Dolby Vision now possible through MP4 Mux.

[KoshIreland]

Hi. Sorry to ask for help in my first post, but after trawling through this (awesome and very long) thread, I haven't been able to find steps that work for me…

Is there any way to convert a STDL MKV file with Dolby Vision into something the LG C8 will play with Dolby Vision? I looked at the test files shared here previously, and "DTDL_FEL_1_021120.mp4" is the only file that will trigger DV on my LG C8.

---

Current situation
I have a set of MKVs that went from Game of Thrones Season 2 UHD disc → Ripped to BDMV → Converted to MKV with MakeMKV 1.15.3 (Mac, if that makes a difference).

Here's what I see in MediaInfo:

Code: Select all

Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 52 min 44 s
Bit rate                                 : 62.7 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.315
Stream size                              : 23.1 GiB (89%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0020 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

---

Problem
I have an LG C8 with an AppleTV. I've had zero luck producing MP4s that play in Dolby Vision, so I figured I'd at least archive the 8 season boxset as Dolby Vision MKVs, get the benefit of HDR10, and then figure out some way get DV MP4s working in future. But, when I watch these MKVs on my LG C8 through the AppleTV (Plex or Infuse) or built-in player (Plex or DNLA) everything is too dark and muted. Blacks are pure black, but the brightest details aren't particularly bright. Details in hair are lost in dark indoor scenes; bright outdoor scenes look "meh". It looks worse than Game of Thrones 1080p Bluray in SDR.

So now I'm trying (again) to get the DV MP4 workflow going, but all my MKVs are now STDL and I can't figure out how to even extract the DV stream into its own HEVC file.

Is there any way to salvage these DV MKV files or am I stuck re-ripping everything?

I'm also wondering, is it normal for HDR10 rips to look dull? All of the Dolby Vision and even HDR10 movies I've bought through iTunes look great by comparison. I want the higher bitrate of UHD discs, but I've no space around the TV to have a disc-based player or a Shield. And there's nowhere to buy streaming 4K GoT on this side of the pond.

I hope you still have the ripped BDMVs laying around because your best bet would be to follow the steps outlined in the first few pages of this thread with mp4muxer to create DV mp4s for playback via your TV's internal player. Starting with the mkv is theoretically possible (multiple steps of hevc extraction + demuxing), but the effort needed may not be worth the trouble, especially if you have the BDMVs still saved.

Keeping the BDMVs? No, I had the *much* better idea to delete them as I went so that I wouldn't tie up storage space

And then for good measure only noticed the lousy quality when nearly finished

Oh well. Back to the beginning.

Thanks for the help though

[PlatypusW]

Hi. Sorry to ask for help in my first post, but after trawling through this (awesome and very long) thread, I haven't been able to find steps that work for me…

Is there any way to convert a STDL MKV file with Dolby Vision into something the LG C8 will play with Dolby Vision? I looked at the test files shared here previously, and "DTDL_FEL_1_021120.mp4" is the only file that will trigger DV on my LG C8.

---

Current situation
I have a set of MKVs that went from Game of Thrones Season 2 UHD disc → Ripped to BDMV → Converted to MKV with MakeMKV 1.15.3 (Mac, if that makes a difference).

Here's what I see in MediaInfo:

Code: Select all

Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 52 min 44 s
Bit rate                                 : 62.7 Mb/s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.315
Stream size                              : 23.1 GiB (89%)
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0020 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

---

Problem
I have an LG C8 with an AppleTV. I've had zero luck producing MP4s that play in Dolby Vision, so I figured I'd at least archive the 8 season boxset as Dolby Vision MKVs, get the benefit of HDR10, and then figure out some way get DV MP4s working in future. But, when I watch these MKVs on my LG C8 through the AppleTV (Plex or Infuse) or built-in player (Plex or DNLA) everything is too dark and muted. Blacks are pure black, but the brightest details aren't particularly bright. Details in hair are lost in dark indoor scenes; bright outdoor scenes look "meh". It looks worse than Game of Thrones 1080p Bluray in SDR.

So now I'm trying (again) to get the DV MP4 workflow going, but all my MKVs are now STDL and I can't figure out how to even extract the DV stream into its own HEVC file.

Is there any way to salvage these DV MKV files or am I stuck re-ripping everything?

I'm also wondering, is it normal for HDR10 rips to look dull? All of the Dolby Vision and even HDR10 movies I've bought through iTunes look great by comparison. I want the higher bitrate of UHD discs, but I've no space around the TV to have a disc-based player or a Shield. And there's nowhere to buy streaming 4K GoT on this side of the pond.

Since what you need is the BL and EL(+RPU) hevc files, you should be able to get what you are after using Yusesope BETA tool (https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... 282#p96282) to demux the MKV and then use those instead of whatever you'd get from demuxing the M2TS from TSmuxer.

The downside as shawnc22 mentioned is that you would need to extract the STDL hevc file first before using BETA tool to seperate it back into dual tracks. This can be slow given that it requires two steps instead of one.

