the moment source code that works is posted or leaked somewhere things will be interesting.

So if it's an independent code base, then it's legal? In that case we could use it for "scien-tific, non-commercial purposes".

It's a moot point. If one person (or LLM) is the analyser of the existing design, writer of the specification, legal reviewer, and clean room implementer the result is almost certainly not clean. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean-room_design

Hi,

I’m the guy from Reddit who recently got proper Dolby Vision playback working on Linux with an Intel Ultra 5 226V.

On the 226V in Linux, the implementation is already very close to perfect from what I can see. Across all the modern DV profiles I’ve tested, I’m not seeing playback issues, any frame drops or obvious metadata problems. The main exceptions are the older legacy profiles and profile 20, which I haven’t focused on.

The current implementation still has noticeable rendering and memory bandwidth overhead, so performance on smaller or older iGPUs is an open question. I only perfomed tests with a 226V, which uses specific drivers.

Right now I’m cleaning up the build, removing debug/experimental code and preparing something shareable for a public. I’m aiming to push a first version by the end of the week.

For LibreELEC, I also want to try a native implementation on lower end Intel iGPU. I have an i7 11390H available, so that will probably be my first test platform. I will work on it in October

I should be able to reuse around 50-60% of the current work. The main difference is that my current DV path relies on a custom mpv build. For a clean LE integration, I’d rather port the Dolby Vision handling directly into Kodi’s VideoPlayer/DRM output path instead of keeping mpv as an external player.

For legal aspect, I don’t see any obvious issue, the work is mainly modifications to open source components (Linux/Intel DRM, mpv, FFmpeg and libplacebo) for interoperability. There is no Dolby proprietary code involved, no DRM/HDCP bypass, and obviously no claim of Dolby certification.

That said, if any of you see potential licensing, patent or other legal concerns that I may have missed, I’d be VERY interested in your feedback.

I’ve just finished cleaning up the build, and it’s now available privately on GitHub. If anyone is interested in seeing how it works, I’d be more than happy to share access.

I’m also very, very interested in your take, chewitt, on the legal side of this before I start trying to adapt the implementation for LE.

The high- evel overview of the impacted components and patches is as follows:

Well... of course it would not be ideal, but if it needed, this could be a patch/script completely independent from official LE (like the infamous 12/10 bit issue on N100).

Quote from w46n3r

like the infamous 12/10 bit issue on N100

Which has been patched in LE13 images for quite a few months now..

I’ve started working on a LE build with DV support, initially targeting the 11390H.

The good news is that the driver/kernel changes are largely shared with my mod with the 226V in Kubuntu and mpv. They could potentially cover a wider range of intel CPU, including the N100/150 although compatibility still needs to be verified on each platform, performance is an open question on small iGPU

The Kodi integration requires substantial changes beyond the driver work. I’ll be digging deeper into that with GPT-6 Astra this weekend

Done.

First real Dolby Vision playback on LE in Kodi with an x86 Intel CPU (i7-11390H).

From the libreELEC community on Reddit: WIP - Native Dolby Vision support on x86 Intel CPU in LE & Kodi

Explore this post and more from the libreELEC community

www.reddit.com

There are still quite a few glitches to fix (starting with Kodi completely choking on the UI/UX while a Dolby Vision movie is playing), but the full playback chain is now working.

The TV is properly switching into Dolby Vision, there are no frame drops, and playback itself is already very clean.

I’ll now start tuning, fixing, optimizing, and thoroughly testing every Dolby Vision profile.

I haven’t tested Profile 7 FEL yet. In theory, the implementation already supports it, so if I hit any issues, I expect them to come mainly from the additional GPU load. That said, I’m fairly confident the 11390H should be able to handle it without major problems.

Even though, from my vision, everything is 100% legal, using only open source and no proprietary code, I’m not quite sure how to share the build once I’ve finished a more robust implementation.