Grey letterbox when playing HDR content on Sony Android TV

[generalmilk]

Bug report

Describe the bug

When playing a 2.35:1 4K HDR video file, the blank area/letterbox is grey insead of black. Only happens on Mediatek chip Android TV such as Sony.

Expected Behavior

Letterbox is black.

Actual Behavior

Letterbox is grey.

Possible Fix

Quote Koying:
“Yeah, that seem to be a(nother) bug on the Sony/Philips/Mediatek devices.
There is a programmatic workaround, though, it's to have the root window (and eveything in-between) made transparent.

It's how it was on SPMC, and how it will be in MrMC 3.7”

Another hint is it works fine on the 20180120 build of Kodi, not after that.
I know it is a sony bug, but sony will never fix it, therefore I'm asking for help here.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Play an HDR video that does not fill up the full screen on a Sony Android TV

Additional context or screenshots (if appropriate)

Here is some additional context or explanation that might help:

https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=328294

Your Environment

Used Operating system:

• Android

• iOS

• Linux

• OSX

• Raspberri-Pi

• Windows

• Windows UWP

• Operating system version/name: Android TV 7.0

• Kodi version: every build after 20180120 nightly

[mossopinc]

sony bravia kd55xe8596 i have and have to put up with the grey borders, i was hoping the it would get fixed by the time kodi 18 gets a full release but we are at RC1 and its still got these grey borders :( makes me sad

[MartijnKaijser]

This is a Sony firmware issue. Other mediaplayer added hacks/workarounds to solve this problem but we certainly won't Please contact Sony support to get this fixed correctly

[fritsch]

Please test: https://jenkins.kodi.tv/job/BuildMulti-Choice/194/ which will result in: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/ - it will have the name "trans" in it ~ 20 minutes.

[generalmilk]

Sony will not fix this issue. They are aware of this for years. They are recently banning Kodi from their TV as well.

[fritsch]

Try my testbuild, thanks.

[generalmilk]

Try my testbuild, thanks.

Will do. Thank you so much!

[fritsch]

Here, 32 bit: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/kodi-20190109-5e28590f-trans-armeabi-v7a.apk
Here, 64 bit: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm64-v8a/kodi-20190109-5e28590f-trans-arm64-v8a.apk

[mossopinc]

v7a didnt work for me :( and arm64 dont install

[fritsch]

Next try please: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/kodi-20190109-6f6cbd6e-trans-armeabi-v7a.apk

[mossopinc]

for me dude this new one is a winner

[fritsch]

@MartijnKaijser so easy ...

[fritsch]

@mossopinc Let me make a "final test" with the "minimal" changes - one moment.

[mossopinc]

no probs dude.....glads to see it being looked at finally

[fritsch]

Here: https://jenkins.kodi.tv/view/Automation/job/BuildMulti-Choice/197/ will have "trans2" in the name and result here: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/

Sony's job :-) not mine ...

[fritsch]

Here: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/kodi-20190109-8c831dd9-trans2-armeabi-v7a.apk

[mossopinc]

Not Found
The requested URL /xbmc/test-builds/android/arm/kodi-20190109-8c831dd9-trans2-armeabi-v7a.apk was not found on this server.

[fritsch]

Wait a bit - mirror needs to sync. Try again in 5 minutes. (Edit: Up now for me)

[mossopinc]

10 out of 10 movies tested so far are just great now though the interface seems a tad laggy now

[fritsch]

Is it the "same" laggy for both versions?

[mossopinc]

never noticed anything in trans1

[fritsch]

Okay - let me PR it and ask our Android maintainer what he thinks about it.

[fritsch]

You will see another testbuild: trans3 in name - that one uses the "minimal" subset from both changes. Let's see.

[mossopinc]

np

[fritsch]

I killed our jenkins - will rebuild tomorrow :-)

[fritsch]

Here we go: http://mirrors.kodi.tv/test-builds/android/arm/kodi-20190109-6f984677-trans3-armeabi-v7a.apk

[fritsch]

Let's continue on the forum: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=328294&pid=2807197#pid2807197

Where the other guy said: Version b is faster than a ;-) see, that's going to be funny, hehe.