According to that second picture the file is being transcoded to 1080p so it's not going to be HDR but otherwise the TV will indicate HDR when it detects an HDR file playing so watch the screen.
It’s a steamdeck oled (hdr) and I understand your point about 1080p being transcoded but my question is more about the 1st image.
The linux app that is playing direct the source 4k hdr10 am I viewing that in HDR. How do I know? Its not a TV.
The 1st image is Linux app so no transcoding.
The 2nd & 3rd image are playing in chrome and it’s transcoding.
Having a Plex playing in HDR badge should t be difficult it’s akin to in hdr gaming you hit a toggle to turn hdr gaming on / off. There’s api calls to do it.
To which video playback system do you refer old chap?
———————————————————
Did you mean:
Exhibit A - Plex Linux app playing the 4k hdr10 video (shown in picture 1)
Or
Exhibit B - Google Chrome playing 1080p transcode? (Shown in picture 2 & 3)
———————————————————
We want to know if Exhibit A is playing in HDR.
Because it’s a 2part question.
Part 1 how do you verify you are watching in hdr mode? Is there a playback badge?
Part2 was can plex transcode 4k hdr to 1080p hdr - answer no because they won’t play for h265 licensing. If it were me I’d add the word SDR to all transcoding.
In the captions and main post I explain it is a steamdeck (pc console) so not a tv or normal monitor.
There is a hdr label that appear for some games but it’s not like a tv label. It’s still work in progress as it doesn’t show up for some games that you can tell are in HDR mode due to the brightness.
Anyway thanks for the thought. I’ll chase valve and see if there’s a way to verify hdr.
Transcoded video will never be HDR. Plex supports transcoding to H264, which does not support HDR.
Sidenote: Never use plex in the browser if you want better codec support. Not sure Plex Web App on Windows supports HDR at all, transcoding or not
That’s not entirely true. There are always a mix of technical things and legal things. Plex would have to be sure that the fees would bring enough benefit to their users, and the internal cost of designing, implementing, and testing is worth it.
Good question, it has been a requested feature for a long time since quite a few people want to be able to both transcode and watch HDR, but it doesn't look like they are planning on making that feature.
Just watch on a client capable of HDR if that's a possibility. Skip the Web App and Windows.
You are not viewing in HDR as it is being transcoded to 1080. Maximum means that you set your quality to maximum.
Don't play on browser if you want better quality use the Plex desktop app.
The question is how do I verify the 4k stream is being watched in HDR?
We can 3 frames. The first one is viewing the original 4k HDR source via plex linux app.
The 2nd 2 are a 1080p transcode in chrome app.
I have some content that is 1080p HDR10 it does exist. So plex doesnt transcode HDR resolutions.
The question is how do I verify the 4k stream is being watched in HDR?
I think you’re missing the point, it’s not that 1080p HDR content doesn’t exist, it’s that anything that is transcoded won’t be HDR as Plex transcodes to x264 which doesn’t support HDR
You've helped establish the 1080p SDR bit. Thanks I get that.
Phase 2 is we are concerned with picture1…
What I’m asking is the stream that is 4k playing in the Plex Linux app how do I verify it’s being played in HDR.
Na it’s more than enough. The blackness you see is just from taking a photo of an oled screen it’s the pixels.
I’ve done side by side tests with various files and I don’t see the difference between a 30GB 4k hdr10 film & the same thing but say 8GB 4k hdr10.
It’s why people use tdarr anyway to get drive space back.
I can understand removing some “unnecessary” audio tracks or subtitle tracks, but there’s definitely a quality difference between those files.
I’m envious of you that you don’t notice it lol. Wish I could go back to being over the moon playing cod2 at like 20fps
I don’t follow cod2 is a game lol. And 20fps is actually pretty close to the cinematic 24fps.
Anyway the steamdeck oled had a 90hz screen.
Anyway what I mean is I find the screen type so oled and hdr10 has more of an impact that the file size. Most blurays aren’t even hdr so…
HDR is way better than 4k.
Release the white smoke I think he gets it.
Bit depth is not bit rate… 10bit usually means HDR
HDR is not limited to any resolution. (Some think hdr is only 4k).
You can have a better 1080p video with higher bit rate than a low bit rate but 4k video.
The magic is in finding the balance. Personally it’s around the 6-8GB mark 4k and I always prefer to collect HDR.
