10-bits color depth support for WDTV live

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
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People are starting to encode the H.264 with 10 bit color depth, and there are cameras that record in 10 bit. In fact 10-bit are now supported in PC by Combined-Community-Codec-Pack, K-Lite and Shark007.

WD TV Live now only supports 8-bit and displays error message with 10-bit mkv files. I have almost twenty 10-bit mkv files and every time there will be more. I hope WD can include it in the next update.

Kind regards.

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Out of interest does VLC play these 10bit files?

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richUK wrote:

Out of interest does VLC play these 10bit files?

Not yet, but soon, because VLC uses its own internal codecs.

Try with a player that use external codecs, such as Media Player Classic, with one of the codec packs I mentioned in the first message.

Regards.

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Gearmo wrote:

… I hope WD can include it in the next update.

 

WD probably cannot do that with these devices. The video decoding in current WD players is done in hardware. It is difficult, probably impossible to upgrade the the firmware to support 10-bit decoding. PC’s do the video decoding in software, which can be software upgraded.

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So what’s the 12 bit setting got to do with this?

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Techflaws wrote:

So what’s the 12 bit setting got to do with this?

That is for the output range of the HDMI 1.3 cable. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with the color depth of the video, or the hardware is capable of decoding, only tells you the maximum that can display. Look at this:

HDMI color depth:

  • HDMI 1.0 supports 8-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths.
  • HDMI 1.2 supports 8-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths.
  • HDMI 1.3 supports 8-bit ,10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths.

Note: HDMI Licensing previously used an alternative naming scheme referring to 10-bit, 12-bit and 16-bit color as 30-bit, 36-bit and 48-bit color, reflecting the bit depth of all three colors (RGB or YCbCr) combined. 16-bit is optional for some HDMI 1.3 cables.

Then WD Live is capable of displaying up to 12-bit by HDMI 1.3, but the question is if it can decode H.264 at 10-bit. I think so, even sacrificing resolution or fps as with the video in 3D.

Regards.

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Gearmo wrote:

richUK wrote:

Out of interest does VLC play these 10bit files?

Not yet, but soon, because VLC uses its own internal codecs.

 

Try with a player that use external codecs, such as Media Player Classic, with one of the codec packs I mentioned in the first message.

 

Regards.

 

If one of the most popular software players (VLC) does not currently support 10bit MKV then I would not expect the WD unit to support it for some time.

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@Gearmo

If you are asking about the H.264 Hi10P profile described here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles

then I think the the answer is no, per Sigma Designs document ( http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/documents/SMP8650_br.pdf) only MPEG -4.10 (H.264) BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0 are supported by the hardware.

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@Gearmo

Thanks for clearing that up.

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parnott100 wrote:

@Gearmo

 

If you are asking about the H.264 Hi10P profile described here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles

 

then I think the the answer is no, per Sigma Designs document ( http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/documents/SMP8650_br.pdf) only MPEG -4.10 (H.264) BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0 are supported by the hardware.

Ok, parnott100, thank you very much for your reply. Then I’ll have to wait for a new player with a new Sigma chipset that support Hi10p.  D: