HDR10 not working on Vero 4K+ with Samsung UE55KS7000

Hi

I have been struggling with this problem since 2018 when I bought my Vero 4K+. It seems that no HDR10 metadata is passed through HDMI to the TV (Samsung UE55KS7000). The picture looks even worse than a usual FullHD film, colours look paler as if some colour component is missing. For example, when I play “Our Planet” in 4K HDR, the Netflix logo in the beginning is pale orange, not bright red as in the FullHD version. The same with the whole picture during playback.

I was hoping that the August update would fix the issue, but it didn’t. I heard that the Adjust display refresh rate setting should be set. But this setting causes a black screen on the TV immediately after I play an HDR film. Kodi doesn’t crash, it seems that the file continues playing. I restarted Kodi with sudo systemctl restart mediacenter to get HDMI signal back and upload the logs:

https://paste.osmc.tv/kasobepeqe

And mediainfo for the source file:

https://paste.osmc.tv/oxavozufaw.coffee

Can you please paste full system logs?

Try another HDMI cable and another HDMI port on the TV.

Which logs do you mean?

I don’t have another HDMI cable, this is the original one I’ve got with Vero 4K+. Other HDMI ports have the same effect.

grab-logs -A or choose All Configs and Logs in My OSMC

Full logs:

https://paste.osmc.tv/visokeyoyo

Just an fyi in case it’s useful to you or the team - I’ve got the same TV and can play this file fine (through my Marantz AVR) with my Vero non plus. It triggers HDR on the TV at full backlight.

Edit: This is on Kodi 19 updated this morning with no issues.

That suggests we are sending HDR video but your TV is not switching to HDR. Whet this looks like is a magenta cast as BT2020 colours are being rendered in BT709.

From your logs, we are indeed sending HDR.

Aug 11 15:55:57 osmc kernel: hdmitx: video: Colorimetry: bt2020nc
Aug 11 15:55:57 osmc kernel: hdmitx: video: HDR data: EOTF: HDR10
Aug 11 15:55:57 osmc kernel: hdmitx: video: Master display colours:
                             Primary one 0.2650,0.6900, two 0.1500,0.0600, three 0.6800,0.3200
                             White 0.3127,0.3290, Luminance max/min: 1000,0.0000
Aug 11 15:55:57 osmc kernel: hdmitx: video: Max content luminance: 1506, Max frame average luminance: 210

Is there a setting on the TV which prevents HDR playback (maybe per HDMI input)?

I have HDMI UHD Color in TV settings set on for all HDMI inputs.

Could you please share your Kodi and TV settings? EspeciallyAdjust display refresh rate in Kodi and HDMI UHD Color in Samsung TV. Which Picture Mode do you have? Do you have Special Viewing Mode set to anything?

I have a Q90r samsung and i never see hdr10 only “normal HDR” on my tv , and i already watched a lot of hdr10 movies, but i don’t bother so much, because the pq that the vero sends out to the tv is already superb . so not complaining here.

I see there is also a ‘Colour Space’ setting. Has that got nudged? The manula doesn’t show the options but ‘Auto’ would be appropriate if available.

Adjust Display rate is set to “On Start/Stop”
Sync playback “off”

On the TV picture mode is Movie
Everything off in Special Viewing Mode

On your TV > Settings > Picture > Expert Settings > HDMI UHD Color - have you selected the relevant hdmi input to “On”?

Yes, I have all inputs set to On. That’s interesting, I have the same settings. The screen just goes black when I play an HDR video, and the HDMI signal is lost.

That suggests an HDMI communication problem - perhaps the result of a dodgy cable. Maybe if you could address that, everything else would then work? You certainly don’t want to be running with Adjust Refresh Rate set to Off, otherwise you’ll be downscaling to 1080p.

Both Auto and Native don’t fix the problem.

Why? It was set to Off all the time, and I could watch 4K videos, they were not downscaled.

One difference I can see between our setups is that I use the Whitelist feature in the Kodi settings (using angry.sardines helpful guide) and have disabled the 4096x2160p 23.98Hz and 4096x2160p 24.00Hz resolutions that show up as they were causing probs for me previously. I mention this as your logs show the line:

2021-08-11 15:32:40.474 T:2898 DEBUG : [WHITELIST] Matched an exact resolution with an exact refresh rate 4096x2160 @ 23.98 - Full Screen (44) -

I’m no log expert but maybe worth a try before buying a new cable?

Edit: The two 4096 resolutions that show up for me may be due to my AVR I guess but if it is the TV advertising them then they are out of the TV’s capabilities (max 3840 x 2160 according to a quick google) so well worth trying to disable them.

Well, there is no need to buy a new cable. I’ve just checked the remaining ports (previously I checked only the first two and thought it is enough), and it turned out that there is an HDR signal on HDMI 3 and 4. These ports are marked on the One Connect box as follows:

  • 1 (STB)
  • 2 (PC/DVI)
  • 3
  • 4 (ARC)

I still have no idea if I just have a bad One Connect box or just misconfigured per-port settings.

Which port do you have your Vero 4K plugged into?

I use HDMI 4 for the ARC feature for TV viewing with the AVR

My AVR is the only thing plugged into the One Connect box - all my other devices go into the AVR

Could you please check if it works when plugged directly to HDMI 1 and 2?