Trying to rip 4k Blu rays, but colours are appearing washed out.

[Acehit]

Hi all, I have recently invested in a Pioneer 4k player that is capable of ripping 4k Blu rays. However whilst I can rip the files off the 4k disc quite successfully. Upon viewing the colours are severely washed out. I did a little bit of research and couldn't really find any solutions of how to fix this except for manually correcting it but that isn't really feasible as manual correction doesn't result in how the film is accurately supposed to look.

Can someone help me out here? I don't have a 4k compatible computer as in graphics card or monitor. I believe it is something to do with HDR but not sure. I can post screenshots if needed. Obviously there is a solution because people rip 4ks and upload them to Youtube all the time in accurate colours (compressed of course). My intention is to rip the movie, and downscale it to 1080p mp4 file so I can watch it on my full HD tv.

Thanks in advance.

[ProWo]

Rip with Makemkv and recode with clever Ffmpeg-GUI to HDR10 or SDR.

[usually_quiet]

Hi all, I have recently invested in a Pioneer 4k player that is capable of ripping 4k Blu rays. However whilst I can rip the files off the 4k disc quite successfully. Upon viewing the colours are severely washed out. I did a little bit of research and couldn't really find any solutions of how to fix this except for manually correcting it but that isn't really feasible as manual correction doesn't result in how the film is accurately supposed to look.

Can someone help me out here? I don't have a 4k compatible computer as in graphics card or monitor. I believe it is something to do with HDR but not sure. I can post screenshots if needed. Obviously there is a solution because people rip 4ks and upload them to Youtube all the time in accurate colours (compressed of course). My intention is to rip the movie, and downscale it to 1080p mp4 file so I can watch it on my full HD tv.

Thanks in advance.

Even if HDR-10 was preserved in the ripping process, colors will normally look washed-out when the ripped video is displayed on an SDR monitor.

If you are willing to use your computer for playback, it may be possible to avoid re-encoding and downscaling to simply watch a 4K video on a 1080p SDR monitor or TV. If the PC can decode HEVC and VP9, there are software video players that can simulate HDR on an SDR display using tone-mapping. I have successfully used the Windows 11 Movies and TV app, VLC, and MPC-BE. As I recall, I didn't need to change anything for Windows 11 Movies and TV or VLC. MPC-BE may require using MPC Video Renderer as the video renderer. (MPC Video Renderer must be downloaded and installed separately from MPC-BE.)

[Acehit]

Rip with Makemkv and recode with clever Ffmpeg-GUI to HDR10 or SDR.

Hi I have download this tool, but do you have any instructions as to how I convert the file to SDR, I have had a play around with it and can't figure it out or find any easy to understand tutorials on this.

[ProWo]

Start clever FFmepg-GUI, load your ripped mkv, click main, click encode videostream, click resize, set h265 as encoder, set your desired resolution, click HDR10 settings, set HDR10 to SDR, click ok, click encode.


[Attachment 72760 - Click to enlarge]

[lingyi]

I wouldn't bother converting to SDR. You'll just lose quality.

As usually_quiet stated, play around with the Video Renderer settings in your media player. I have some 4K HDR videos that don't display correctly in Potplayer with the auto video renderer settings. Different videos, probably because some are Dolby Vision, require different renderer settings.

[davexnet]

mpc-be seems to tonemap on the fly without having do anything special

[usually_quiet]

mpc-be seems to tonemap on the fly without having do anything special

Thanks for the info. I started using MPC-BE plus MPC Video Renderer after I bought my 4K HDR TV because I wanted to try playing 4K video with HDR pass-through with the TV as a monitor. If the connection to a display doesn't support HDR pass-through, tone-mapping is used instead.

Before I bought a 4K HDR TV, I used VLC and and the Windows 11 Movies and TV app to play UHD HDR video with my laptop, which only has a 1080p SDR display, so I was more familiar with how they handle 4K HDR video when connected to 1080p SDR display.

