HDR display not detected/abysmal 4K performance

[NTimp]

I just installed the latest display driver update, and thought I could just start playing HDR content from YouTube and Netflix happily - I WAS WRONG.

Here are my problems.

1. The Windows 'Video playback' settings doesn't detect an HDR display connected. My PC is an i5-7400 connected via HDMI 2.0 to my LG OLED65B6T. EVERYTHING IN THIS CHAIN IS HDR/4K60/HDMI 2.0 compatible. WHY ISN'T WINDOWS DETECTING A COMPATIBLE DISPLAY?

2. When 'forcing' HDR through Windows Display settings, My TV correctly recognizes the HDR signal, HOWEVER this does not auto detect whenever HDR video is being played, so this is NOT a solution, however it PROVES that my display and the rest of my PC components are HDR compatible.

3. When playing back ANY 4K video (HDR or otherwise), playback slows to a crawl. Audio plays fine, but video appears choppy and in slow motion. Task Manager reports that the GPU is at 100% load, CPU at ~50% load with 100% spikes, and RAM usage is 5.5Gb/8Gb. No other applications are open/running in the background during this time. This is regardless of which 4K content I play and what I use to play it on - YouTube/Netflix/Windows Media Player/VLC, etc. WHY IS 4K VIDEO PLAYBACK IMPOSSIBLE ON MY MACHINE THAT IS LESS THAN A YEAR OLD???

I waited SO PATIENTLY for a driver update because we were told TIME AND AGAIN by Intel that the HDR support was coming. Now that it's here, not only does it NOT detect a compatible HDR display, but ANY 4K video is unwatchable.

Needles to say, I am incredibly ****** off.

I WANT ANSWERS NOW.

[idata]

Hello Corvus,

Thank you for bringing this to the Graphics Community. I am sorry to hear you are having issues with HDR.

Please let me review this matter, I will update the thread as soon as possible.

Regards,

Amy C.

[NTimp]

Well it's been 24 hours and still no response. I can't imagine I'm the only person who is having this problem. Is Intel really this inept??

[NTimp]

Hello?

It's been a week now and still no answers.How in hell is a multi billion dollar corporation so incompetent?

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello Corvus,

I apologize for the delayed reply, I've had several critical BSOD and system crash escalations I've been juggling alongside replication attempts of your issue. I had thought this would be an easy reproducible issue given the straight forward nature and I could simply reproduce it and message you, though in several days I wasn't able to reproduce it and amongst the juggling I failed to notify you where I was at with your case. I apologize for adding to your frustration.

However, we understand it is extremely important as well, and that is why we are raising this report's internal priority level.

If I understand correctly, you have two issues in this thread. In a rough summary:

1. HDR configuration not working in Windows 10 64-bit RS3 (Falls Creator Update).

2. Poor 4K playback performance.

As for issue# 1, our initial testing has yield positive results in terms of local HDR support once all the ingredients are correctly in place. For details refer to https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/graphics/HDR_Intel_Graphics_TechWhitePaper.pdf https://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/graphics/HDR_Intel_Graphics_TechWhitePaper.pdf

I uploaded a short video of one of our tests here: https://youtu.be/gb3EKzvvoTE (you can copy and paste the link in a different window)

Just in case you haven't done this, try updating your Intel Management Engine driver to the latest version available (version 11.7.0.1017 at minimum), this should be on your motherboard manufacturer's website.

Also double check that in the BIOS the Intel® Software Guard Extensions (SGX) option(s) are all enabled, and finally, make sure you have the latest Firmware update for the LSPCON (Level-Shifter Protocol Conversion) chip on the motherboard.

Needless to say, I recognize that the HDR ecosystem on PC continues to evolve and we still have a lot of room for improvement, particularly when it comes to working with the wide variety of HDR capable displays that are constantly coming up.

As for issue# 2, you mentioned that "Task Manager reports that the GPU is at 100% load, CPU at ~50% load with 100% spikes, and RAM usage is 5.5Gb/8Gb" which leads be to think that perhaps the Hardware Decoder is not being correctly utilized by the video playback applications you are using. Can you please provide me with a couple of sample videos so I can confirm additional details such as the video codec used by them?