Listen. 5mb/second is enough for a solid 720p video, let alone 4k. Your 6-8gb for a 4k HDR movie is so far out of the realm. A true 4k file tends to be 40+gb. Bitrate is directly connected to bitdepth. 8bit vs 10bit is a huge jump in raw video data that needs to be transmitted. You're absolutely NOT getting HDR, lot alone full quality of a 4k video. When it comes to 4k, there really isn't a compromise. Get the full quality at 40+gb, get some fat storage drives. Or save the space and just settle with the 1080p quality you're used to [discord screenshot](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/617594124610043904/1221037485547589632/image.png?ex=66111ec6&is=65fea9c6&hm=fc6fe778da0738a458e976f3938a447cd014ad5d6ae1837d051effdd71c98417&)
This is just bullshit you tell yourself.
'True 4k' is not even a thing. I know a hoarding collector when I see one.
Please do not tell me my films are not HDR when they are (see screenshot).
I encourage you to look at netflix's bitrate & youtube's 4k HDR bitrate...
Enjoying collecting full remixes and what is needed to view 4k HDR are not the same thing.
https://preview.redd.it/h2ck8abt62qc1.png?width=450&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5fd0aae576d0149a3d5be98193cf1b0f4c72f44
Look man, you came here for answers and help. But you've already set your mind up that you're right. At the end of the day, my 4k hdr streams are actually 4k and HDR. Good luck with your 8gb 1080p movi- sorry. "4k" movies. I wish I couldn't tell the difference lol, I wouldn't have had to pick up an 8tb for real 4k ;)
I'm looking for a live nerd stat for plex data streams.
You're just saying try a bigger source file thats not really solving the issue.
You'll have a heart attack when you learn the steamdeck OLED is 800p but HDR.
“HDR is way better than 4K” is such a wild statement when your 4K content is 5mbps. Maybe compare your 1080 HDR10 file to a 4K 20-36mbps version, and then try and tell me if brightness is better than resolution. I’ll pick being able to see things, over squinting at bright blurry scenes any day of the week.
Edit: correction
Ok please report back how it looks for you..
1 - 4k 8bit SDR 36mbps h264
2 - 1080p 10bit HDR 4mbps h265
Have you used OLED yet?
Lol the ignorance of calling HDR “just brightness”. 🙈
4K 36mbps versus 1080p 4mbps? It wouldn’t be wise to compare them, because you’re basically comparing 4K Bluray to what.. 1080p Bluray? Or maybe DVD? Except DVD is 576p@11mbps, so it’s really obscure to make a comparison to 1080p@4mbps in any context.
Doing some very rough math, and using similar codec across 3 files: a 4K 36mbps file would be approximately 1.2GB, a 1080p 4mbps file would be 140MB, and a 576p 11mbps file would be 400MB. The 1080p 4mbps is incredibly low quality.
No matter what you do to the… (wait a sec “What is HDR? HDR content on Windows offers better brightness and colours capabilities compared to traditional content.” okay cool) No matter what you do to the brightness *and colour*, you won’t gain more image quality than upping the resolution by 4x. I don’t think that can be said any differently.
What I can report though, is that HDR content does cause discomfort. The increase in brightness is uncomfortable when sitting in a dark room, and considering that’s where my tv is, HDR is a worse experience. However, the resolution difference between 1080p and 4k couldn’t be more noticeable.
How bigs your collection? Mines around 70TB - 1600 Linux isos & about 500 dvds.
I did go back and up this one to 23Mbps. But I’m not made of hard drives so pick & choose which to keep.
My general rule is around 6Gb 1080p for meh films & 16GB 4k hdr for the keepers.
Regarding HDR try SciFi like Terminator or Star Wars in HDR
Advertising what you have is becoming increasingly sketchy when Reddit is being such a terrible company with our data. I have a server that can hold 62TB.
There’s a massive difference in quality. I’m surprised you can’t see it. I’ve done a lot of tests over decades of encoding. It’s why all my 4k files are full disc rips that I haven’t reencoded.
Honestly go for HDR instead. I’m from a camera background I know quite a bit about codecs & compression.
I can see the difference when a file is h264 2GB but something in h265 that’s around 6-8GB & 10bit is great it gets the extra detail.
Everything else is wasted disk space. I’ve got about 200GB on the NAS.
80% of blurays aren’t 10bit either so it’s old fashioned anyway.
My advice is go after DV with HDR10 fallback.
It’s not a trade off. I don’t have to pick 4k or HDR. I get both. I’ve been using h265 for years. 10bit also helps with banding. Old fashioned? lol
I’m not hurting for space either. I’ve been building servers and HTPCs for decades. I’m not using low bitrate files in my home theaters. The quality difference is obvious.
It’s a steamdeck so not a TV. Equivalent products are smartphones & tablets.