[davexnet]

You're welcome. Must admit it's one of the things I've never tried, having
always streamed my media to the TV, most recently via Kodi running in the
Android box

[Acehit]

Start clever FFmepg-GUI, load your ripped mkv, click main, click encode videostream, click resize, set h265 as encoder, set your desired resolution, click HDR10 settings, set HDR10 to SDR, click ok, click encode.


[Attachment 72760 - Click to enlarge]

Hi Thank you so much for this, it has worked! However it would take 14 hours to encode a full movie, so obviously I need to upgrade my pc to a higher spec whether it is processor or speed power. Just one other thing, I encoded 50% and it produced a file of 610 MB which is far too low, I want to give it far more juice than that. Are there any settings I can use to give it more file size? I still watched it on my 1080p TV and the colours are lush and the detail is absolutely beautiful even at that size, but it is just psychology, I want at least a 4 gig 1080p full movie.

[ProWo]

Set CRF 20 or lower.

[Acehit]

OK I'll try that. Thanks so much.

[usually_quiet]

You're welcome. Must admit it's one of the things I've never tried, having
always streamed my media to the TV, most recently via Kodi running in the
Android box

I use an HTPC for recording TV and the UHD HDR TV doubles as it's display. However, I have a Chromecast With Google TV connected to two non-smart SDR TVs for streaming recordings stored on the HTPC to those TVs. One of the Chromecasts is capable of 4K streaming.

Perhaps a high-spec Android media player running Kodi would be able to handle playing UHD HDR video from a USB stick, downscaling it, and applying tone mapping to simulate HDR. That would be considerably less expensive than a new PC to be used for video encoding.

[Edit] I have VLC for Android installed on my Chromecast with Google TV (4K). (I don't have Kodi installed on that Chromecast device and there isn't enough room to install it now, so I couldn't test Kodi.) A few months ago, I downloaded a couple of short 4K videos onto my HTPC for test purposes, https://4kmedia.org/the-world-in-hdr-uhd-4k-demo/ with HDR-10 and https://4kmedia.org/lg-cymatic-jazz-hdr-hlg-uhd-4k-demo/ with HDG HDR. Today, I decided to see if the Chromecast with Google TV (4K) could play them, downsize them for display on a 1080p TV, and apply tone-mapping.

The Chromecast with Google TV successfully played both videos via SMB shares on my HTPC and streamed over my wireless network using VLC for Android as the software player. The video in "The World In HDR 4K Demo" is the most similar to UHD Blu-ray video and HDR. So, if someone has the right Android TV box they can most likely play ripped UHD Blu-ray video on the fly from a USB stick and display it on a 1080p TV.

A Chromecast with Google TV isn't the right choice for playing 4K rips from USB sticks or external HDDs and might not play some audio formats used for UHD Blu-ray. The NVidia Shield TV Pro is supposed to be a better choice in both respects.

[Acehit]

Hi, when I abort the conversion the output file automatically deletes! I have set the folder as safe in my antivirus but it still does it. Has anyone else had this issue? Or anyone know a workaround it? I am letting the fil complete in full for the first time and don't want the file to delete after I have left my computer on for 7 hours to encode the whole movie.

[ProWo]

Hi, when I abort the conversion the output file automatically deletes! I have set the folder as safe in my antivirus but it still does it. Has anyone else had this issue? Or anyone know a workaround it? I am letting the fil complete in full for the first time and don't want the file to delete after I have left my computer on for 7 hours to encode the whole movie.

This is intentional, so that unfinished video parts do not waste memory space.
If you want to check the quality of the encoding, just copy the output file elsewhere during encoding before pressing the abort button.

[Acehit]

Ok thanks man, it is ok the finished product did not delete. What I have noticed though is something is a little off with this file, I can't put my finger on it. It is almost as if it needs re-encoding or something. When I play the 1080p file on my tv it takes a while to seek, as in if I fast forward to a section forward in the movie, the vlc icon spins for a while, it does get there eventually but I have other 1080p files that don't have this issue. If anyone knows what to do about this please let me know.

