HDR VIDEO - way of confirming playback in HDR?

[GreyFoxIndy]

Is there a way to confirm something is correctly playing back in HDR? I was on the Amazon video app and I was able to the stream the Grand Tour in Ultra HD but I wasn't sure if I was watching in HDR. On my Sony TV it's easy to find out, by just hitting the action menu button going to video settings and you will see a little HDR tag appear in the corner...  is there a similar way to confirm whether the XZ premium is also playing footage back in HDR, for example on YouTube?

[Lord_viridis · Accepted solution]

In apps like amazon prime, the 4k stream is hdr, in fact once it recognises the device is hdr capable, all streams are hdr.

You can see this by (I just tested) running a stream on any non hdr device and look for brighter areas that would normally be blown out with exposure (light through window)

On non hdr devices, it will be bright and over exposed.

In xz premium, it will have detail of what is outside the window as the extra information is present.

[GreyFoxIndy]

Thank you Viridis. Finally. Would you recommend any particular mode for colour and gamut. Professional? Standard/Triluminos or Super-vivid. Which would be the best for HDR playback? 

[Lord_viridis]

I'm just using standard at the moment tbh, 

I use professional for mobile image editing and vivid if I'm playing games.

I've found standard to be very well balanced for video with colours nice and natural but the scene still has a bit of punch overall.

[JamesJ2017]

Any tips on convincing the Amazon video app that I have 4k? It's only streaming Grand Tour in HD. I have the app's quality setting to Best, and to stream in Best on WiFi and cellular.

[Lord_viridis]

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@JamesJ2017 wrote:

Any tips on convincing the Amazon video app that I have 4k? It's only streaming Grand Tour in HD. I have the app's quality setting to Best, and to stream in Best on WiFi and cellular.

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Choose the grand tour from the "included with prime 4k hdr" section.

You will see [Ultra HD] in the streams title page for 4k streams.

[JamesJ2017]

That works--I also burrowed into the Amazon Video help pages and note they look for consistent 15mb bandwidth before streaming UHD. 

[Gee_K]

there has to be a way to indicate that a video playing is 4K and in HDR clearly, so that user knows it is running in that mode

and also, what's the point if dts sound cannot be played back?!

[shimceltic]

If it's playing in hdr shouldn't the screen brightness automatically go up? I was trying videos on amazon and they were dark and I had to manually adjust brightness.

[Lord_viridis]

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@Shimceltic wrote:

If it's playing in hdr shouldn't the screen brightness automatically go up? I was trying videos on amazon and they were dark and I had to manually adjust brightness.

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No, that's not what hdr is.

Although the standards do cover a brighter range, hdr just means that points of illumination doesn't over expose parts of a scene, and can carry brighter points with higher fidelity on the illumination it casts.

Think like this.

Scene where man walks into room, room is medium lighting and in background is a window with sunlight coming in, 

In standard range the window is over exposed in order to keep room bright for scene, some fidelity round window is lost due to over blown exposure.

In hdr, both the window and rooms exposure are correct and the room is still well lit but in the background, you can see out the window onto the street, the illumination from the window casts better illumination on items in front of window.