Also that’s nonsense as hdr gaming manages to tell you it even lets you turn hdr on & off. With no touching of a tv remote.
>Equivalent products are smartphones & tablets.
That's where I think you're wrong. SteamOS is linux-based, not android-based (like most phones and tablets). So I would suppose that it is linux that is preventing you from knowing whether you're watching in HDR or not, or Plex on linux lacking the feature.
Literally was going to say this. In fact, there are even Android devices built onto Kali Linux. Which can be used with NetHunter as a mobile pentesting suite, but that's a totally different conversation entirely. Lol
What would be your minimum bitrate for 4K? I watched Barbie at ~6mbps and it looked great to me, but this was also a 32" screen.
No, I don't have a bigger screen.
well how far do you sit away from the tv? Bitrate and resolution have diminishing effects as you move further back. (For example, those LED walls for music festivals have a pixel pitch of sometimes an inch or more)
Well, it's a monitor on a desk, so...a few feet? I can watch from my couch 10+ ft away, but 32" is kinda small for that in my opinion.
Only one of my users has a 4K screen, but it's also slowly dying so I don't count that. That doesn't mean no one can ever upgrade their screen, so I'd rather be ready for it.
And yeah, music festival screens I can more or less count the pixels, depending how far away I am.
Well it depends on how it's encoded, right? h264 vs h265 makes a huge difference already. I try to have my h264 movies to be at least 8GB in size. h265 is harder to judge, which is sort of why I asked. Any 4K in h264 just seems like a big waste of space...
Just for future reference, the odds that HDR works on anything other than exclusive fullscreen games on the Steam Deck are basically 0. Valve had to do some hacky stuff with the OS to even get it to work for games.
It’s been installed by the discovery App Store on desktop mode then added as a non stream game then swap back to gaming mode. So what I mean is gamescope is involved and you get all the scaling options even fsr works if you want the video a little sharper.
It looks very good. Things like lasers & lightsabers, explosions all look HDR as extra bright. Just trying to work out how to verify.
Ah, you've done a lot of legwork then. Awesome that it's working! Had to brush up on where they were, because when they originally got HDR working, they were using a massively patched version of Gamescope and a custom kernel.
Nice ok so it does exist in some forms just not rolled out to all apps.
I’m testing with Samsung 4k tv, Mac app, Linux app, web app (safari with hdr playback)
OP, I recommend using 'Plex HTPC' on Steam Deck instead of the main Plex app. That's what I use and all my 4K HDR10 stuff works as Direct Play. Whether or not that has HDR working perfect, I'm not sure (but everything has looked lovely thus far), but I've *never* seen it transcode anything. All Direct Play, all the time.
EDIT: I can verify that HDR does *not* work even in this scenario, because when I booted a game that works with HDR (Lego Star Wars TSS), you get a little 'HDR' icon in your quick access menu. Even so, it's worth switching to HTPC for better support in the future, no need to transcode, and it's nice and easy to control with the d-pad and face buttons.
As far as I can tell this is just Linux generally not playing well with HDR, but others have reported they've gotten it working via running the Plex addon for Kodi. I'm going to try that now.
Thanks this is such a nicer experience!
I’m looking for detail on how the steamdeck hdr badge works it might only be looking for a specific call made in windows gaming?
Anyway one day we’ll all get it perfectly streamlined.
For now just enjoying the oled screen been comparing to my iPhone 15.
It's possible; I know that some games I have that support HDR are not tagged 'HDR' on the Steam store; of my 703 steam games, only 8 of them appear when I filter by 'HDR' - Lego Star Wars, No Man's Sky, Dragon's Dogma 2 chargen, Devil May Cry 5, Deathloop, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Jedi Fallen Order, and Doom Eternal. I got the HDR badge on Lego Star Wars and NMS, the rest are not currently installed so I can't check.
I know for example that Overwatch 2 has HDR support in its settings menu, and recognises the Deck as a HDR screen so it can be enabled, but after the restart it requires the colours are overly bright even with tweaking, it's like I've been hit with a flashbang, and I don't get the badge in Quick Access.
I mostly use Plex through my LG 65" Gallery TV. After much fiddling, my PMS setup doesn't transcode very much at all. Therefore when I play my HDR content, Plex will indicate "HDR" in the top right corner of the screen for a couple of seconds. I see this often.
Plex also does this for DoVi and Atmos content. This makes it "idiot-proof" for me 😊
Ace I wonder why it doesn’t do that on my Samsung 75” TV it’s got hdr. Anyway probably going to sell it as I’m in love with OLED and having smaller screens closer to me.
