# watching HDR content on phone



## Carsomyr (Jan 18, 2021)

A guy posted a very interesting guide to watching HDR content on your phone, 
---->    *


		https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxynote10/comments/ejrnhs
*
*and after reading it, I'd like to ask:*

Would I really notice an improvement from watching from a source file that is 40-70mbps bitrate instead of the usual 10-20?
He mentions watching "REDUX" versions of 4K HDR movies or tv shows... but doesn't the note 10 (or my phone, samsung z fold 2) support 1080p or 1440p resolution anyways? What's the point of watching 4k content on a display that can't do 4K? Unless there's something I'm missing here
Then he mentions dolby atmos and DTS HD MASTER audio files formats/codecs... again, on a cell phone would I notice an improvement?


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## Khonjel (Jan 18, 2021)

1) Maybe not in that tiny phone screen. But since he's talking HDR content maybe yes.

2) You can watch any resolution content on any resolution display. Ever wonder why you can watch LinusTechTips or MKBHD content at 4k or 1440p on 1080p or even 1366x768 monitors?

3) There's Dolby Atmos speakers you can connect to or maybe even headphones. Dolby Atmos (at least the Microsoft Store app version) can even enable good surround sound on cheap generic headphones.


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## JalleR (Jan 18, 2021)

1. well the short answer is YES if the source is better then you would get the better quality if your phone can show/support it

Regarding the second question the short answer is yes again but it depends on the Video Source, This video Explains Why Does 4K Look Better on 1080p Monitors - YouTube

3. well if the Speakers are good then yes but i would say on a phone that is a maybe


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## Carsomyr (Jan 18, 2021)

Khonjel said:


> Ever wonder why you can watch LinusTechTips or MKBHD content at 4k or 1440p on 1080p or even 1366x768 monitors?



I mean, my last experience trying to play a 4k video on my 1080p tv was a mess. I used KODI to play a 4k movie on my HTPC and it lagged terribly even though I have a very decent gpu and from then on, I thought to myself, well... that probably means you CAN'T play a 4k file on a 1080p display... *What am I missing here? *
_(sorry I think I know what you mean, but I don't understand HOW that is possible, I'll go watch JallerR's youtube video that explains this and I'll prob get it lol)_


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## JalleR (Jan 19, 2021)

Have you checked how much your cpu is loaded?

is it from a local source or network ?


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## Valantar (Jan 19, 2021)

Carsomyr said:


> I mean, my last experience trying to play a 4k video on my 1080p tv was a mess. I used KODI to play a 4k movie on my HTPC and it lagged terribly even though I have a very decent gpu and from then on, I thought to myself, well... that probably means you CAN'T play a 4k file on a 1080p display... *What am I missing here? *
> _(sorry I think I know what you mean, but I don't understand HOW that is possible, I'll go watch JallerR's youtube video that explains this and I'll prob get it lol)_


Any video playback software contains some sort of output scaling - otherwise it wouldn't be able to show all videos as full screen, or let you resize the playback window. Scaling necessarily works both up (low input resolution to high output resolution) and down, so any file of a higher resolution than the display can then be scaled down to fit the display resolution. Each display pixel will then display some combination of information from several pixels in the source file, with the specific form this takes dependent on the specifics of the scaler. Downscaling can potentially look better than native resolution playback (due to the source file containing more image information to begin with, so it can through interpolation potentially show tiny details that a file rendered to native resolution would have omitted or blurred out). This is highly dependent on the quality of the scaling system though, and downscaling has plenty of potential to look bad too.

Your performance issues can stem from a host of different things, but most likely it's some sort of decoding issue. Does your PC support hardware decoding of the video format for the 4k video you tested? If so, check that it's enabled in your playback software. If not, check your CPU and GPU load while attempting playback - software playback of file formats with advanced compression algorithms (H.265, for example) are typically very demanding single-threaded tasks, which not all CPUs are able to perform. 

But there is absolutely nothing stopping you from playing back video in whatever resolution you want on a display of any other resolution, beyond the playback capabilities of your hardware. Most GPUs today even support rendering the desktop and games at higher than native resolutions, which AMD calls Virtual Super Resolution and Nvidia calls Dynamic Super Resolution - they just render at a higher resolution, then scale the output down to the actual display resolution of the monitor before transmitting the video signal


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## Carsomyr (Jan 19, 2021)

JalleR said:


> Have you checked how much your cpu is loaded?
> 
> is it from a local source or network ?


