MKV Files and HDR

[leosantare]

Hello,

When I rip a 4K UHD blu-ray in makemkv, does the mkv file actually have HDR? For example, the picture appears exactly the same in VLC player if HDR is enabled or not in Windows. When I enable HDR in Windows, I can see the change in Windows. Plus, my display briefly shows the signal has changed to HDR mode. However, there is no difference when playing a mkv file in VLC.

[dcoke22]

If you look at the .mkv file with MediaInfo, the video section will list if the file has Dolby Vision and/or HDR10. For example, here's a movie with only HDR10:

Code: Select all

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                               : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 57 min
Bit rate                                 : 50.8 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)                       : 0.256
Stream size                              : 41.7 GiB (93%)
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        : Display P3
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 1376 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 731 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

and here's an example with both:

Code: Select all

Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, Profile 7.6, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, no metadata compression, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, Version HDR10, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 47 min
Bit rate                                 : 100 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)                       : 0.504
Stream size                              : 75.2 GiB (95%)
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        : Display P3
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 7130 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 545 cd/m2
Original source medium                   : Blu-ray

I don't really use Windows or VLC so I can't really make suggestions about them.

[leosantare]

Okay, well hopefully someone can help with Windows and VLC.

[leosantare]

Why isnt there a difference if hdr is enabled in windows or not when playing a mkv in vlc?

[Ezatoka]

I don't know for sure, but maybe VLC automatically issues some tonemapping if it finds a HDR source with a non-HDR display.

[leosantare]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I know my display is not in HDR unless I enable it in Windows. Like I said, there is no difference in the picture if HDR is enabled in Windows. I understand VLC supports HDR and dcoke22 confirmed that mkv files contain HDR.

[Mr. Red]

You could try MPC-HC with MPC Video Renderer instead of VLC.