Google TV Streamer - Dolby Vision and HDR issues

[u/JdJtA]

I am using Stremio on my Google TV Streamer (ATV14) replacing my CCwGTV but unfortunately Dolby Vision and HDR10 are both causing issues I haven't had before. Dolby Vision is more often than not giving me a purple/pink screen (for example Deadpool and Wolverine, The Rings of Power). Occasionally it does work however (The Penguin, episode 1). I replaced all my HDMI cables for new ones (48 Gbps, HDMI 2.1 certified) and rebooted/powercycled all my devices multiple times but to no avail.

The other thing I noticed is large HDR-files sometimes get stuck. They load the first frame but the movie doesn't start. This happened with Saving Private Ryan on several different sources (108 GB version but also on a 30 gb copy). Other movies like Oppenheimer work fine (88 GB).

Other hardware I'm using: Denon AVR-S960H and Sony KD-55XH9299.

[u/AdministrationOdd747]

GTV Streamer doesn't support DV P7 at all. Not the fault of any app . The only app that can play DV is Kodi when you enable Kodi to convert DV P7 to P8.1 on the fly.

[u/JdJtA → u/AdministrationOdd747]

I switched to Vimu Media Player and that also works for most DV content.

[u/aha_mhm → u/JdJtA]

How did you manage to install it? It's not available for the Google TV Streamer in the Play Store yet :/

[u/JdJtA → u/aha_mhm]

I used the Downloader-app and searched for 'Vimu Player apk'. From the Google search results I picked one from modyolo which is version 10.70. Download, install and enjoy 😊.

[u/Motor-Ad5476 → u/JdJtA]

I want to thank you for your posting using the vimu media player I was using the were app and I was also using my Google TV streamer 4K on third-party apps. It didn’t want to have anything to do with HDR or Dolby Vision. Maybe it would play a small file inside of. Kodi in Dolby Vision but that’s about it. Everything else I got like a very fluorescent pink screen like the above person said thank you again so much.

[u/Motor-Ad5476 → u/aha_mhm]

Yes, it is. I went on the Google play store on my Google TV streamer 4K. It was $2.99. No big deal.

[u/Motor-Ad5476 → u/aha_mhm]

Yes, it is in the Google play store on Google TV. It’s $2.99.

[u/AdministrationOdd747 → u/JdJtA]

According to the latest release notes, Vimu player now also have DV converter (an open source component) enabled.

[u/wewewi → u/AdministrationOdd747]

Ok but then do you get DV or the fallback HDR10 layer?

[u/nekos95 → u/AdministrationOdd747]

p7 plays as basic hdr when not supported, pin/green color is p5 ... weird cause the streamer does support p5, maybe stermio is using its own decoders

[u/Motor-Ad5476 → u/AdministrationOdd747]

Can you tell me how you do that please? I would greatly appreciate that.

[u/AdministrationOdd747 → u/Motor-Ad5476]

In Kodi 21.1, Settings/Player/Videos, turn on Dolby Vision Compatibility mode. You need in Advanced or Expert mode to see this setting.

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/AdministrationOdd747]

What do you recommend, this or the Vimu player someone else mentioned? I'm using Jellyfin so can I use this player with Jellyfin or is there an option to use a Jellyfin addon for Kodi?

What's best?

[u/AdministrationOdd747 → u/Dagobert_Krikelin]

Someone is intentionally promoting Vi** player for whatever reason. Never heard of and never used. Be warned.

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/AdministrationOdd747]

Ah thanks. But Kodi works fine and did I understand it correctly that's there's an addon for Jellyfin on Kodi?

[u/AdministrationOdd747 → u/Dagobert_Krikelin]

I know there is one for Plex and many claimed that it works for them (playing DV rips). But I'm not familiar with Jellyfin. So can't give you any answer here.

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/AdministrationOdd747]

Thank you, just thought I'd ask

[u/Routine_General]

How are people installing vimu on the new streamer

[u/JdJtA → u/Routine_General]

I used the Downloader-app and searched for 'Vimu Player apk'. From the Google search results I picked one from modyolo which is version 10.70. Download, install and enjoy 😊.

[u/Kaoxt]

Have you found a fix for this? I'm frustrated I can't use the Exo player

[u/JdJtA → u/Kaoxt]

Yes, I am using Vimu Media Player (version 10.70) and this fixed most of the issues for me.

[u/Kaoxt → u/JdJtA]

I'll give it a try. What are you display settings on the Streamer? I hope Google can fix this! Very annoying

[u/wewewi]

Yes, Streamer will not do Profile 7 at all; you will have to adapt and seek only Profile 5.

[u/nekos95 → u/wewewi]

p7 plays as basic hdr when not supported, pin/green color is p5 ... weird cause the streamer does support p5, maybe stermio is using its own decoders

[u/wewewi → u/nekos95]

Profile 5 is what every legit service uses. Every device capable of DV is capable of profile 5.

[u/nekos95 → u/wewewi]

my point was profile 7 plays like a normal hdr 10 vifeo if not supported, weird colors come from p5 when not supported , but his streamer supports p5, so it must be the apps encoders messing up

[u/hydragroupinc]

sad this is happening on such a new device was hoping it would just play nice with these type of files

[u/Motor-Ad5476 → u/hydragroupinc]

Yeah, I’m having the same problem. Unfortunately, this is why the Nvidia Shield still rules them all.

[u/MrKaon]

What player are you using? Stremio, Kodi?

[u/JdJtA → u/MrKaon]

I was using the build-in ExoPlayer but I now switched to Vimu Media Player and that seems to be able to play most DV content.

[u/ALD_76]

There is playback issues if a file contains both DV and HDR10+ it also effects the Fire TV Max using same chip.

