Dolby Vision on PC. Technically impossible or a matter of time?

[ashlar42]

Time and again we have seen the rise of "undefeatable" copy protection schemes only to have them defeated.

Now, for Dolby Vision currently only products that have Dolby's license can playback stuff. And no current PC GPU has that.

From the bottom of my ignorance I am wondering if the hardware is all in place for DV playback on PC and it's just a matter of understanding how to get around the DRM/Widevine/whatever thing or if there is a physical impossibility at work.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Both Dell and Lenovo offer laptop PC's that support Dolby Vision...

Links: Dell's XPS 13 (https://www.engadget.com/2019-01-08-dells-xps-13-g-series-gaming-laptops.html) and Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Extreme (https://www.engadget.com/lenovo-x1-extreme-laptop-rtx-3080-100002556.html)

[quietvoid]

Requires licensed hardware on Windows.
Maybe the GPU APIs could be used somehow, since games support it..

[Asmodian]

Both Dell and Lenovo offer laptop PC's that support Dolby Vision...

Playback of Dolby Vision bluray on the device?

[ashlar42]

Requires licensed hardware on Windows.
I am aware of that. But in the case of TV led DV, from what I understand, the player simply passes on info to the TV.

So my question might be: is it just a DRM thing or is there something else at play?

[chros]

I am aware of that. But in the case of TV led DV, from what I understand, the player simply passes on info to the TV.
Depends, e.g. with profile 7 FEL UHD BD titles the player itself combines the 2 layers together not the TV even with TV-led (that's why it still works with CX/C1 that doesn't have dual DoVi decoder chip).

[ashlar42]

Depends, e.g. with profile 7 FEL UHD BD titles the player itself combines the 2 layers together not the TV even with TV-led (that's why it still works with CX/C1 that doesn't have dual DoVi decoder chip).
Wow, another choice to gimp the sets after 9 series? DTS wasn't enough?

[ashlar42]

Now that DV in mkv container is happening (with the two video streams inside), I am wondering if somebody could devise something that, I guess at video renderer level, tone maps HDR10 dynamically based on DV info in the extra stream. I can't believe the industry has finally devised a way to restrict HTPCs from having best quality. :-(

[nevcairiel]

There is some movement to allow DoVi profile 5 and profile 8 to be played, and either tonemapped or converted to PQ/HDR10. Dual layer profile 7 (as found on Blu-ray) will require more work.

It's a start and allows playback of those profile 5 files in correct colors, as well as benefit from the profile 8 enhancements, as small as those actually are.

Pass-through of DV data to the TV remains an open problem, as there are no hardware APIs to do that, or it's unknown how to do it otherwise.

[ashlar42]

There is some movement to allow DoVi profile 5 and profile 8 to be played, and either tonemapped or converted to PQ/HDR10. Dual layer profile 7 (as found on Blu-ray) will require more work.

It's a start and allows playback of those profile 5 files in correct colors, as well as benefit from the profile 8 enhancements, as small as those actually are.

Pass-through of DV data to the TV remains an open problem, as there are no hardware APIs to do that, or it's unknown how to do it otherwise.
Oh... wow! So it wasn't a stupid idea. Glad to see this is being worked on.

This at video render level or codec level? Just curious. For now I'm glad for this update. :-)

Edit: any link to discussions where these developments are being discussed, etc.?

[clsid]

FFmpeg recently gained the ability to export the DV RPU metadata.

The conversion step to HDR10 is still missing. But maybe nevcairiel has a nice Christmas present for us, and that appears in a future LAVFilters release.

[quietvoid]

This at video render level or codec level? Just curious. For now I'm glad for this update. :-)

Edit: any link to discussions where these developments are being discussed, etc.?

Rendering. See https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libplacebo/-/merge_requests/207

[ashlar42]

Thanks for the extra info. Definitely something to look forward to, crossing fingers. :-)

[ashlar42]

Rendering. See https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libplacebo/-/merge_requests/207
Wow. Merged already. Don't know the relation between work happening on VideoLAN and ffmpeg (and all projects based on it).