If you know how to code its possible to take the method used in Yusesope GAMMA tool, which utilizes FFMPEG, and modify the demux process in BETA / add it to GAMMA to simultaneously extract the hevc stream and demux / seperate the layers out into dual tracks again. But if you don't know this kind of stuff I would stick to either re-ripping the discs or extracting the STDL and then demuxing it (2 steps). I presume you won't be doing this for the entire 8 seasons right now / all at once?

[KoshIreland]

Since what you need is the BL and EL(+RPU) hevc files, you should be able to get what you are after using Yusesope BETA tool (https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic ... 282#p96282) to demux the MKV and then use those instead of whatever you'd get from demuxing the M2TS from TSmuxer.

The downside as shawnc22 mentioned is that you would need to extract the STDL hevc file first before using BETA tool to seperate it back into dual tracks. This can be slow given that it requires two steps instead of one.

If you know coding its possible to take the method used in Yusesope GAMMA tool, which utilizes FFMPEG, and modify the demux process in BETA / add it to GAMMA to stimulatanousely extract the hevc stream and demux / seperate the layers out into dual tracks again. But if you don't know this kind of stuff I would stick to either re-ripping the discs or extracting the STDL and then demuxing it (2 steps). I presume you won't be doing this for the entire 8 seasons right now / all at once?

This sort of coding is probably over my head, but I'll take a look and see if tinkering around turns into some fun. Thanks

I have a lot to re-do, sadly. I'll probably just rip fresh files and start from there. It's a real shame I've to swap in SRT subtitles for the PGS, and losing the lossless audio really sucks. Ten bucks says that just when I've finished doing all this, HBO release the 4K versions on iTunes

Thanks again

[shawnc22]

This sort of coding is probably over my head, but I'll take a look and see if tinkering around turns into some fun. Thanks

I have a lot to re-do, sadly. I'll probably just rip fresh files and start from there. It's a real shame I've to swap in SRT subtitles for the PGS, and losing the lossless audio really sucks. Ten bucks says that just when I've finished doing all this, HBO release the 4K versions on iTunes

Thanks again

It's just not going to be the same even if it's released on iTunes; the audio and video quality will both be inferior. If you have a good sound system that can make use of the lossless audio, I would seriously consider investing in a Shield Pro. Otherwise, losing out on the lossless audio is ultimately not a big deal.

[KoshIreland]

It's just not going to be the same even if it's released on iTunes; the audio and video quality will both be inferior. If you have a good sound system that can make use of the lossless audio, I would seriously consider investing in a Shield Pro. Otherwise, losing out on the lossless audio is ultimately not a big deal.

I have a decent, but not exceptional, Sony 5.1 system. I've had it a long time now and want to upgrade to a good Atmos system, but I've to spend a lot of money to make a big enough leap that it's worth spending money. Fingers-crossed I'll upgrade next year

I think you're right about the Shield Pro, unfortunately. After going back to the source BDMV I'm still having trouble converting to MP4s that work consistently. I did get one file to trigger DV correctly, but the sound was out of sync a few seconds. This fun bit of tinkering is rapidly turning not-fun

[shawnc22]

It's just not going to be the same even if it's released on iTunes; the audio and video quality will both be inferior. If you have a good sound system that can make use of the lossless audio, I would seriously consider investing in a Shield Pro. Otherwise, losing out on the lossless audio is ultimately not a big deal.

I have a decent, but not exceptional, Sony 5.1 system. I've had it a long time now and want to upgrade to a good Atmos system, but I've to spend a lot of money to make a big enough leap that it's worth spending money. Fingers-crossed I'll upgrade next year

I think you're right about the Shield Pro, unfortunately. After going back to the source BDMV I'm still having trouble converting to MP4s that work consistently. I did get one file to trigger DV correctly, but the sound was out of sync a few seconds. This fun bit of tinkering is rapidly turning not-fun

Are you using the older version of mp4muxer? Specifically, it should be one named mp4muxer_64bit.exe and not the latest one on github. If not, you can find it here:

https://mega.nz/file/Jawn3ADa#vN1ai3llv ... ktTQ4uFYkk

[dcoke22]

I have an LG C8 with an AppleTV. I've had zero luck producing MP4s that play in Dolby Vision, so I figured I'd at least archive the 8 season boxset as Dolby Vision MKVs, get the benefit of HDR10, and then figure out some way get DV MP4s working in future. But, when I watch these MKVs on my LG C8 through the AppleTV (Plex or Infuse) or built-in player (Plex or DNLA) everything is too dark and muted. Blacks are pure black, but the brightest details aren't particularly bright. Details in hair are lost in dark indoor scenes; bright outdoor scenes look "meh". It looks worse than Game of Thrones 1080p Bluray in SDR.

Do you have an AppleTV or an AppleTV 4k? I use an AppleTV 4K and Plex. Even when I have a Dolby Vision 4K rip and only get vanilla HDR10 on my setup, I don't notice the issues of things be too dark or a loss of detail. I'm usually fairly sensitive to that stuff, but it is possible I just don't notice. In any case, my setup works with Direct Play, so there's no transcoding.

Are you sure you're not transcoding or hitting some limitation on your plex client? I don't have GoT, but I do have Bttf, 1917 & Aquaman for example.

