HDR Optimizer (like Panasonic UB820/UB820)

Suggestions
#1

James,

Since HDR is a mess right now and there is no definite standard yet to calibrate it yet I was wondering is you can implement a feature like the HDR Optizer to get the full potential out of our hdr screens. The Apple TV has enoug muscle to do so. Movies won’t look dim anymore especially on OLED displays:

“The DP-UB820 is equipped with a 2nd-gen Panasonic HCX processor, and works with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control. It also has an HDR Optimizer tech that performs tone-mapping in-player before sending the signal to the TV”.

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Feature Request: HDR Optimizer
#2

Actually, this is what Infuse does now.

When connected to an HDR screen you get HDR colors, and tone mapping is not required.

If connected to an SDR screen, Infuse will tone map the HDR colors to SDR before sending the signal to your TV.

#3

True, but what I meant is the same thing what Dolby Vision is doing. Getting the most out of a tv without clipping whites. Dolby Vision content and the Panasonic player are “reading” the tv and are optimizing everything to its fullest potential.

I own an OLED screen and HDR is with game mode accurate, but dark. HDR Standard is a setting which brightens the picture and crushing shadow details, messes up the colors and clips with peak luminance scenes.

#4

Got it.

Unfortunately Apple has pretty strict controls in place when it comes to outputting HDR video as HDR. There is really only one pathway, and this has very little wiggle room.

With that said, there is a tvOS related bug we are trying to work around which is affecting near black (shadows) with some HDR content. Once we implement a solution to handle this bug/quirk, you should see some improvement in this area.

Also, one thing you may try is to change the chroma setting from 4:2:2 to 4:2:0. When set to 4:2:2 the Apple TV is actually outputting 12-bit video instead of 10-bit, which can cause issues with some OLED panels.

#5

Thanks for the tip, I will try it out. Here is some fresh background info about the HDR Optimizer on the forthcoming UHD Blu-ray player from Panasonic to give you more detailed info about what I mean:

#6

Don’t know if you guys already covered this. One of the killer features in Panasonic Blu-Ray players is what they call HDR Optimizer which is an alternative tone mapping algorithm to use in conjunction with the one used by the TV (not the dynamic tone mapping user selectable like LG).

Here a video from Vincent. He explains very well how it works and frankly I don’t see nothing too hard to develop. It’s just another way to use tone mapping and the one that makes more sense to me.

Would be very nice to have something like this in Infuse.

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