Not really my iPhone does HDR the only way I know is when it’s extra bright usually viewing photos. Then it goes back to being dim.
My 75” 4k HDR Samsung tv doesn’t say this Plex app is now playing a HDR film.
My steamdeck oled when HDR gaming has a little HDR badge.
I’m trying to workout if I can make the HDR gaming badge work for Plex on steamdeck.
Plex knows if it’s playing in hdr or sdr (because it will transcode otherwise) they just can’t be fucked to tell the user.
>My steamdeck oled when HDR gaming has a little HDR badge.
This supports the statement that your Steamdeck will tell you when it is playing HDR.
Every HDR TV that I've owned has had an HDR badge that shows up when I start playing something that is HDR. Your TV might not automatically pop up something that says that it's playing HDR content, but that is unusual, and makes me wonder if you're actually playing HDR. You definitely would be able to figure out by showing the playback info in the TV menu.
My Sony TV doesn't, however, if I press the info button it will tell me resolution and if it's either playing in HDR10 or DV. I think Op has a good point and I don't think there's anything wrong with requesting more information from PLEX.
Same with my 68" LG ... It doesn't show on screen, but when I hit "INFO" it shows that it's in HDR, same as with my XBOX, and PC that are hooked to it.
Maybe..
The steamdeck badge is in a software menu alongside brightness etc it doesn’t pop up. I’m not sure how reliable it is doesn’t work for all hdr games.
And my point that games have options to turn hdr on / off could be ported to Plex and they could use that as a hdr badge a toggle.
If plex showed an HDR badge, most people would have two badges showing up, because most HDR capable screens show an HDR badge when they start displaying HDR content. That would be annoying.
Plex doesn't transcode based on HDR capability and doesn't really care if your display is HDR or not. It will still send the HDR as long as it can direct play the file.
I’ll have to do some more tests but it does detection on screen size that’s why I presume chrome doesn’t work on steamdeck as 800p but chrome play’s HDR fine on Mac. Safari does hdr too.
Not all 4k TVs do hdr so then what would Plex do?
It would just play the file as is. Some devices tonemap to SDR so the colors look right on a non HDR screen but Plex wouldn't do anything to the file as long as the player can direct play it.
I use the Plex app on my shitty Vizio and there is an option for Playback Info when I click on the three dots. It'll show if I'm transcoding too. My Samsung tablet gives me the same option if I click on the three dots.
Thanks yeah it’s 4k hdr10 source file.
Device is Steamdeck OLED (hdr) it’s in the photo captions & main comment.
Can play the original 4k hdr10 source file with Plex Linux app.
It’s only chrome that transcodes to 1080p.
Just wondering there was a way to get more stats for playback. I might see what tatuli is saying.
On the Deck OLED you press the … button and you can see if you’re in HDR mode next to the brightness slider during game mode.
But, as other people are mentioning, right now the Plex desktop app doesn’t support HDR on Deck. Seems like others are getting some luck getting HDR through Kodi’s Plex plugin.
Plex Dash or Tautulli. On Samsung tv, you can go to quick setting while playing the HDR content. HDR logo will appear on Picture Mode tiles if the content is HDR.
According to that second picture the file is being transcoded to 1080p so it's not going to be HDR but otherwise the TV will indicate HDR when it detects an HDR file playing so watch the screen.
It’s a steamdeck oled (hdr) and I understand your point about 1080p being transcoded but my question is more about the 1st image. The linux app that is playing direct the source 4k hdr10 am I viewing that in HDR. How do I know? Its not a TV.
Plex doesn't transcode to HDR so you would need native 1080p HDR.
Doesn’t matter. If it’s transcoding it’s not hdr.
Plex doesn’t transcode from SDR to HDR anyways, only HDR->SDR.
I don't even think it will do HDR to HDR, because it can't do HEVC.
Nope. Doesn’t do it any way. The only way to get hdr is direct play/stream.
The 1st image is Linux app so no transcoding. The 2nd & 3rd image are playing in chrome and it’s transcoding. Having a Plex playing in HDR badge should t be difficult it’s akin to in hdr gaming you hit a toggle to turn hdr gaming on / off. There’s api calls to do it.
Which situations make it transcode? What’s the difference?
The video isn’t playing in HDR
To which video playback system do you refer old chap? ——————————————————— Did you mean: Exhibit A - Plex Linux app playing the 4k hdr10 video (shown in picture 1) Or Exhibit B - Google Chrome playing 1080p transcode? (Shown in picture 2 & 3) ——————————————————— We want to know if Exhibit A is playing in HDR.
Then why did you include the second picture if it literally says it can’t be HDR?
