Dolby Vision now possible through MP4 Mux.

[FubbAyH]

I had a chance to play with my X800M2 today and my experience wasn't quite as good, but I've still got more investigating to do.

Every M2TS I tried to play worked fine to start with, with DV recognized and sent correctly to the TV. Unfortunately most of the files failed at some point during playback: either they just stopped playing (and the player went on to the next file in the folder), or more concerningly they locked up the player and it had to be power cycled. Sometimes it happened within 30 seconds, and sometimes the movie played fine for ~10 minutes before failing. The failure always seemed to happen at the same point in the title, so it looks like there's something in my files that the player doesn't like.

Now I'm not devastated, because all my M2TS files were converted from MKV, and so those files have been through a bunch of different tools at various points in their lives, and it seems very plausible that some bug in some version of any one of tools could have broken the strict conformance that a UHDBD player needs.

So my next step is going to be to try re-ripping straight from a full disc backup with tsMuxer and hopefully that will give the same good results that @RESET_9999 is having. I'll report back whatever happens (might be next weekend at this point).

Some other observations about the X800M2:

I had the FEL_test_for_AVS.mp4 file handy so I tried that on a whim and it surprised me by playing fine with RPU and FEL both visibly working. Obviously that's not a full movie so I don't know if it MP4 FEL playback would be completely reliable, and I didn't investigate which audio formats would be supported.

The quality of the player seems pretty good. I like the remote and the setup menus are mostly clear and comprehensive. The on-screen playback info display is extremely useful with the way it shows the source video and audio formats and current bitrates, and what formats the player is outputting. I'd give the interface responsiveness of the player a B- grade. It's a lot better than the Zidoo z9x, but not in the same league as Apple TV or LG TVs. The interface is rendered in a crappy resolution (maybe even less than 1080p?) and upscaled, which made me think the player wasn't outputting 4K at first.

I thought I might be able to get away with using the 100Mbps Ethernet, but got stuttering very quickly in the second file I tried (Back to the Future Part II, which works well for testing that because it has very high bitrate scenes in the first couple of minutes). I switched to Wi-Fi, though, and that does seem to be working well. It's connecting at ~300 Mbps to my access point about 6m away.

My favorite feature of the player so far is the Bluetooth audio support, which seems to work fantastically. The player has the neat capability of outputting audio over HDMI and Bluetooth simultaneously, which is great for verifying that lipsync is correct, and it seemed perfect in my testing. The quality sounded superb on my WH-1000XM2 headphones, presumably because they and the player both support Sony's high bitrate LDAC codec. I did all my tests with Bluetooth audio disabled too, just in case that was the cause, and it didn't seem to make any difference: everything that failed with Bluetooth audio on also failed with it off.

[FubbAyH]

Encoding DTS-HD takes in a lossless LPCM stream, encodes a lossy DTS core, and saves the rest of the discarded audio as lossless extensions. When decoding, the extensions are recombined with the lossy DTS core and decoded to arrive at the original lossless stream.

[...]

A TrueHD+AC3 track has audio frames alternating between TrueHD and AC3. It's just two completely separate streams interleaved into a single track, kind of how STDL puts two distinct video streams into separate NALUs of a single track.

Thank you for the superb explanation. I guess I had a vague memory about how DTS-HD works and assumed that TrueHD worked the same way.

The mlp tool for accurately/losslessly editing THD streams has an open issue requesting support, but there's no activity on it.

I hadn't heard of that tool, and didn't know about the old MakeMKV bug that it was made to address, so now I have even more re-ripping to do

[RESET_9999]

I didn't investigate which audio formats would be supported.

only dd+ without a core doesn't work. And strangely DD+ Atmos (without a core too) works.
and yep ripping from a disc is the way to go, thankfully 95% of my movie library was done from untouched bluray folders
did you convert to DT-DL ?

I had the FEL_test_for_AVS.mp4 file handy so I tried that on a whim and it surprised me by playing fine with RPU and FEL both visibly working. Obviously that's not a full movie so I don't know if it MP4 FEL playback would be completely reliable, and I didn't investigate which audio formats would be supported.