7th Generation graphics offer Hardware decoding for the following formats:

I can confirm to you that the video application needs to be optimized to access the HW decoder, otherwise it will switch back to software decoding or otherwise offer lower performance.

Just in case, using one of our Intel NUC7i5BNH I was able to successfully play 4K videos (HEVC - 8bit and 10bit) using PowerDVD 17 Ultra without any noticeable lag.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[NTimp]

Ronald,

I've tried updating the Intel management engine from the Asrock website, and the installer keeps telling me that it ran into a fatal error, preventing installation. This is despite me running it in administrator mode.

As it stands, I do not know what version I currently have installed. I would like some advice on how to circumvent this error.

Please try to understand that EVERY COMPONENT IN MY SYSTEM IS HDMI 2.0a certified.

I am using an Asrock z720 Gaming ITX motherboard, outputting via HDMI 2.0 to an LG OLED65B6T. Therefore, I will not accept any excuse trying to blame it on my hardware config - do not even try.

To recap, the problems I'm having are twofold:

1. In Windows settings, under 'Video Playback', the option 'Stream HDR video' is greyed out, with the message 'We didn't find any displays that support HDR video' underneath. This is obviously bullshit, since under 'Display' settings, I can switch 'HDR and advanced color' to ON, and the TV correctly auto-detects the signal as HDR - HOWEVER - the Windows interface displays as a horrible, murky mess, with much darker colors - basically unwatchable, whilst the sample HDR video in the settings screen plays back without issue in HDR.

My questions related to this:

- Why won't Windows auto-detect my TV? And even if it did, why won't it auto-detect HDR content from any video source like YouTube or Netflix and display it as such?

- Why doesn't the Windows environment change its color palette to suit an HDR color space? Is Intel seriously expecting us to choose between having HDR playback for video and a usable Windows UI?

2. I am not able to play back any 4K video (HDR or otherwise). At all. YouTube lags horribly, 4K videos I have taken with my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 stutter like crazy, and sample videos from http://jell.yfish.us/ jell.yfish.us/ (particularly the <span style="color: # 222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-align...

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hi again Corvus,

You can confirm the Intel ME version installed by following these steps:

1. Open Device Manager

2. Expand System devices

3. Locate the device named Intel(R) Management Engine Interface and right-click on it.

4. Click Properties and check under the Driver tab.

I do not think the behavior you are observing with HDR is hardware related. I can confirm that the option of 'Stream HDR video' will remain greyed out as long as we have the 'HDR and advanced color' slider Off. Please let me know if after turning On 'HDR and advanced color' you still see 'Stream HDR video' greyed out.

As per your comment: "the Windows interface displays as a horrible, murky mess, with much darker colors - basically unwatchable, whilst the sample HDR video in the settings screen plays back without issue in HDR", I would like to confirm that this is expected behavior. The following is taken from the HDR white paper we published a while ago:

As for your next question 'Why won't Windows auto-detect my TV? And even if it did, why won't it auto-detect HDR content from any video source like YouTube or Netflix and display it as such?' Please let me know if this is occurring even if you launch said HDR content in Full Screen mode (with the aforementioned HDR option in Windows enabled).

Regarding the 4K playback issue, I have been doing some tests using the same content you shared (i.e. HEVC clips taken from http://jell.yfish.us/ Jellyfish Bitrate Test Files). I was able to see the severe lagging when playing the files on VLC and MPC-HP, yet the same clips played perfectly fine (i.e. low CPU utilization and no lag) with Kodi 17.6 and PowerDVD 17 Ultra. So far it seems to me that some applications are not accessing correctly the HEVC Hardware decoder, but please give me more time so I can perform additional tests.

Thank you for your patience.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hi Corvus,

I have done an additional round of testing related to local 4K video playback performance, and my findings so far confirm that there should be no lag when using a video application that is fully optimized to utilize the HEVC Hardware decoder of the GPU. In my case, Kodi version 17.6 and PowerDVD 17 Ultra worked fine, while VLC didn't.

I know you mentioned using Kodi in the past, so can you please confirm which version? In addition, I would like to know if you have installed any Codec package from a 3rd party (e.g. Klite Codec Pack*, Combined Community Codec Pack - CCCP*). I am trying to determine why your system is showing a different behavior than the ones I have used here (I would also appreciate if you can include the http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000022556.html DxDiag.txt report).