[ProWo]

Do you have muxed with clever Ffmpeg-GUI?

[Acehit]

Yes that is the software I am using exactly. Unless there is a particular setting I should choose I don't know.

[jagabo]

When I play the 1080p file on my tv it takes a while to seek, as in if I fast forward to a section forward in the movie, the vlc icon spins for a while

Turn on Fast Seek:

https://superuser.com/questions/921867/why-is-vlc-slower-than-mpv-mplayer

This comes at the cost of accuracy. It seeks to the nearest keyframe rather than the exact time specified.

[Acehit]

Thanks all, I think I'm going a little buts here but I have had to reinstall ffmpeg due to buying a new faster computer and the section to conver to sdr button is missing. HDR 10 settings is missing. Anyone advise? Please see capture.

[ProWo]

Click on various, there is a HDR checkbox.
You can now use any videocodec for HDR10 to SDR, not only hevc.

[Acehit]

I have just re-checked even after clicking on various it is still not there. Please help.

[ProWo]

Is your source HDR10?
The checkbox is visible with HDR10 source only.
Use the newest beta:
https://files.videohelp.com/u/292773/clever_ffmpeg_gui_newest_beta.zip

[Acehit]

Is your source HDR10?
The checkbox is visible with HDR10 source only.

Wow you are right, but it is really strange. I just ripped the movie using makemkv again, this newer ripp doesn't have hdr10 at source, but the previously ripped file did. How can one ripped file have hdr10 but the other one doesn't? That is so weird.

[Acehit]

Can I just ask I haven't really changed any other settings apart from frame size to 1920 x 1080. But on the SDR setting when I set it to SDR10 by default the desaturation setting is set to 2. I haven't really played around with this as I don't have the time or the hours to leave the computer on for 10 hours to encode this video on every setting, but leaving at default settings seems to look perfectly fine with all the colours brought out. Am I doing the right thing, or should I adjust the desaturation setting?

[ProWo]

Leave it at 2.
You could try hable instead of mobius.

[Acehit]

Leave it at 2.
You could try hable instead of mobius.

Ok thank you. I have left it at 2 with mobius. I am happy with the results.

[Acehit]

All, thank you ever so much for all your help, that goes to ever single reply I have had. I am ready to start ripping all my 4k blu rays now and downscale them to 1080p. Just one last thing I will mention is remember when I said something is a bit off with the output file from ffmpeg? Well all of that is fixed with Brorsoft Video Converter. Now the seeking is nice and smooth, as well as the playback it just smooths and irons out the whole file. The quality is also amazing will little notice of quality loss.

[Acehit]

All, I have so far ripped all the Indiana Jones movies from a 4k disc and downscaled them to 1080p mkv file and they play perfectly well with no issues. I have a hard drive plugged into my router which is hard wired to my TV. However I am now trying to convert Rocky III, which is not a letterbox widescreen movie, I believe we call this one 1.85.1. At first I used I used a setting of CRF 11, which is what I used for the Indy movies, but this resulted the file constantly jumping on playback on my TV as the final filesize exceeded that of the original. I then increased the CRF to 15, and then played back a sample and it is doing the exact same thing, the file is jumping upon playback and I don't know why. I thought if I made the file size smaller it would rectify the issue but it seems that filesize is not the culprit here.

I understand that as a movie with aspect ratio 1.85.1 there is more picture on the screen and less black bars, so more bitrate is on the screen but in that case does anyone have any suggestions how I get this to play back smoothly? What settings should I choose to use. I am still using HDR 10 to SDR, mobius setting 2 for desaturation. Aspect I am keeping at 1920 x 1080.

[ProWo]

Set bit depth to 8, x264, crf 18.