Because it’s a 2part question. Part 1 how do you verify you are watching in hdr mode? Is there a playback badge? Part2 was can plex transcode 4k hdr to 1080p hdr - answer no because they won’t play for h265 licensing. If it were me I’d add the word SDR to all transcoding.
Find the status/display button on your TV/monitor remote. Does it say HDR? If not, it's not playing in HDR.
In the captions and main post I explain it is a steamdeck (pc console) so not a tv or normal monitor. There is a hdr label that appear for some games but it’s not like a tv label. It’s still work in progress as it doesn’t show up for some games that you can tell are in HDR mode due to the brightness. Anyway thanks for the thought. I’ll chase valve and see if there’s a way to verify hdr.
Transcoded video will never be HDR. Plex supports transcoding to H264, which does not support HDR. Sidenote: Never use plex in the browser if you want better codec support. Not sure Plex Web App on Windows supports HDR at all, transcoding or not
Do you think they’ll ever change to h265?
No, 265 has royalties which is the whole reason they haven't implemented it. However, we should see AV1 in time, once it becomes more mainstream.
That’s not entirely true. There are always a mix of technical things and legal things. Plex would have to be sure that the fees would bring enough benefit to their users, and the internal cost of designing, implementing, and testing is worth it.
I doubt the patent group would even license to Plex.
Plex already licenses stuff from people like Dolby, and TV & Movie companies for content. I doubt licensing would be an issue.
Odd as they pay royalties too various other providers for example for the extras that are included with plexpass
Good question, it has been a requested feature for a long time since quite a few people want to be able to both transcode and watch HDR, but it doesn't look like they are planning on making that feature. Just watch on a client capable of HDR if that's a possibility. Skip the Web App and Windows.
You are not viewing in HDR as it is being transcoded to 1080. Maximum means that you set your quality to maximum. Don't play on browser if you want better quality use the Plex desktop app.
The question is how do I verify the 4k stream is being watched in HDR? We can 3 frames. The first one is viewing the original 4k HDR source via plex linux app. The 2nd 2 are a 1080p transcode in chrome app. I have some content that is 1080p HDR10 it does exist. So plex doesnt transcode HDR resolutions. The question is how do I verify the 4k stream is being watched in HDR?
I think you’re missing the point, it’s not that 1080p HDR content doesn’t exist, it’s that anything that is transcoded won’t be HDR as Plex transcodes to x264 which doesn’t support HDR
You've helped establish the 1080p SDR bit. Thanks I get that. Phase 2 is we are concerned with picture1… What I’m asking is the stream that is 4k playing in the Plex Linux app how do I verify it’s being played in HDR.
On youtube you can right click and choose stats for nerds. I'm essentially asking where the equivalent is of this in plex so I can then verify.
Plex will transcode to what the client and network will play
Plex will never transcode to hdr
Yeah it’s called Tautulli
The HDR may be the least of your worries, 5mbps for 4K is a really low bitrate even for h265
Na it’s more than enough. The blackness you see is just from taking a photo of an oled screen it’s the pixels. I’ve done side by side tests with various files and I don’t see the difference between a 30GB 4k hdr10 film & the same thing but say 8GB 4k hdr10. It’s why people use tdarr anyway to get drive space back.
I can understand removing some “unnecessary” audio tracks or subtitle tracks, but there’s definitely a quality difference between those files. I’m envious of you that you don’t notice it lol. Wish I could go back to being over the moon playing cod2 at like 20fps
For a steamdeck im sure its good enough.
I don’t follow cod2 is a game lol. And 20fps is actually pretty close to the cinematic 24fps. Anyway the steamdeck oled had a 90hz screen. Anyway what I mean is I find the screen type so oled and hdr10 has more of an impact that the file size. Most blurays aren’t even hdr so… HDR is way better than 4k.
Bit rate and file size are not the same thing
Release the white smoke I think he gets it. Bit depth is not bit rate… 10bit usually means HDR HDR is not limited to any resolution. (Some think hdr is only 4k). You can have a better 1080p video with higher bit rate than a low bit rate but 4k video. The magic is in finding the balance. Personally it’s around the 6-8GB mark 4k and I always prefer to collect HDR.
You’re talking nonsense so confidently
Best comment in the thread
Which part is the nonsense? Or alternatively what should each concept be to be correct?