[dbezerra]

Rendering. See https://code.videolan.org/videolan/libplacebo/-/merge_requests/207

Quietvoid, I see that DV can now be used with MPV as well. I have been playing with MPV as a secondary option (comparing it with MadVR) and DV support sounds really interesting! However, I am not sure how I should adapt my current tone mapping settings - any advice?

Right now I have the following: My goal is to output SDR with BT.2020 as I am using a JVC projector (RS500).

hdr-compute-peak = yes
target-prim= bt.2020
target-trc= gamma2.4
target-peak=100
tone-mapping=mobius

[quietvoid]

Tone mapping preference is highly subjective.

Currently this is my config:

hdr-compute-peak=yes
tone-mapping=bt.2390
tone-mapping-param=2.00
gamut-mapping-mode=clip


There are however pretty bad bugs with the new/current tone mapping.

My setup is a simple SDR display calibrated to 130 nits, however ICC profiles are somewhat broken with HDR at the moment.

[dbezerra]

Tone mapping preference is highly subjective.

Currently this is my config:

hdr-compute-peak=yes
tone-mapping=bt.2390
tone-mapping-param=2.00
gamut-mapping-mode=clip


There are however pretty bad bugs with the new/current tone mapping.

My setup is a simple SDR display calibrated to 130 nits, however ICC profiles are somewhat broken with HDR at the moment.

Thanks. And those settings are using vo=gpu-next and dolbyvision=yes, correct?

[quietvoid]

Yes vo=gpu-next. Dolby Vision is mapped automatically, so it's not necessary to use the vf.

[sarsaK]

hello, what should i do for dolby vision like hdr when creating MPV profiles what should i change for dv in below code (profile-desc=cond:p["video-params/primaries"]=="bt.2020")

[quietvoid]

I don't think there's a way to detect it, the video has no useful VUI.

[Balling]

Mpv works perfectly.

[sarsaK]

I wonder if there is a compilation that works with mpv on linux (ubuntu) with D.V (vp=gpu-next), or the one that displays D.V sdr

[Balling]

We need to get NLQ and EL merging implemented first. Then we can try sending 422 12 bit stream in low latency dolby vision using nvapi from nvidia (hope we did not do a bug like all blu-ray players did).
This does NLQ intital parsing, but the merging of EL and NLQ stuff should be done (https://github.com/quietvoid/vs-nlq).
https://patchwork.ffmpeg.org/project/ffmpeg/patch/20220611164530.157-2-tcChlisop0@gmail.com/

[Rozin]

I have legion 5 pro and it is dolby vision licensed (even though display panel is LCD tech). It does netflix dolby (which is streaming) fine. But My question is, is it supposed to decode profile 5 DoVi files(local on disk)?. I tried a profile 5 file and it decodes in purple&green hues..

[dbezerra]

There are more than a few titles where the BL is poorly implemented leaving chroma and other issues to be fixed as part of the FEL layer. Total Recall is a good example.

Is there any way to merge the FEL improvements into the BL so players that ignore the FEL layer could still use the improved BL? I think this is what https://github.com/erazortt/DoViBaker is proposing, but I am not 100% sure.

[Balling]

There are more than a few titles where the BL is poorly implemented leaving chroma and other issues to be fixed as part of the FEL layer. Total Recall is a good example.

Is there any way to merge the FEL improvements into the BL so players that ignore the FEL layer could still use the improved BL? I think this is what https://github.com/erazortt/DoViBaker is proposing, but I am not 100% sure.

DoviBaker works great. Still metadata, artistic and dynamic is not done yet.

[dbezerra]

DoviBaker works great. Still metadata, artistic and dynamic is not done yet.

THanks. I played with DoViBaker a bit. But my understanding is that it requires you to re-encode each title into a new BL. It's time consuming and depending on the parameters used in the re-encoding, one could end up messing up with the picture again.

I still dream for a solution that will handle that during playback. Just like the regular 4K disk players can do and also a few streamers, like CCwGTV.

[Balling]

THanks. I played with DoViBaker a bit. But my understanding is that it requires you to re-encode each title into a new BL. It's time consuming and depending on the parameters used in the re-encoding, one could end up messing up with the picture again.