I checked a movie. Power Rangers ending credit is bright white in FEL and dark grey in MEL/HDR10

I hadn't heard of that tool, and didn't know about the old MakeMKV bug that it was made to address, so now I have even more re-ripping to do

Tsmuxer also handles seamless disc perfectly. No poping in Atmos track

[FubbAyH]

and yep ripping from a disc is the way to go, thankfully 95% of my movie library was done from untouched bluray folders
did you convert to DT-DL ?

Yep, all my test movies were DT-DL converted from ST-DL MKVs.

Tsmuxer also handles seamless disc perfectly. No poping in Atmos track

I'm very glad to hear that, I was just about to look it up!

[RESET_9999]

you can test this high bitrate file and rule out your network: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j0mILN ... sp=sharing
*audio is DD+ and doesn't work.

and which movie did you try ? i can try too

[sickb]

I had a chance to play with my X800M2 today and my experience wasn't quite as good, but I've still got more investigating to do.

I'm having a similar experience, may just be my wifi and or my DLNA messing up at times.
Also I can't seem to CEC control the player with my LG remote.. only the menus.
I'm going to compare with an M9203 oppo clone (1gbps lan etc).

[RESET_9999]

guys please list the movies that don't work so I can test them too. Sounds like your files or your wifi is the problem. What's your wifi speed test on your cell phone?
I watched one more FEL DT-DL movie last night: Mission impossible 1996. Played from start to end without any issue. This one was converted from ST-DL MKV to DT-DL TS.

[FubbAyH]

you can test this high bitrate file and rule out your network: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j0mILN ... sp=sharing
*audio is DD+ and doesn't work.

That played fine so I think the network part of things is okay. I have slow internet but decent local Wi-Fi. I just did a test holding my phone by the X800M2 and got about 400Mbps to my local server.

and which movie did you try ? i can try too

Thank you, that's very kind. If you have the titles handy I'd be curious to know if they work for you.

The ones that aren't working for me are:
Dune (2021): fails at about 0:03:06 just after Chani says "why did the emperor choose this path, and who will our next oppressors be?". playback freezes, but the player remains responsive
Back to the Future: fails at about 0:00:28 and player skips to next file in directory
Back to the Future Part II: fails at about 0:08:06 and shortly afterwards (not immediately) the player locks up

I also tried Black Panther and The Matrix and didn't have any problems with those, but I only played a few minutes of each so can't confirm they were definitely working.

After I posted last night I decided to try converting some P8.1 hybrid rips, and those were much more successful. I played one movie (Luca) all the way through with no problems at all, and played about 30 minutes of another (Rogue One) with no problems either. So it looks like it might be the ST-DL to DT-DL conversion that is causing problems for me.

I went to re-rip my Dune disc today and discovered that my drive is now failing So I've ordered another and will resume experimenting in a couple of days

[RESET_9999]

thanks I'll try all of them tonight when I get home....
quite surprised that Dune didnt work because its a MEL movie. The MEL movie with 69kbps EL usually even works in ST-DL TS. My copy is P8 like all the MEL movies I have but I'm downloading the ISO right now and will test every workflow possible

[RESET_9999]

The ones that aren't working for me are:
Dune (2021): fails at about 0:03:06 just after Chani says "why did the emperor choose this path, and who will our next oppressors be?". playback freezes, but the player remains responsive
Back to the Future: fails at about 0:00:28 and player skips to next file in directory
Back to the Future Part II: fails at about 0:08:06 and shortly afterwards (not immediately) the player locks up

These 3 movies work flawlessly on my end in all the possible workflow. So it's probably your failing HDD that broke some of your files if I had to guess.
Another possibility (but unlikely) is the different firmware. I bought my player ''pre-owned'' on eBay, so I probably have the old firmware.
IMO the x800m2 is the player I've been looking for since DV remuxes are possible. I'll probably vanish from this forum because my DV needs are met.

