Android TV and HLG, non functional yet promoted as a feature - False advertising!

[Risc0n]

Why are we still not getting HLG? BBC iPlayer has HLG, yet the app does not work. Youtube ( made by google who make Android! ) has no HLG support.

So what the hell is going on at Sony? This is without question false advertising. 

[IamNic]

Hi @Risc0n,

which TV model do you have?

- Nic

[Risc0n]

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@IamNic wrote:

Hi @Risc0n,

which TV model do you have?

- Nic

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I have the KD55XE9005.

[IamNic]

Hi @Risc0n,

did you download the firmware update v6.2671 which you can download here: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/downloads/00014882

- Nic

[Risc0n]

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@IamNic wrote:

Hi @Risc0n,

did you download the firmware update v6.2671 which you can download here: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/downloads/00014882

- Nic

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Yes, but neither YouTube or BBC iPlayer work out TV are apparently incompatible. Yet that firmware clearly states HLG support.

[Kuschelmonschter]

This is how I see it...

HDR on Android TV before Nougat has been proprietary. Apps supporting adaptive streaming like Netflix or Amazon Video were given the possibility to determine HDR capabilities via some private non-standard API. In case of Kodi there was/is no such check. You just pass a stream to the video decoder and it either plays (TV supports the HDR video format/metadata) or fails.

Internet streaming is adaptive. The player decides which stream to play based on the available bandwidth and device capabilities. That is why Nougat introduced some HDR APIs to determine those capabilities in a standardized way, see here. Sony/MediaTek do not implement those in their Nougat firmware which is most probably the reason why certain apps like BBC and YouTube do not play the HDR streams but instead revert to the SDR pendants. That's the price you pay for chosing a cheap and unsupported SoC like MediaTek.

[Risc0n]

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@Kuschelmonschter wrote:

This is how I see it...

HDR on Android TV before Nougat has been proprietary. Apps supporting adaptive streaming like Netflix or Amazon Video were given the possibility to determine HDR capabilities via some private non-standard API. In case of Kodi there was/is no such check. You just pass a stream to the video decoder and it either plays (TV supports the HDR video format/metadata) or fails.

Internet streaming is adaptive. The player decides which stream to play based on the available bandwidth and device capabilities. That is why Nougat introduced some HDR APIs to determine those capabilities in a standardized way, see here. Sony/MediaTek do not implement those in their Nougat firmware which is most probably the reason why certain apps like BBC and YouTube do not play the HDR streams but instead revert to the SDR pendants. That's the price you pay for chosing a cheap and unsupported SoC like MediaTek.

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So is this Sony or Mediatek fault. Sony have without doubt the best PQ and motion handling of all the brands out there. It is just frustrating that HLG seems so hard to implement.