Regarding 4K video streaming, I did see lagging on certain 4K Youtube videos. This is why I am expanding our investigation. As soon as I have more details on this situation I'll be posting them here.

Thank you for your patience.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[DPurv]

Hi Ronald,

I have a NUC7i5BNH with slow 4k video playback,

very much like the original poster.

I'm running Linux (opensuse). Do you have any

suggestions for software that can use the h/w

decoding on Linux? (I know you don't officially

support linux, but here's hoping anyway...)

[NTimp]

Ronald,

Apologies for the late reply, the holiday season gave me almost no time to do any troubleshooting and/or follow any of your steps.

According to the driver properties page in device manager, the version of the Intel Management Engine I have is 11.6.0.1026. Clicking 'update driver', then 'search online for updates' turned up nothing - but of course, Windows has NEVER in my 20 years of computer use EVER found an updated driver via this button.

When I try to update from my motherboard manufacturer (Asrock), I get an error message "Fatal error during installation". This is regardless if I select 'remove installation' or 'repair components'. I have also run the MSI in administrator mode. Nothing works.

So you are telling me that there is no way that Windows can auto detect if a full screen video is playing with HDR metadata, and change its display signal to HDR to match? This seems incredibly incompetent. Essentially what you are saying is that HDR support in Windows is simply a Band-Aid solution consisting of TWO workarounds.

You and the rest of Intel should be ashamed of yourselves. This is disgraceful incompetence on a level that should never be seen by such a large company, and shows ultimate contempt for its users. No wonder Qualcomm is kicking all of your asses.

[NTimp]

I'm using Kodi 17.6 with CCCP.

Can you explain to me why 4K VP9 videos don't work in Kodi? VP9 acceleration is supposed to be supported in Kaby Lake.

See attached for my DxDiag report.

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hi again Corvus,

Thank you for confirming the Intel ME version installed on your system. Version 11.6.0.1026 should be ok.

Quoting your question: "So you are telling me that there is no way that Windows can auto detect if a full screen video is playing with HDR metadata, and change its display signal to HDR to match?"

The current HDR functionality and implementation is done by Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. The Intel Graphics driver just enables it.

I did some additional testing, and even if you do not enable HDR in Windows, if the video playback application (e.g. PowerDVD 17 Ultra) correctly reads the HDR10 metadata from the video file, then HDR playback should be enabled. However, as you pointed out, for other HDR sources that do not depend on video playback apps (such as Youtube videos or Netflix) then in its current implementation, it would be necessary to enable HDR in Windows first. I regret confirming that this is out of our control and it is OS dependent.

As for 4K VP9 performance, we have raised this internally [bug ID 1208690764] in order to further investigate. As soon as I have news or updates I'll post them here.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[SCapr]

Hi Ronald,

I just created a username to tell you that you are doing a great job despite the fact that this Corvus with his arogant, smuck and uninformed writing style doesn't deserve your time!

Thank you for researching the problem and providing competent answers for us all.

Regards,

Sebastian

[CLe4]

Hello,

My HDR video setting is also disabled. I can't find the HDR and Advanced Color setting as mention. I checked Intel SGX and MEI are correct versions. PowerDVD 17 UHD Advisor detect HDR correctly and I can play HDR videos with it. I'd like to turn on HDR in windows to try other applications that support HDR through windows. Any ideas what I need to check?

Thanks.

[DSera]

I have the same problem,

but I cannot activate the HDR option either. Can you please assist me?

I have the latest drivers, both for the Intel graphics and the MEI. Attach the related information

Best,

danser86

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello leinco and danser86

For the issue of the HDR option not being available for you please submit a new thread, preferably using this format . That is because every scenario is different (e.g. in this thread the author does have the HDR toggle option available).

Best Regards,

Ronald M.

[RonaldM_Intel]

Hello everyone,

I would like to provide a new update on the issue with slow VP9 acceleration.

We have made good progress in our internal investigation, and we should have a substantial update (e.g. improved Graphics driver) by the time Windows 10 RS4 (RedStone 4) comes out. I believe Microsoft is aiming for Q2'18 release.

Thank you all for your patience and I'll continue posting news here as they come out.

Best Regards,

Ronald M.