[userr]

So anyone can point me in the right direction to fix exoplayer as external player for kodi? I know its been mentioned somewhere on all of these million pages, is it "official" exoplayer or modified one?

Is it the modified version or is there now a official release that works with mkv profile 7 ?

[NiCE77]

Problem
I have an LG C8 with an AppleTV. I've had zero luck producing MP4s that play in Dolby Vision, so I figured I'd at least archive the 8 season boxset as Dolby Vision MKVs, get the benefit of HDR10, and then figure out some way get DV MP4s working in future. But, when I watch these MKVs on my LG C8 through the AppleTV (Plex or Infuse) or built-in player (Plex or DNLA) everything is too dark and muted. Blacks are pure black, but the brightest details aren't particularly bright. Details in hair are lost in dark indoor scenes; bright outdoor scenes look "meh". It looks worse than Game of Thrones 1080p Bluray in SDR.

The Apple TV 4K is the worst choice for LG OLED's, because the ATV sends fake HDR metadata (4000 nit MaxCLL, 1000 nit MaxFALL) for all movies. LG uses these values for accurate tone mapping.

[deadchip12]

For those of you who use Plex to stream these Dolby Vision files to your oled tvs, do you have very fast wifi? Because I tried this method and it was very slow. My wire internet is pretty fast but wifi seems significantly slower especially with the oled. Plugging external hard drive to the tv's usb port and playing the files from there is kinda inconvenient so I'm looking for a way to play them directly from my PC.

[KoshIreland]

Are you using the older version of mp4muxer? Specifically, it should be one named mp4muxer_64bit.exe and not the latest one on github. If not, you can find it here:
https://mega.nz/file/Jawn3ADa#vN1ai3llv ... ktTQ4uFYkk

I think I was, but I'll try again. Thank you

– – – – – –

Do you have an AppleTV or an AppleTV 4k? I use an AppleTV 4K and Plex. Even when I have a Dolby Vision 4K rip and only get vanilla HDR10 on my setup, I don't notice the issues of things be too dark or a loss of detail. I'm usually fairly sensitive to that stuff, but it is possible I just don't notice. In any case, my setup works with Direct Play, so there's no transcoding.

Are you sure you're not transcoding or hitting some limitation on your plex client? I don't have GoT, but I do have Bttf, 1917 & Aquaman for example.

I'm have an AppleTV 4K. I tried some other HDR10 rips and they look pretty good. It's just Game of Thrones that looks sub-par.

I'm definitely not transcoding. I get the same result when loading from a USB-attached SSD, via DNLA, in Plex on LG, and in Plex on AppleTV. And when playing in Plex I'm checking on the server to see that it's direct-playing the file without transcoding.

– – – – – –

The Apple TV 4K is the worst choice for LG OLED's, because the ATV sends fake HDR metadata (4000 nit MaxCLL, 1000 nit MaxFALL) for all movies. LG uses these values for accurate tone mapping.

Wow. I didn't know this. I guess it's time to start using the built in LG Plex client instead of Infuse on my AppleTV! Thank you

[ghostshadow]

Hello, little news. I made a mkv dv profile 8 file which didn't play on the Zidoo Z9x, with audio track and subtitle, it blocked the zidoo altogether.
With the help of a colleague (Ramutcho) who was able to test, by removing the pgs (subtitle) the mkv goes well in dv. It would be necessary to test on a mkv dv with atmos tracks if by removing the subtitles that does not solve the stuttering problem.

[RESET_9999]

The Apple TV 4K is the worst choice for LG OLED's, because the ATV sends fake HDR metadata (4000 nit MaxCLL, 1000 nit MaxFALL) for all movies. LG uses these values for accurate tone mapping.

That maybe changed recently with the latest firmware update. I didn't verify on plex but iTunes now send the original HDR10 stream with proper metadata instead of converting DV to HDR10 with fixed metadata(4000/1000) as it used to do.

[KoshIreland]

Are you using the older version of mp4muxer? Specifically, it should be one named mp4muxer_64bit.exe and not the latest one on github. If not, you can find it here:

https://mega.nz/file/Jawn3ADa#vN1ai3llv ... ktTQ4uFYkk

Thanks, that did the job

I thought I was using the right version but must have mixed up my downloads. Thanks to this and other people's help above I've now been able to create functioning DV MP4s from both the original BDMV and the batch of MKVs I made

[DaMacFunkin]

Hello, little news. I made a mkv dv profile 8 file which didn't play on the Zidoo Z9x, with audio track and subtitle, it blocked the zidoo altogether.
With the help of a colleague (Ramutcho) who was able to test, by removing the pgs (subtitle) the mkv goes well in dv. It would be necessary to test on a mkv dv with atmos tracks if by removing the subtitles that does not solve the stuttering problem.

Removing the subtitles doesn’t solve the stuttering problem in the Z9X with Dolby Vision and True HD, I have tried it, removing the subtitle or marking subtitle tracks as ‘default no’ does however stop the Z9X decoder from crashing during playback of profile 8 as you have found out.