Local. In thinking maybe it was because the local file was in 10 bit hdr and my tv doesn't support hdr although it does supoort 10 bit if it's "limited"


Valantar said:


> Any video playback software contains some sort of output scaling - otherwise it wouldn't be able to show all videos as full screen, or let you resize the playback window. Scaling necessarily works both up (low input resolution to high output resolution) and down, so any file of a higher resolution than the display can then be scaled down to fit the display resolution. Each display pixel will then display some combination of information from several pixels in the source file, with the specific form this takes dependent on the specifics of the scaler. Downscaling can potentially look better than native resolution playback (due to the source file containing more image information to begin with, so it can through interpolation potentially show tiny details that a file rendered to native resolution would have omitted or blurred out). This is highly dependent on the quality of the scaling system though, and downscaling has plenty of potential to look bad too.
> 
> Your performance issues can stem from a host of different things, but most likely it's some sort of decoding issue. Does your PC support hardware decoding of the video format for the 4k video you tested? If so, check that it's enabled in your playback software. If not, check your CPU and GPU load while attempting playback - software playback of file formats with advanced compression algorithms (H.265, for example) are typically very demanding single-threaded tasks, which not all CPUs are able to perform.
> 
> But there is absolutely nothing stopping you from playing back video in whatever resolution you want on a display of any other resolution, beyond the playback capabilities of your hardware. Most GPUs today even support rendering the desktop and games at higher than native resolutions, which AMD calls Virtual Super Resolution and Nvidia calls Dynamic Super Resolution - they just render at a higher resolution, then scale the output down to the actual display resolution of the monitor before transmitting the video signal


I'll go check what the exact specs are for my htpc and see if I'm due for an upgrade somewhere. I'm using Kodi for playback right now.
In fact, I'll add my htpc specs to my systems specs on this forum as well that way you guys will have accesd to it in the future


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## Splinterdog (Jan 19, 2021)

The 4K Samsung sample video looks amazing on my Note 20 Ultra and since it has HDR support, I assume it's playing in HDR because there isn't a setting for playback, only record.


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## Khonjel (Jan 20, 2021)

Carsomyr said:


> Local. In thinking maybe it was because the local file was in 10 bit hdr and my tv doesn't support hdr although it does supoort 10 bit if it's "limited"
> 
> I'll go check what the exact specs are for my htpc and see if I'm due for an upgrade somewhere. I'm using Kodi for playback right now.
> In fact, I'll add my htpc specs to my systems specs on this forum as well that way you guys will have accesd to it in the future


Yeah. 10-bit might be the issue if the CPU is kinda old.


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## Valantar (Jan 20, 2021)

Carsomyr said:


> Local. In thinking maybe it was because the local file was in 10 bit hdr and my tv doesn't support hdr although it does supoort 10 bit if it's "limited"
> 
> I'll go check what the exact specs are for my htpc and see if I'm due for an upgrade somewhere. I'm using Kodi for playback right now.
> In fact, I'll add my htpc specs to my systems specs on this forum as well that way you guys will have accesd to it in the future


The TV doesn't really have any effect on how this plays out - it's just a monitor, its capabilities are known to the system, and either it works or it doesn't. If the source material has more color depth than the TV can display, you will either get a squeezed (guess we could call this downscaled) color space (where a wider color space is mapped to a narrower one) or you'll get colors clipping to white/black earlier than they really should. The PC handles this translation. If the PC was sending a signal to the TV that the TV couldn't display, you'd get a black or corrupted screen.

That 10-bit HDR file probably relied on software decoding, putting a lot of pressure on the CPU.


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## GamerGuy (Jan 20, 2021)

Although I have the excellent Fold 2, I've just gotten a Note 10+ 512GB phone from my friend, he'd upgraded to the Note 20 Ultra because S21 doesn't interest him due to absence of mSD slot (real stupid of Samsung to leave out the mSD slot), he'd sold me his Note 10+ with a 512GB mSD card for a whopping.....453USD  . The Note 10+ has excellent specs and HDR10+ for appropriate video content, like Netflix. I intend to fill the mSD card with ripped movies and music files (I have some nice DSD files that take up a whole bunch of storage space).


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## Splinterdog (Jan 20, 2021)

Enjoy your Note 10+, it's a cracking phone.


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## mtcn77 (Jan 20, 2021)

Carsomyr said:


> *and after reading it, I'd like to ask:*
> 
> Would I really notice an improvement from watching from a source file that is 40-70mbps bitrate instead of the usual 10-20?
> He mentions watching "REDUX" versions of 4K HDR movies or tv shows... but doesn't the note 10 (or my phone, samsung z fold 2) support 1080p or 1440p resolution anyways? What's the point of watching 4k content on a display that can't do 4K? Unless there's something I'm missing here
> Then he mentions dolby atmos and DTS HD MASTER audio files formats/codecs... again, on a cell phone would I notice an improvement?


I wanna hop in;

Yes, there is no difference between diplaying a lower bitrate and motion blur. Oled does not come with motion blur, so you will be able to tell apart in action scenes.
Mobile displays already come with 4:2:2 rgb compression similarly found on ycbcr recorded media. That is different than an 'actual' desktop display color display presentation which color codes data according to the rgb standard which is 4:4:4 and not 4:2:2 like the preveiously mentioned video systems. Essentially, 4K is like 2K horizontally for amoled displays and also for the 4K movies.


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