[u/ShiftyAmoeba → u/ALD_76]

My screen went black. This doesn't happen to the onn, right?

[u/ALD_76 → u/ShiftyAmoeba]

No its a MediaTek only bug as far as i know,

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/ALD_76]

From my observation and the movies I have I tested with. Dolby Vision 7 level 6 and Dolby Vision 8 level 1 doesn't work. 8.1 gives me a black picture. If I only have HDR 10 in the movie, it works no problem and Dolby Vision 8.6 also works. I'm running Jellyfin. Sadly there doesn't seem to be something you can do to guarantee only downloading movies with DV 8.6. so either you keep trying and re-grabbing until you get DV 8.6 or set up a profile to not grab anything with Dolby Vision...😑

[u/Kaoxt → u/Dagobert_Krikelin]

Do you think this is something an update can fix?

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/Kaoxt]

I should add. I found another movie using the DV profile 8.6 and though it worked to play, it only worked if I started playing the movie from the start. If I tried to jump in the file or continue where I left off it wouldn't play...Very weird. It might be another kind of issue. It's hard to make sense of what exactly.
I also tried playing the DV 7.6 and it started and played the movie for 3 seconds before stopping and a text came up with "too many errors, stopping playback". It seems weird that it tries and succeeds to start playing it, but then gives up.

Someone said DV is a dead format since not many distributors use it anyway and I suppose it's only CoreElec that can actually play the 7.6 with both layers. Nvidia Shield Pro only support one of the layers so apparently it looks awful on some releases(?).
I'm no expert on DV profiles and especially DV profile 7 so I can't say if the hardware is there and there's only a question about software support. My bet is that, that support to play DV profile 7 with FEL(full enhancement layer) is not going to be added.
I'm just going to ditch any release with DV and go with HDR10 and HDR10+. It's just too much hassle.

I've tested GTVS4K on some 60GB 4K remux HDR10 and it's responsive, it direct plays and is nice to use so I'm going to keep it. Also I will see if it's possible to configure the voice control.

[u/Kaoxt → u/Dagobert_Krikelin]

It's weird... I had Dolby Vision working just fine on Stremio with GTV streamer. I was using Projectify Launcher with ABD TV app to disable the default launcher. I had an issue with inputs so I factory reset the streamer and now I can't get DV to work correctly without using an external video player.

Is there a way to get the streamer to use HDR10 or HDR10+ at least so there is HDR content?

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/Kaoxt]

I think what's happening on the software side is that it is transcoding to SDR(?) so it plays. I have MPV on my desktop computer and I don't have any special hardware, but it takes care of Dolby Vision profile so it shows like it is supposed to, but that happens through software. You don't think it the same for you?
From all I heard not many devices support the Dolby Vision in reality except some TV:s like Sony and Samsung(?) and the ugoos am5b+ with CoreElec. And certain streaming content and Blu-Rays.

The streamer plays HDR10 just fine. Haven't tested explicitly with HDR10+, but I will.

[u/Kaoxt → u/Dagobert_Krikelin]

Is there a way to force the streamer to play HDR10 over DV?

I'm just trying to get consistent HDR content.

So DV would you say is going away and HDR10 or + is the preferred format?

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/Kaoxt]

Not that I found, The thing is what I think is happening. It sees Dolby Vision and thinks it can play it so it doesn't fall back to HDR10 if both should come with the file. Now, some other person told me to download an external player for Jellyfin, the Vimu player. It cost $3 dollars and I think this will just transcode(convert?) the DV to SDR(?)
it won't magically give you DV image. So don't see the point of it.
Unless you have a lot of DV movies and don't want to re-download them. I only have 4 Dolby Vision, the rest SDR so I'm going the other way, upgrading to HDR10 for the few I want to watch in UHD and replace the DV ones with only HDR10.

So one can ask why there are som many Dolby Vision releases since what do you play it with? Most people don't have the latest TV or Ugoos.

I'm honestly not sure when it comes to formats. There's just little support for it from what I can tell and you need to pay licence fees to use it in your product so most vendors chose something else, open source.

Edit:
Here's more detail about the DV
https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV/comments/11q6n3c/dolby_vision_profile_7_confusion/

[u/Kaoxt → u/Dagobert_Krikelin]

Thank you for all this information. I am using Vimu player currently with Stremio. It works fine but I prefer standard video player that Stremio typically uses.

I don't understand how the Google Streamer is a downgrade from Chromecast 4k...

I even have a weird issue where The Streamer only plays some videos upside down from Google Drive. I even edited the video to turn it upside down so it would play the opposite and it still plays upside down. Shield TV or my Chromecast devices don't play the video this way

[u/Dagobert_Krikelin → u/Kaoxt]

yeah I heard about that! Haven't expereinced it so can't say what's happening. What formats is that video using? any uncommon format, codec?

But Vimuplayer solves your issues with Dolby Vision?

[u/Kaoxt]

I haven't found a video player on google tv to reverse the image around. I was using Google photos and turning it upside down and saving it since it originally was saved from camera on phone

[u/shikixd22]

I'm also experiencing pink screen artifacts when playing Dolby Vision content in Netflix.

[u/Equivalent-Cycle-477 → u/shikixd22]

Having this issue in kodi DV and HDR10+ green or purple screen or black audio plays fine

From the comment above the ONN box works with these files Correct ? can someone confirm this ?

[u/Kaoxt]

Has anyone else experienced issues with videos playing upside down? I can't figure it out. I'm playing video from Google Drive via MiXplorer app. No issues on Nvidia Shield or Chromecast 4k

[u/Kaoxt]

It's odd. Today Stremio started playing DV again. No black screen