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1080P or 4K on HBO Max

NutFlush920

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Curious what most do when downloading from HM. I only have one 4K TV in my family room which is seldom used and use Plex as my server through a Synology 418 Play NAS. My 3 main TVs are all 1080P.

I realize 4K is better quality but it’s also double the file size. Is 4K really that much better? I’ve never watched 4K content so have nothing to compare with.

I realize it’s all personal preference but, just wondering if I should be grabbing stuff on 4K when it’s available to future proof. My library has over 1500 1080P movies and some day will pass it onto my son when he gets older.

Thanks for your input and suggestions.


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Hmax's UHD is primarily DV coded, so unless you fancy doing a computationally expensive tone mapping to Rec. 709, get both ;)
 
I suppose running the 4K files through Handbrake as h265 wouldn’t suffice would it so I only have one file to keep?


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You'd still end up with "weird looking" colours unless they're correctly tone mapped (it's a pain I go through when I downscale UHD disc purchases to 1080p, GoT was a Royal PITA to get through due to sheer quantity of episodes).

Just pull the UHD version, watch it on a (non Dolby Vision capable) computer and you'll see what I mean :)
 
You'd still end up with "weird looking" colours unless they're correctly tone mapped (it's a pain I go through when I downscale UHD disc purchases to 1080p, GoT was a Royal PITA to get through due to sheer quantity of episodes).

Just pull the UHD version, watch it on a (non Dolby Vision capable) computer and you'll see what I mean :)

Yea I’ve noticed the green tint through VLC. When I play the file through QuickTime on my Mac it plays fine. I’m gonna throw the file on the server just to see how it looks on the TVs.

Maybe I’ll just stick to 1080P for now as I think 1080P looks great and is leaps ahead of growing up watching VHS.


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I've posted this in a couple of other threads, but will repeat here:

If you turn on the log messages, when you start to DL the movie, if you see the message

"[Debug] [Mux:hbomax] Setting original format hvc1"


then you may be able to watch the movie (I can watch them with VLC or KODI), in HDR on my 4K tv, and on PC's and 1080p plasma.

If the format starts with dv, such as in "Setting original format dvh1", then it'll be in Dolby Vision and you may have problems playing the file and see that green / pink tint if you don't have the proper hardware / software setup. Since these won't work for me, I just abort the download and move on.

Here's the HM 4k/UHD movies that I've had luck getting the hvc1 format of where the resolution is better than 1080p :

Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice - 2560x1440
Space Jam A New Legacy - 3200x1800
The Matrix - 3800x1200
The Matrix Reloaded - 3840x2160
The Matrix Revolutions - 3840x2160
The Suicide Squad - 3840x2160
Tom & Jerry - 3200x1800
Wonder Woman (2017) - 3200x1800
Zack Snyder's Justice League - 2400x1800

Some movies I didn't bother with for UHD: The Little Things and No Sudden Move. I can't tell you whether UHD is worth the extra space for these or not, but movies with a lot of CGI seem to be worth it.

The other UHD movies or higher resolutions than listed above that are currently on HM seem to be in Dolby Vision (dvh1).
 
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I didn't know it was possible to tone-map DV to SDR.

Me neither. It seems anyone who are not under NDA knows how to decode DV. Even Cyberpower could not convince Dolby to give license their tech so yeah. AppleTV or newest Nvidia Shield and direct-stream is probably the only way we have right now (assuming your TV supports DV that is).
 
When I'm at the time to start with the other providers I will probably download both. It is way easier to just download the 1080p version as well than the need to deal with encoding settings when I only download the 4k version and need the 1080p version for some reason.

But thank you for the tip, I would never be aware of that (both that there are different versions available there and the pure fact that this even exist):
If you turn on the log messages, when you start to DL the movie, if you see the message
"[Debug] [Mux:hbomax] Setting original format hvc1"

This is a second reason to download both because if your player or TV is not capable to play the 4k file, you can use the 1080p one. And with this knowledge I will always look into the log when I start to download 4k on HBO Max and add hvc1 or dvh1 to the file name so I always know when I try to play it and there is something that this is the reason for that.
 
I didn't know it was possible to tone-map DV to SDR.

Of course you can, it's just involved...

Me neither. It seems anyone who are not under NDA knows how to decode DV. Even Cyberpower could not convince Dolby to give license their tech so yeah. <snip>

You're confusing possible/doable with commercially and legitimately licenceable, by same token none of the RedFox software should exist, yet it does...
 
It's not an AS problem, but suffices to say that if you want to go profile 5 straight to SDR, you might find it challenging; other than that, just need to look very hard (or not) on the "interwebs"
 
Yea I’ve noticed the green tint through VLC. When I play the file through QuickTime on my Mac it plays fine. I’m gonna throw the file on the server just to see how it looks on the TVs.

Maybe I’ll just stick to 1080P for now as I think 1080P looks great and is leaps ahead of growing up watching VHS.


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So I tried the 4K file on my iPhone 12 Pro Max through Plex, Plex web player on my Mac, and Insignia 4K Fire TV through Plex and all have color issues. I guess 4K just isn’t in the cards for me.


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have you tried just on the iphone natively (i.e. not through plex)?
 
I usually watch stuff on my iPad Pro gen2 via a local webserver (the Safari mp4 player seems more capable than the one that's invoked when watching mp4s via the "Files" App with SMB mounted media), and DV seems absolutely fine on it :)
 
I usually watch stuff on my iPad Pro gen2 via a local webserver (the Safari mp4 player seems more capable than the one that's invoked when watching mp4s via the "Files" App with SMB mounted media), and DV seems absolutely fine on it :)
My son gave me a Gen 5 Ipad Pro with 2tbs of storage (Fathers Day) so I can watch my movies while I am in any room, I absolutely love it, its 12.9" screen, gives me the ability to watch up close, (my eyesight is not optimal) I am going to try what 0x0x0x0x0 described.
 
I’ve been reading that Plex support is working on this and Infuse in the mean time works for 4K DV files on a Plex server. I don’t have Infuse Pro though to test it personally.


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