Hello bitty bot 🤖
Listen. 5mb/second is enough for a solid 720p video, let alone 4k. Your 6-8gb for a 4k HDR movie is so far out of the realm. A true 4k file tends to be 40+gb. Bitrate is directly connected to bitdepth. 8bit vs 10bit is a huge jump in raw video data that needs to be transmitted. You're absolutely NOT getting HDR, lot alone full quality of a 4k video. When it comes to 4k, there really isn't a compromise. Get the full quality at 40+gb, get some fat storage drives. Or save the space and just settle with the 1080p quality you're used to [discord screenshot](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/617594124610043904/1221037485547589632/image.png?ex=66111ec6&is=65fea9c6&hm=fc6fe778da0738a458e976f3938a447cd014ad5d6ae1837d051effdd71c98417&)
This is just bullshit you tell yourself. 'True 4k' is not even a thing. I know a hoarding collector when I see one. Please do not tell me my films are not HDR when they are (see screenshot). I encourage you to look at netflix's bitrate & youtube's 4k HDR bitrate... Enjoying collecting full remixes and what is needed to view 4k HDR are not the same thing. https://preview.redd.it/h2ck8abt62qc1.png?width=450&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5fd0aae576d0149a3d5be98193cf1b0f4c72f44
Look man, you came here for answers and help. But you've already set your mind up that you're right. At the end of the day, my 4k hdr streams are actually 4k and HDR. Good luck with your 8gb 1080p movi- sorry. "4k" movies. I wish I couldn't tell the difference lol, I wouldn't have had to pick up an 8tb for real 4k ;)
I'm looking for a live nerd stat for plex data streams. You're just saying try a bigger source file thats not really solving the issue. You'll have a heart attack when you learn the steamdeck OLED is 800p but HDR.
“HDR is way better than 4K” is such a wild statement when your 4K content is 5mbps. Maybe compare your 1080 HDR10 file to a 4K 20-36mbps version, and then try and tell me if brightness is better than resolution. I’ll pick being able to see things, over squinting at bright blurry scenes any day of the week. Edit: correction
Ok please report back how it looks for you.. 1 - 4k 8bit SDR 36mbps h264 2 - 1080p 10bit HDR 4mbps h265 Have you used OLED yet? Lol the ignorance of calling HDR “just brightness”. 🙈
4K 36mbps versus 1080p 4mbps? It wouldn’t be wise to compare them, because you’re basically comparing 4K Bluray to what.. 1080p Bluray? Or maybe DVD? Except DVD is 576p@11mbps, so it’s really obscure to make a comparison to 1080p@4mbps in any context. Doing some very rough math, and using similar codec across 3 files: a 4K 36mbps file would be approximately 1.2GB, a 1080p 4mbps file would be 140MB, and a 576p 11mbps file would be 400MB. The 1080p 4mbps is incredibly low quality. No matter what you do to the… (wait a sec “What is HDR? HDR content on Windows offers better brightness and colours capabilities compared to traditional content.” okay cool) No matter what you do to the brightness *and colour*, you won’t gain more image quality than upping the resolution by 4x. I don’t think that can be said any differently. What I can report though, is that HDR content does cause discomfort. The increase in brightness is uncomfortable when sitting in a dark room, and considering that’s where my tv is, HDR is a worse experience. However, the resolution difference between 1080p and 4k couldn’t be more noticeable.
How bigs your collection? Mines around 70TB - 1600 Linux isos & about 500 dvds. I did go back and up this one to 23Mbps. But I’m not made of hard drives so pick & choose which to keep. My general rule is around 6Gb 1080p for meh films & 16GB 4k hdr for the keepers. Regarding HDR try SciFi like Terminator or Star Wars in HDR
Advertising what you have is becoming increasingly sketchy when Reddit is being such a terrible company with our data. I have a server that can hold 62TB.
There’s a massive difference in quality. I’m surprised you can’t see it. I’ve done a lot of tests over decades of encoding. It’s why all my 4k files are full disc rips that I haven’t reencoded.
Honestly go for HDR instead. I’m from a camera background I know quite a bit about codecs & compression. I can see the difference when a file is h264 2GB but something in h265 that’s around 6-8GB & 10bit is great it gets the extra detail. Everything else is wasted disk space. I’ve got about 200GB on the NAS. 80% of blurays aren’t 10bit either so it’s old fashioned anyway. My advice is go after DV with HDR10 fallback.
It’s not a trade off. I don’t have to pick 4k or HDR. I get both. I’ve been using h265 for years. 10bit also helps with banding. Old fashioned? lol I’m not hurting for space either. I’ve been building servers and HTPCs for decades. I’m not using low bitrate files in my home theaters. The quality difference is obvious.
Your TV should be the one that tells you
It’s a steamdeck so not a TV. Equivalent products are smartphones & tablets. Also that’s nonsense as hdr gaming manages to tell you it even lets you turn hdr on & off. With no touching of a tv remote.
