We'd like to take the time to share a number of improvements that will arrive with our new video stack with Kodi v19 which will benefit Vero 4K and Vero 4K + users. Here are a few of the main improvements:

3D MVC support

Support for 3D MVC ISOs and MKV will be supported out of the box as standard. For performance reasons, we would recommend ripping 3D discs as MKVs at this time, as seeking can be delayed when playing ISOs. 3D subtitles are also well supported, with subtitle depth working as expected.

Better HDR support

The new stack supports full passthrough of HDR10 and HDR10+ metadata for supported receivers and displays. The HLG EOTF will also be triggered when playing HLG material on a compatible display.

Furthermore, we have improved the way Vero 4K and 4K + converts from HDR10 to SDR (BT709). With the default setting users should see a slightly brighter render on SDR displays.

The tonecurve uses master display maximum luminance or MaxCLL (if available and less than master display maximum luminance). If neither are available, we use 1000 nits. Your display maximum luminance can be set in system display settings. Default is 100 nits.

The OSD contrast setting, which is saved in the library for each video, can be used to brighten or darken the picture. We have improved this by adding a roll-off so that mid-tones can be brightened while highlights will be compressed but not completely crushed.

While HDR is passed through as before to HDR displays, even HDR users should see an improvement with the new kernel since metadata is being passed through more consistently.

New kernel

The new video stack moves the Vero 4K / 4K + kernel to Linux 4.9, which has an end of life date of January 2023. This allows us to meet our long term support obligations and keep user's devices secure. They can also benefit from a number of new kernel features, such as improved WiFi and GPU performance, as well as support for new technologies such as Wireguard and a new modernised TV stack

How to update

A large number of users have tested these changes in advance on the forums and we'd like to thank them for helping us fix a number of issues. The new changes will automatically arrive with the stable release of Kodi v19.1. For now, you can find test builds on the forum here.