I still dream for a solution that will handle that during playback. Just like the regular 4K disk players can do and also a few streamers, like CCwGTV.

Reencode into lossless 12 bit AVIF. Not a problem. And besides the point is to decode directly to display.

[dbezerra]

Reencode into lossless 12 bit AVIF. Not a problem. And besides the point is to decode directly to display.

Would you mind to share the command line you use for lossless re-encoding?

Thanks

[Balling]

A nice patch for CRC32 verification https://patchwork.ffmpeg.org/project/ffmpeg/list/?series=9494

New version https://patchwork.ffmpeg.org/project/ffmpeg/list/?series=9496

[LonelyPixel]

Sorry for posting in this old thread. But this is the only piece of information I could find online that actually talks about some solution to play back DV video files on a PC. All other sources claim it's impossible. So I have a Lenovo laptop with an HDR screen that should support Dolby Vision (according to the specs). The current VLC player doesn't care, the video has green and red tints that are changing throught the video, like on any other computer with a standard SDR screen. I tried to get MPV but its download options are only good if you know how to compile it. The binary packages are confusing at best. Can somebody please give me any advice how to try it out?

[omarank]

Sorry for posting in this old thread. But this is the only piece of information I could find online that actually talks about some solution to play back DV video files on a PC. All other sources claim it's impossible. So I have a Lenovo laptop with an HDR screen that should support Dolby Vision (according to the specs). The current VLC player doesn't care, the video has green and red tints that are changing throught the video, like on any other computer with a standard SDR screen. I tried to get MPV but its download options are only good if you know how to compile it. The binary packages are confusing at best. Can somebody please give me any advice how to try it out?

For DV playback on a PC in high quality (using madVR) and optionally, with proper 3DLUT calibration, one suggested solution is to use DoViBaker (https://github.com/erazortt/DoViBaker?tab=readme-ov-file#dovibaker).

You may PM me or email me (on info@blackcobbler.com) for a discussion.

[Sunspark]

mpv is a command line application, so you either need to edit the conf file, or you need to use a GUI front-end for it that will let you select switches.

You can try mpc-qt, it uses libmpv as the backend. There is a Windows version. https://github.com/mpc-qt/mpc-qt/releases/

[strumf666]

MPC video renderer has partial suport for dolby vision, so you can try that if it works for you.

[LonelyPixel]

I don't know anything about that "avs" stuff that DoViBaker seems to build upon.

Then I tried mpc-qt. It doesn't make the slightest difference on either an SDR or an HDR screen (with HDR enabled in Windows 11). I found the options mentioned on page 1 of this thread and could apply them. But that doesn't remove the green and red colour cast that's everywhere in the film, it only gets a bit less. But no realistic colours anywhere.

Guess I'll have to find a Dolby-Vision-compatible smart TV and try to play the file directly on that via a USB drive.

[LonelyPixel]

I found a Dolby Vision TV and it can't play the files properly either. Same wrong colours as on any PC player. So I guess they were encoded just crap and are useless anyway. Not worth playing with Dolby Vision. Just discard it as uselss and incompatible with anything.

[Gser]

I found a Dolby Vision TV and it can't play the files properly either. Same wrong colours as on any PC player. So I guess they were encoded just crap and are useless anyway. Not worth playing with Dolby Vision. Just discard it as uselss and incompatible with anything.

It is likely that you are just ignorant. Most tvs only play dolby vision from .ts or mp4 files. You were probably trying to play an mkv file. You should use DoVi scripts to mux it to mp4 or tsmuxer for ts. Personally I use a dolby vision compatible media player to play my files. So much more convenient than a pc.

[Klaus1189]

Personally I use a dolby vision compatible media player to play my files

Which one do you use?

[Gser]

Which one do you use?

I use the discontinued dune hd real vision 4k which only supports CM 2.9, the new releases from Dune HD and Zidoo support CM 4.0. They play profile 7 files just fine but don't use the enhancement layer just the meta data from the RPU.

If however you get the Dune HD Pro Vision 4K specifically and load it up with CoreELEC, it even supports playing the full enhancement layer from profile 7 titles. Personally I dont care about it because there are so few titles that utilize that feature.