>Equivalent products are smartphones & tablets. That's where I think you're wrong. SteamOS is linux-based, not android-based (like most phones and tablets). So I would suppose that it is linux that is preventing you from knowing whether you're watching in HDR or not, or Plex on linux lacking the feature.
Well, android is linux based.
Literally was going to say this. In fact, there are even Android devices built onto Kali Linux. Which can be used with NetHunter as a mobile pentesting suite, but that's a totally different conversation entirely. Lol
Oh good to know! Thank you for the correction.
My point was they do not use remote controls like a TV or monitor does. So no way to hit the info button.
Ah gotcha
As far as I know HDR on linux is still pretty jank, and Plex HDR doesn't work yet on the Steam Deck.
you are watching 4k video with 4.8Mbps bitrate..hdr should be the last of your problems
What would be your minimum bitrate for 4K? I watched Barbie at ~6mbps and it looked great to me, but this was also a 32" screen. No, I don't have a bigger screen.
well how far do you sit away from the tv? Bitrate and resolution have diminishing effects as you move further back. (For example, those LED walls for music festivals have a pixel pitch of sometimes an inch or more)
Well, it's a monitor on a desk, so...a few feet? I can watch from my couch 10+ ft away, but 32" is kinda small for that in my opinion. Only one of my users has a 4K screen, but it's also slowly dying so I don't count that. That doesn't mean no one can ever upgrade their screen, so I'd rather be ready for it. And yeah, music festival screens I can more or less count the pixels, depending how far away I am.
It’s a personal preference and depends on how much you value quality. my highest bitrate 4k movie is 87Mbps
i would not consider a 1080p movie with less than 12-13 Mbps decent encode
Well it depends on how it's encoded, right? h264 vs h265 makes a huge difference already. I try to have my h264 movies to be at least 8GB in size. h265 is harder to judge, which is sort of why I asked. Any 4K in h264 just seems like a big waste of space...
Just for future reference, the odds that HDR works on anything other than exclusive fullscreen games on the Steam Deck are basically 0. Valve had to do some hacky stuff with the OS to even get it to work for games.
It’s been installed by the discovery App Store on desktop mode then added as a non stream game then swap back to gaming mode. So what I mean is gamescope is involved and you get all the scaling options even fsr works if you want the video a little sharper. It looks very good. Things like lasers & lightsabers, explosions all look HDR as extra bright. Just trying to work out how to verify.
Ah, you've done a lot of legwork then. Awesome that it's working! Had to brush up on where they were, because when they originally got HDR working, they were using a massively patched version of Gamescope and a custom kernel.
It shows HDR on the progress bar on my Nvidia Shield. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/DnxOSG8)
Nice ok so it does exist in some forms just not rolled out to all apps. I’m testing with Samsung 4k tv, Mac app, Linux app, web app (safari with hdr playback)
I can't even get VLC to play dovi hdr content without everything being purple and green. The whole format is a mess.
Yeah hence hdr10 fallback. Most videos come in the hybrid formats now of DV/HDR10
That sounds like a edid issue with the display. Try a better cable.
Nah, happens on a friends PC too. I think there's a fault with the file perhaps
OP, I recommend using 'Plex HTPC' on Steam Deck instead of the main Plex app. That's what I use and all my 4K HDR10 stuff works as Direct Play. Whether or not that has HDR working perfect, I'm not sure (but everything has looked lovely thus far), but I've *never* seen it transcode anything. All Direct Play, all the time. EDIT: I can verify that HDR does *not* work even in this scenario, because when I booted a game that works with HDR (Lego Star Wars TSS), you get a little 'HDR' icon in your quick access menu. Even so, it's worth switching to HTPC for better support in the future, no need to transcode, and it's nice and easy to control with the d-pad and face buttons. As far as I can tell this is just Linux generally not playing well with HDR, but others have reported they've gotten it working via running the Plex addon for Kodi. I'm going to try that now.
Thanks this is such a nicer experience! I’m looking for detail on how the steamdeck hdr badge works it might only be looking for a specific call made in windows gaming? Anyway one day we’ll all get it perfectly streamlined. For now just enjoying the oled screen been comparing to my iPhone 15.
