What's the deal with YouTube HDR?

by 200_7

What does Reddit think it the real reason why Android TV devices don't have YouTube HDR yet? I've heard a few theories:

  • Technical limitations: every device has a different chipset and there isn't a generic way for Google to make HDR work on everything yet
  • Contractual issues: Samsung is the only TV vendor with out of the box native YouTube HDR. Did Google sign some kind of exclusively agreement which means they can't put it on Android TV just yet?
  • Commercial issues: if Google put YouTube HDR on Android TV it might cannibalise sales of the premium Chromecast model (forgot name)
akumanara

Youtube HDR is encoded with VP9 Profile 2. Either the chip has to have VP9 Profile 2 decoder.

If you look for example the chip for NVIDIA SHIELD X1 TEGRA https://international.download.nvidia.com/pdf/tegra/Tegra-X1-whitepaper-v1.0.pdf it has only decoding for VP9 and not profile 2.

Andrroid

There is no great mystery here. Nvidia for instance would require a chipset firmware upgrade to make this happen. Really really unlikely they would do that.

The Mi Box is technically capable of YouTube HDR as it has vp9 profile 2 support.

youareme7

Is this the same problem with google play movies I wonder? I was so annoyed to find on shield it does 4k but not HDR. I just got an HDR tv last month and even I'm surprised on how much of a pain in the ass it is, people not "into" this have no hope for a while!

hardshocker

It's just something they have to implement. LG TV's have HDR youtube so its not an exclusivity thing.

Tomjr78

It's absolutely ridiculous, Netflix, Amazon and Vudu can do HDR on the Shield. YouTube for my LG TV does all format's but Play Movies does not. Google's own OS and I have to buy a Chromecast Ultra? Not happening!

ThienJP

they can't even fix the regular youtube app on android tv. every fuckin video has stupid mini hickups. the only fix is to uninstall all updates and revert back to the november version of youtube.