4k Media Question

So I needed a new TV when one of our old plasmas packed up. Would have been pleased to get a deal on 1080p of some sort as I have no desire for 4k, but price-wise here, it would have made no sense. So ended up with a last year’s model 4k. So, of course, I need to see what all the fuss is about. I’m not a pirate by trade, but decided to download a couple rips of 4k material on the thought that if it was a noticeable improvement in quality over 1080p I would consider investing further.

I grabbed a 16Gb copy of Deadpool, a 48Gb copy of Blade Runner 2049 and an episode of Blue Planet II at 16Gb - all of which I own Bluray discs for and have ripped/stored on my NAS.

For some reason Deadpool won’t play. I get a mottled grey screen behind the KODI file list and a play icon in the lower left corner of the screen - like I always get for a millisecond or so when starting media. Then, nothing. KODI is still responding, I can stop the “playback”. The other two play fine.

At the end of the day I don’t care about this file as I’m going to delete then. But curious about what’s different about it. MediaInfo doesn’t show any glaring issues, but you folks can likely point out the problem so here’s the MediaInfo output.

General
Unique ID                                : 198108658349280122182993887834917395226 (0x950A56F8EBA8030D8DB39D5E4C2D5B1A)
Complete name                            : Deadpool (2016).mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4 / Version 2
File size                                : 16.4 GiB
Duration                                 : 1h 48mn
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 21.7 Mbps
Writing application                      : mkvmerge v18.0.0 ('Apricity') 64-bit
Writing library                          : libebml v1.3.5 + libmatroska v1.4.8

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1h 48mn
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 1 608 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Writing library                          : x265 2.5+28-7aeabaa92b85:[Windows][GCC 6.2.1][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings                        : cpuid=1173503 / frame-threads=4 / numa-pools=16 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=3840x1608 / interlace=0 / total-frames=155514 / level-idc=51 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=4 / no-allow-non-conformance / repeat-headers / annexb / aud / hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / no-open-gop / min-keyint=23 / keyint=250 / bframes=4 / b-adapt=2 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=25 / lookahead-slices=4 / scenecut=40 / no-intra-refresh / ctu=64 / min-cu-size=8 / rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=2 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / no-strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=3 / limit-refs=3 / limit-modes / me=3 / subme=3 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=-3:-3 / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=4 / no-early-skip / rskip / no-fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=1.00 / no-rd-refine / analysis-reuse-mode=0 / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / vbv-maxrate=160000 / vbv-bufsize=160000 / vbv-init=0.9 / crf-max=0.0 / crf-min=0.0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=1 / aq-strength=1.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=9 / transfer=16 / colormatrix=9 / chromaloc=1 / chromaloc-top=2 / chromaloc-bottom=2 / display-window=0 / master-display=G(13250,34500)B(7500,3000)R(34000,16000)WP(15635,16450)L(10000000,0) / max-cll=0,0 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / opt-qp-pps / opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / hdr / hdr-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / analysis-reuse-level=5 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : Atmos / TrueHD
Codec ID                                 : A_TRUEHD
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 8 466 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : Object Based / 8 channels
Channel positions                        : Object Based / Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            :  / 48.0 KHz
Frame rate                               : 1 200.000 fps (40 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 1h 48mn
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 640 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 fps (1536 spf)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 495 MiB (3%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

By the way, my impression of the other two 4k files vs my 1080p versions on a 50" screen from 12 feet away… 4k is a waste of time.

Cheers,
Robert

Would need to see a log. Might just be a corupt download.

Certainly could be, Sam. If so, that’s fine it was just a test anyway.

Here’s the link:
Debug logs

Cheers,
Robert

I think you might be right, but did you check that you were getting 4k displayed? Settings-Player-Vidoes-Adjust display refresh rate needs to be on.

Edit: I see you have it set to On start/stop so OK.

Yes, a quick check of the TV input info shows that 4k Media is being received/displayed correctly and 1080p is not being upscale.

“Waste of time” is obviously harsh. I should say “no benefit in my use case”. I didn’t really expect it would be, but I was hoping for a noticeable improvement from HDR. Although it’s being reported as enabled I really see no difference either way.

@sam_nazarko - did the debug log shed any light?

Cheers,
Robert

Haven’t had a chance to check it yet as I have just got off a flight

Sam

Oh! Didn’t realize you were traveling, no worries or rush Sam.

Cheers
Robert

I too have a 50" 4k TV. Sitting 2.5 m ( 8 ft) away in my usual watching position I think I can just barely see the difference between a 720p rip and the original 1080p Bluray. I would have to sit less than 1 m (3 ft) from the screen to actually see any difference at 4k - assuming I actually had any 4k content that was worth watching … :wink:

If it was possible, I would buy FullHD TV too, even for 55" screen because I’m sitting roughly 2.5-3m from the screen and if you calculate, you realize the pixel size is not bigger from 2.5m compared to FullHD 5.5" phone screen that you’re about 0.5m away. 4K makes sense for 60" and bigger screens when watching from 2.5m but anything smaller would be fine with 1080p. Now I need to live with upscaled HD and even SD from my TV broadcast :smiley:

Maybe its just the increased bitrate or the increased colour gamut with HDR but my old eyes can certainly see the difference between UHD HDR and 1080P on my 49" set at a distance of 8 feet.

There are some ropey 4K conversions doing the rounds which aren’t even as good as their normal HD bluray counterparts but when done well 4k HDR sure looks good on my TV.

A case in point was during the recent World Cup when I had some friends round and we were watching a game on the BBC HLG trial, one of my friends complained at getting a text about a goal before we saw it (on iplayer the action was around 45 seconds behind broadcast TV) so I switched to the HD channel and everyone demanded I turn it back because they said the picture was awful!
The same friends stayed on for a movie afterwards, unfortunately the hdd the UHD version was on was playing up (turned out to be a dodgy cable) so I switched to the uncompressed bluray rip I had on my server and they again bitched at the picture quality and this time I hadn’t told them there was a difference just I was switching to my backup hard drive.

As I said at the start of this post maybe it was the increased bitrate that made a difference or maybe it was the HDR but I was not alone in noticing a difference.
If it was HDR making a difference I believe one manufacturer (I think either Toshiba or Panasonic) are/were making 1080P HDR TV’s for those that would prefer that choice.