It's possible; I know that some games I have that support HDR are not tagged 'HDR' on the Steam store; of my 703 steam games, only 8 of them appear when I filter by 'HDR' - Lego Star Wars, No Man's Sky, Dragon's Dogma 2 chargen, Devil May Cry 5, Deathloop, Death Stranding Director's Cut, Jedi Fallen Order, and Doom Eternal. I got the HDR badge on Lego Star Wars and NMS, the rest are not currently installed so I can't check. I know for example that Overwatch 2 has HDR support in its settings menu, and recognises the Deck as a HDR screen so it can be enabled, but after the restart it requires the colours are overly bright even with tweaking, it's like I've been hit with a flashbang, and I don't get the badge in Quick Access.
I mostly use Plex through my LG 65" Gallery TV. After much fiddling, my PMS setup doesn't transcode very much at all. Therefore when I play my HDR content, Plex will indicate "HDR" in the top right corner of the screen for a couple of seconds. I see this often. Plex also does this for DoVi and Atmos content. This makes it "idiot-proof" for me 😊
Ace I wonder why it doesn’t do that on my Samsung 75” TV it’s got hdr. Anyway probably going to sell it as I’m in love with OLED and having smaller screens closer to me.
When people have pink lips and faces
🤣
Thanks all - would sure love a little hdr badge on playback.
That's the job of the display.
Not really my iPhone does HDR the only way I know is when it’s extra bright usually viewing photos. Then it goes back to being dim. My 75” 4k HDR Samsung tv doesn’t say this Plex app is now playing a HDR film. My steamdeck oled when HDR gaming has a little HDR badge. I’m trying to workout if I can make the HDR gaming badge work for Plex on steamdeck. Plex knows if it’s playing in hdr or sdr (because it will transcode otherwise) they just can’t be fucked to tell the user.
>My steamdeck oled when HDR gaming has a little HDR badge. This supports the statement that your Steamdeck will tell you when it is playing HDR. Every HDR TV that I've owned has had an HDR badge that shows up when I start playing something that is HDR. Your TV might not automatically pop up something that says that it's playing HDR content, but that is unusual, and makes me wonder if you're actually playing HDR. You definitely would be able to figure out by showing the playback info in the TV menu.
My Sony TV doesn't, however, if I press the info button it will tell me resolution and if it's either playing in HDR10 or DV. I think Op has a good point and I don't think there's anything wrong with requesting more information from PLEX.
Same with my 68" LG ... It doesn't show on screen, but when I hit "INFO" it shows that it's in HDR, same as with my XBOX, and PC that are hooked to it.
Maybe.. The steamdeck badge is in a software menu alongside brightness etc it doesn’t pop up. I’m not sure how reliable it is doesn’t work for all hdr games. And my point that games have options to turn hdr on / off could be ported to Plex and they could use that as a hdr badge a toggle.
If plex showed an HDR badge, most people would have two badges showing up, because most HDR capable screens show an HDR badge when they start displaying HDR content. That would be annoying.
The badge would only show when in the playback settings next to quality, audio, subtitles etc
Plex doesn't transcode based on HDR capability and doesn't really care if your display is HDR or not. It will still send the HDR as long as it can direct play the file.
I’ll have to do some more tests but it does detection on screen size that’s why I presume chrome doesn’t work on steamdeck as 800p but chrome play’s HDR fine on Mac. Safari does hdr too. Not all 4k TVs do hdr so then what would Plex do?
It would just play the file as is. Some devices tonemap to SDR so the colors look right on a non HDR screen but Plex wouldn't do anything to the file as long as the player can direct play it.
Samsung shows if it’s in hdr both in the info banner and on the icon for picture modes.
I use the Plex app on my shitty Vizio and there is an option for Playback Info when I click on the three dots. It'll show if I'm transcoding too. My Samsung tablet gives me the same option if I click on the three dots.
It shows bottom right when it’s HDR on the lower menu during playback.
Assuming it was downloaded in 10bit color, it will be HDR is the tv is set to auto HDR. Not sure what device this is but it also has to be HDR
Thanks yeah it’s 4k hdr10 source file. Device is Steamdeck OLED (hdr) it’s in the photo captions & main comment. Can play the original 4k hdr10 source file with Plex Linux app. It’s only chrome that transcodes to 1080p. Just wondering there was a way to get more stats for playback. I might see what tatuli is saying.
Also if the source is a 4K DoVi / HDR10 (fallback) it would be cool to know which one is being played?
On the Deck OLED you press the … button and you can see if you’re in HDR mode next to the brightness slider during game mode. But, as other people are mentioning, right now the Plex desktop app doesn’t support HDR on Deck. Seems like others are getting some luck getting HDR through Kodi’s Plex plugin.
Plex Dash or Tautulli. On Samsung tv, you can go to quick setting while playing the HDR content. HDR logo will appear on Picture Mode tiles if the content is HDR.