PC Graphics

[Bortmeister]

When playing commercial Blu-ray discs using PowerDVD 21 on a system using a RX 6800 XT GPU, the video always plays with limited dynamic range - i.e. black levels are elevated and appear grey.

By testing different combinations of playback software and GPU the problem does appear to be specifically when DXVA is being used on the Radeon - the output is limited range despite the display pixel format being configured in the Radeon Software for RGB 4:4:4 PC Full Range.  Using an Nvidia GPU, or by forcing video playback using software decoding and bypassing DXVA, fixes the issue and displays correct black levels.

There is no option to force full dynamic range for video playback in the Radeon Software (like there is in the equivalent Nvidia control panel) - there are almost no options for video playback at all apart from the basic profiles that do no expose what settings are being applied.

The specific software versions are: PowerDVD 21 (latest 21.0.2019.62 version), Radeon Software (latest 21.12.1 driver) on Windows 10 Pro 21H1.  But to stress, it does not appear to be PowerDVD at fault - it works correctly with an Nvidia 3060Ti swapped in.

Can anyone else confirm this behaviour with hardware accelerated video decoding (DXVA) using Navi?

Is there a reason why there are no real options to configure video playback in the Radeon Software?

[FarCry]

I can confirm this issue on my RX 6800 XT too. I'm unable to enjoy videos / Blu-Ray movies using media players with native DXVA. The black levels shift to dark-grey, making everything too bright and faded. The only way to partially workaround this problem is by choosing the "Custom" video profile in Radeon settings and setting Brightness to -16%. This is wrong and should be fixed ASAP.

I tried to play the same movie on my Nvidia powered notebook with PowerDVD 21 Ultra and there were no issues. Looks like the DXVA settings got messed up in the newest Radeon drivers.

Here's a comparison of how it looks like with DXVA and without:

[FarCry]

We've got an official statement from Cyberlink. Also verified with other media software, that uses native DXVA - it's clear, that Radeon drivers have a bug and should be fixed. For all folks, who stumble over this topic - at moment there is no known solution and no response from AMD.

Spoiler

Thank you for writing back.

Regarding wrong black levels/brightness, when playing back Blu-Ray discs in PowerDVD 21 software.

For the video playback, PowerDVD would decode the video to a bitstream, it will not touch the color space's dynamic range that the video is encoded natively, and does not have the option to adjust the color space's dynamic range (16-235 or 0~255) for display when playing the video.

Technical-wise, the color space, and the dynamic range will be processed by the graphics processor and the display device you connected after PowerDVD playback decoding no matter whether the GPU decoding function (DxVA) is in use or not.

That is, if the dynamic range got changed on the display device, the color output dynamic range is mainly controlled by the GPU hardware, its driver, and the display device in the display processing chain. We are afraid this condition is NOT resolve-able by changing or updating the program codes of PowerDVD on the software side solely.

We suggest consulting the GPU manufacturer (AMD) for further technical support to investigate the concern why the dynamic range got changed after GPU decoding processing to display Blu-ray movies DRM video. It could be the most feasible solution for this color dynamic range change concern.

For the playback result that you mentioned in 3rd-party players software, as CyberLink is not the developer of the 3rd-party software, we do not have the access to the technical details of the color processing mechanism implemented in the 3rd-party software. We are afraid we might not be able to comment on the playback result delivered by the 3rd-party software.