Dune ST-DL TS from makemkv ST-P7 = no issue at 3:06
Dune DT-DL TS from makemkv ST-P7 = no issue at 3:06

BTTF I DT-DL from BD = no issue at 28sec
BTTF II DT-DL from BD = no issue at 8:06

I recorded my session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHo0wZdqXd4

[deadchip12]

The ones that aren't working for me are:
Dune (2021): fails at about 0:03:06 just after Chani says "why did the emperor choose this path, and who will our next oppressors be?". playback freezes, but the player remains responsive
Back to the Future: fails at about 0:00:28 and player skips to next file in directory
Back to the Future Part II: fails at about 0:08:06 and shortly afterwards (not immediately) the player locks up

These 3 movies work flawlessly on my end in all the possible workflow. So it's probably your failing HDD that broke some of your files if I had to guess.
Another possibility (but unlikely) is the different firmware. I bought my player ''pre-owned'' on eBay, so I probably have the old firmware.
IMO the x800m2 is the player I've been looking for since DV remuxes are possible. I'll probably vanish from this forum because my DV needs are met.

Dune ST-DL TS from makemkv ST-P7 = no issue at 3:06
Dune DT-DL TS from makemkv ST-P7 = no issue at 3:06

BTTF I DT-DL from BD = no issue at 28sec
BTTF II DT-DL from BD = no issue at 8:06

I recorded my session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHo0wZdqXd4

So my hope of getting a x800m2 is gone. There's really no place in my country that sells it.

If I have to buy an x700, to get rid of all the green screen or fast forward bug, the correct method is using tsmuxer to mux the original bluray rip to bmdv folder and playing it from root folder of the external hard drive, right? Does this work with every movie out there or there are exceptions and there must be another workflow? Sorry I haven't been able to follow this forum often and all these talks about mel, fel, p7, p8 confuse me.

[RESET_9999]

If I have to buy an x700, to get rid of all the green screen or fast forward bug, the correct method is using tsmuxer to mux the original bluray rip to bmdv folder and playing it from root folder of the external hard drive, right? Does this work with every movie out there or there are exceptions and there must be another workflow? Sorry I haven't been able to follow this forum often and all these talks about mel, fel, p7, p8 confuse me.

yes, all the movies in BDMV/USB work on the x700 without the bugs.
DT-DL TS/USB all works as well but with the bug.
I never had a movie that didn't work but to be safe, I recommend always ripping from the original bluray and not from some random MKV torrent.

[deadchip12]

If I have to buy an x700, to get rid of all the green screen or fast forward bug, the correct method is using tsmuxer to mux the original bluray rip to bmdv folder and playing it from root folder of the external hard drive, right? Does this work with every movie out there or there are exceptions and there must be another workflow? Sorry I haven't been able to follow this forum often and all these talks about mel, fel, p7, p8 confuse me.

DT-DL TS/USB all works as well but with the bug.

You mean even muxing to bmdv folder and playing it from root folder won't fix the bugs for these DT-DL movies? Or am I misunderstanding something here...

[RESET_9999]

You mean even muxing to bmdv folder and playing it from root folder won't fix the bugs for these DT-DL TS movies?

BDMV playback = bugs free
TS/M2TS playback = bugs

both are DT-DL format.

[FubbAyH]

These 3 movies work flawlessly on my end in all the possible workflow. So it's probably your failing HDD that broke some of your files if I had to guess.

Thank you again for testing those. That's great news, so I'm hopeful that when I re-rip I'll get the same results. It was actually my Blu-ray drive that is failing now (not my HDD) and my old rips all verified okay so I'm still assuming a software bug somewhere in my workflow is to blame for the differences.

IMO the x800m2 is the player I've been looking for since DV remuxes are possible. I'll probably vanish from this forum because my DV needs are met.

Yes, I'm the feeling the same way, and hoping that this is the endgame. Hopefully we can just replace all 400 pages of this thread with a post that says:

How to make and watch Dolby Vision rips (every other way is a world of pain and misery):

#1 Buy a Sony UBP-X800M2
#2 Make a full-disc decrypted backup using MakeMKV
#3 Find the playlist for the version of the movie you want (it's probably 00800.mpls for the English version)
#4 Drop that into tsMuxer
#5 Set it to output M2TS, and select the audio and subtitle tracks you want
#6 Watch the movie
#7 Be free
#8 Live your life
#9 Never think about Dolby Vision ever again

So my hope of getting a x800m2 is gone. There's really no place in my country that sells it.

Is it particularly difficult to import things in your country? There do seem to be lots of places that sell the X800M2 and will ship internationally (but I know there are sometimes a few countries that they can't ship to).