YouTube HDR... finally

[Kuschelmonschter]

YouTube HDR content is finally available!

You will find a playlist here. However, these clips will be played as SDR on Sonys for now.

With youtube-dl you can find vp9.2 encodings for those clips:

330          webm       256x144    144p60  156k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 2.38MiB
331          webm       426x240    240p60  256k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 3.87MiB
332          webm       640x360    360p60  485k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 7.35MiB
333          webm       854x480    480p60  909k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 13.83MiB
334          webm       1280x720   720p60 1991k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 28.18MiB
335          webm       1920x1080  1080p60 3201k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 49.70MiB
336          webm       2560x1440  1440p60 11166k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 170.23MiB
337          webm       3840x2160  2160p60 20122k , vp9.2, 60fps, video only, 335.45MiB

Those are webm however which the native Video app won't play.

We will see whether we will get support for it soon, even for the early 2016 models with the old MediaTek SoC from last year. At least Sony promised that back at CES:

Spoiler

YouTube will also start streaming in HDR quality later this year, using a new VP9-Profile 2 codec that brings HDR support to Google’s VP9 video format. Sony’s Motoi Kawamura, Head of TV Product Planning for Sony Europe, confirmed to FlatpanelsHD that the 2016 models will support VP9-Profile 2 and be capable of streaming YouTube in HDR. We saw a demo at CES and it looked very good.

Source

[Kuschelmonschter]

I think that the YouTube app on Sony is locked to some specific version because Sony/MediaTek fail to implement the underlying APIs in a timely manner.

[Jecht_Sin]

Not really. I have checked in the Google Play Store, 1.3.11 is also the last realease in there. From April 2016, like in apkmirror. It seems to me it is big Google mama to mess up, this time (not that it would be anything new.. I am despising that company each day a bit more. And it went already above my limit ages ago).

Indeed I did an experiment. I have found an open source command line tool, [unsuitable link removed by moderator], that allows to download any YouTube video in any stored format (option "-f 337" for UHD in VP9.2 - option "-F" for the list of available stored versions/formats of the video in YouTube).

I have downloaded the video I mentioned previously in UHD/VP9.2 and put it in my Plex folder for HDR videos. And here there are some more iteresting finding:

• Playing the video via DLNA with the Sony Video app it does not show the HDR.
• Playing the video via Plex it does show the HDR

So VP9.2 should be there, it's "just" the Android TV app not supporting it!!!

Still, no matter what, it looks better in YouTube (converted from HDR) than in Plex with HDR. Well, the colors seem more saturated in YouTube.

Anyway, to give credit where is due, I've actually extracted all this info from this article and its comment section. It lso explain how it is all a commercial manouvre to sell more Chrome Casts. And how Samsung must have a deal with Google (which to me feels like unfair competition. But hey, what do I know..).

[Kuschelmonschter]

Nice research! Thanks for that.

At I/O 2017 Google claimed that Android TV is a big success for them with highly increasing number of activations. Fact is that it gets mainly deployed to cheap Chinese boxes and that major brands did not jump onboard. Lot's of slow and buggy SoCs make the experience pretty underwhelming. One of the few exceptions probably is the SHIELD with its powerful Tegra.

The care that Google puts into the platform pretty much proves its significance. I liked the Android TV O demo a lot though...

[Jecht_Sin]

Personally I am not a fan of Android. The memory management is awful (5-10 seconds to show the volume bar? Most likely because it isn't already in RAM so the kernel has to go, kill some apps, load the volume bar apk, etc? Seriously? And in Android 7 it's got even worse). But like everything buy more powerful HW and all gets better. My Xperia X Compact indeed is a little dream, never a lag. Well.. call list apart, sure. That is a slide show in all recent Xperia. And how could Sony put, into televisions that cost even thousands, an undersized SoC from a manufacturer with terrible development is beyond my comprehension. And then 2GB of RAM. At least 4GB would have helped a lot. Even 3GB!!!

Still, honestly, Android TV is moving forward. The Android O new Home Launcher seems great (not like that Leanback junk we still have in Android 7. The same of before). Android 7 little improvements did improve my life. But it's still half way there. Then Google not updating YouTube is unacceptable (and same for Sony with the Video app. Hopefully we won't have to wait for a new OS update to fix all that!).

The good news is that after this update we have got an extra 10% of performances in Antutu (from 27K to 30K. All in the 3D graphics that doubled, though. Probably because of Vulkan support. But the games do look better! ) and, maybe it's wishful thinking, the contrast/black seems to look better in my XD80, now.

Still I want the YouTube update. And I want it now! Sony pushed to have it in the PS4 Pro. Enough with this "exclusive deals" in OS/app features (Infiity in Italy is doing exactly the same. Only Samsung has the HDR movies). That should be illegal.

[Jecht_Sin]

Another interesting fact: from what I see, many YouTube videos that claim to be in HDR, simply they are.. not! At least they do not have the vp9.2 format in their list. They have vp9 (which I suppose is the non HDR vp9.1 format), they have DASH (the dynamic one for streaming adapting the resolution), which again, should play as HDR only if there is a version in a HDR format, I suppose. But they have not the vp9.2 format. All are UHD, though. And thus something is wrong for real in the YouTube app, since some videos are played at 1080p only.

To be sure I tried downloading a couple of videos using the option for the "best" video format (which should be UHD/HDR, if present, I suppose) and none of them play in HDR. The ones with vp9.2 specifically listed and downloaded as such do, as I wrote before. But it is becoming quite hard to find one!! Unless something is wrong with youtube-dl, but I doubt it. Or with me, but this time I doubt it even more! 

PS: All right. I could find some more vp9.2 videos from the "HDR Channel" in YouTube and after downloading them they all play in HDR in Plex. Some are very beautiful (others, from the Google HDR launch list are unbelievably bad, though). Hopefully it won't take an year to Google to update the YouTube app, at this point..

[Anonymous]

HI all

I am seeking clarrification from Sony in regards to HDR playback of content within YouTube.

Cheers

[Kuschelmonschter]

This is the information Flatpanels HD got. Nothing to announce yet.

Hope that the update will finally also fix YouTube live channels...

[Jecht_Sin]

Since you're there, @Anonymous, please also ask them what it takes to fix that bloody USB module. That it has gone beyond awful (now it even crashes the settings). But I can make a specific thread if you like.

Back on topic, I tried few other video players. VLC hasn't been updated for more than one year either, so I didn't even bother to download it. I didn't have much success with the others. Maybe MX Player played it on HDR, but I can't remember well anymore. Basically vp9.2 is to many a misterious beast (Sony included since Video doesn't go HDR). Mythical Plex apart as usual, sure. Oh, I also tried with Kodi but it isn't possible to open the settings. The videos stop playing. But from the look of it, it wasn't HDR.

[Anonymous]

@Jecht_Sin

Can you make a specific thread for USB issues for Nougat - would be helpful.  It would also be helpful if you bullet point a summary of the issues and then expand upon them below I think (something like that), your choice how you wish to do it.

[Jecht_Sin]

All right, @Anonymous. I will do.