BBC iplayer on Android XE9005 now working with UHD and HLG HDR (sort of)

[stormyuk]

All,

For information there is a Planet Earth UHD HLG test video on the Beta iplayer which appears to work with the Android TVs. (Tested on my XE9005). Its pretty short but looks amazing. It was playing FA cup test loop video which didn't look as good and kept dropping out.

The FA Cup one just fails after about 5 seconds on my TV. Hardwired ethernet. Odd that the Planet Earth loop is fine....

Check it out.

[copicke45]

Can't find the Planet Earth clip.

Unfortunately the livestream football loop plays for a few seconds then fails to the spinning egg timer and an 'Ooops something went wrong' message when backing out.

The short bit you do see however does look good. I think you need to turn colourspace to BT2020 though to get HDR?

Hopefully if the dropout is happening to you as well it's a problem at the BBC end and not an incompatibility of our Sony sets 😞 Wish I could see the Planet Earth clip.

[stormyuk]

Hey,

To get planet earth go back to the standard iplayer, ie disable the beta. Should be available in the same settings menu. I left both clips on auto.

[LightFoot]

Good spot. The Planet Earth clip looks stunning ... XE9305

It appears the Football clip (broken) is on Beta and the Planet Earth clip is on Standard.

[rgledhill]

Thanks for the heads-up!  The footie looks great until it zombies out.  Found the Planet Earth demo, in the non-Beta iPlayer in Settings.  In iPlayer Beta in the same place you have the 4k UHD test video.

[speedyrite]

Thanks for flagging this up @stormyuk

Typically though just gone away for a week! You wait months for some BBC UHD content to be available to play on the XE9005 and it rocks up just after you'be left the house! 

[copicke45]

Thanks @stormyuk - found the Planet Earth II material and it does indeed look amazing 🙂

The live football loop however still isn't working beyond a few seconds, and it doesn't look good for live Wimbledon & World Cup unless its performance improves.

[adamski99_uk]

I couldn't find the clips on my 49XE8077SU last night, can anyone confirm that the 4k iPlayer works with the XE80 models?

Cheers

[stormyuk]

I couldn't find the clips last night, did they get removed?

[rgledhill]

Yep, they've gone now.  I think they've taken them down while they do some upgrades; something similar will no doubt appear again soon.  Apparently some of the footie was shown live on iPlayer in 4k HDR over the weekend to the lucky few who noticed!