3D SBS files playing in 2D only on my Xbox One?

Hey guys,

This question has probably been asked already so I apologise in advance. I have came across other forums with people having the same issues with the Xbox one’s Plex app not playing 3D SBS files, as it only shows one of the two sides. Making it seem like a 2D movie. None of the posts have come up with any legitimate reason to why this would be the case, but seems like its pointing to the Xbox One’s version of the Plex App. Most of these posts are going back to early 2015 and I cannot find anything posted in recent times, so with that being said, hoping someone has any light to shed in the past months on this matter.
Quickly just to recap, it works fine (shows both L/R images) when I stream using my iPhone, iPad and also Mac. Has anyone else come across this or has maybe found a remedy in order to have the file play it correctly?

Photos attached below. - So my Xbox One doesn’t show the video file as it does in the photos. It only shows one of the two.

Regards

D.

Got the exact same problem here, some titles work well everywhere(including xbox one app) other’s work everywhere except in the xbox one app. Looked at codecs used, audio format used, they can be identical while still having this exact problem.

Unfortunately, Plex does nothing to look for adjust settings based on a 2D or 3D image playback.

This is something Xbox itself is detecting in either the video stream itself or the file metadata and changing it’s display back automatically.

I must admit that this seems strange since the same files downloaded to a USB drive and played with Xbox’s own media player work just fine. Logic suggests it is something in plex, or the lack of something possibly although I doubt that.

In my experience it is the files that have MultiView_Count: 2 in the metadata that seem to get converted to 2D. This data is normally contained in the MVC stream on the original bluray. Xbox one does have 3d bluray support so I think it’s trying to handle the content as the 2d portion of the mvc stream. So whoever ripped your Bluray should have stripped MultiView_Count: 2, because the MKV is not a MVC stream. If MultiView_Count: 2 ismissing from the metadata, Hsbs files play fine on Xbox One. If MultiView_Count: 2 is there, its converted to 2d, it’s amazing the Xbox one locks on to one side of the hSbS stream and applies the correct anamorphic stretch.

The plex server should be able to strip the MultiView_Count: 2 without transcoding. It’s not up to Plex devs to correct mistakes in the file, but it still should be possible for the server to correct the issue on the fly. Maybe a Dev could look into it. In the meantime you should re-rip your Bluray and make sure to strip out MultiView_Count: 2.

I cannot confirm the Xbox one built in player works fine. In my experiments, the same file with MultiView_Count: 2 gets converted to 2d whether its streamed from Plex, or played of USB with the built-in player.
The issue is entirely on the Xbox side.

This is my test with a mkv file containing a 1080p hSbS x.264 stream, AC3, and MultiView_Count: 2 in the metadata.
Plex server to PC Plex client, no conversion. Good.
Plex server to Xbox One Plex client, 2d conversion. Bad.
Plex server to Xbox One built-in player, 2d conversion. Bad.
USB stick, to Xbox One built-in player, 2d conversion. Bad.

This is my test with a mkv file containing a 1080p hSbS x.264 stream, AC3, and no MultiView_Count: 2 in the metadata.
Plex server to PC Plex client, no conversion. Good.
Plex server to Xbox One Plex client, no conversion. Good.
Plex server to Xbox One built-in player, no conversion. Good.
USB stick, to Xbox One built-in player, no conversion. Good.

Has anyone actually gotten this fixed? I’m still trying to fix this with a couple of files. I have done some experimenting, and the Multiview_Count does seem to be a reliable indicator of if the Xbox One will initially do either the 5-second and then switch to left only frame, or just do left only right away. However, it doesn’t seem to be the only thing, or something is getting cached somewhere.

First, multiview_count appears to be just how MediaInfo (and other?) tools seem to present the mkv StereoMode element of a video stream. (https://www.matroska.org/technical/specs/index.html#StereoMode). Regardless, if the element exists , regardless of what it was set at, it would only play back one side of an SBS. i.e. value 0 is “mono” which contextually I think equals a regular 2D video, and would work if it actually played that way, still presents only one half of the image full screen.

Now, using mkvpropedit, I first tried setting one that was at a value of 1 (SBS, left first) to 0. This caused the Xbox to do the 5-seconds then flip back thing, but only once. I then edited the track properties to remove the element altogether, which is how most videos, and all 3D videos that seem to work for me are set. This didn’t appear to do anything. I was back to just getting one half full screen (or merging the halves, the image seems too sharp to me to just be one half).

I’ve also killed and restarted the Xbox Plex app each time, and re-scanned the library where my 3D files are in the hopes of clearning any caching that might be causing the header to not reflect the new value. This doesn’t seem to affect anything.

This is the MediaInfo stuff of two videos that are 3D but which do not get shown as SBS by the Xbox One. The video without the MultiView settings is the one that used to have them, but I removed them from. Despite this, it still also has issues.

Video 1 (Unchanged, has problems):
Video ID : 1 Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : High@L4.1 MultiView_Count : 2 MultiView_Layout : Side by Side (left eye first) Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Duration : 1h 36mn Bit rate : 11.7 Mbps Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 23.976 fps Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.235 Stream size : 7.85 GiB (87%) Writing library : x264 core 133 r2334kMod a3ac64b Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=11 / psy=1 / fade_compensate=0.00 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=24 / lookahead_threads=4 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=0 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=7 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=crf / mbtree=0 / crf=18.7000 / qcomp=0.75 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / frame-packing=3 / ip_ratio=1.30 / pb_ratio=1.10 / aq=1:1.00 Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No DURATION : 01:36:12.684000000 NUMBER_OF_FRAMES : 138406 NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 8600257714 _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP : mkvmerge v7.3.0 ('Nouages') 64bit built on Oct 22 2014 18:53:34 _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC : 2014-12-19 07:14:40 _STATISTICS_TAGS : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES

`
Video 2 (removed StereoMode/MultiView elements from header, still has problems):

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames                : 4 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 2h 21mn
Bit rate                                 : 8 418 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.169
Stream size                              : 8.33 GiB (83%)
Title                                    : TitleHere
Writing library                          : x264 core 148 r2638 7599210
Encoding settings                        : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=10 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=24 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=60 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=17.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=62500 / vbv_bufsize=78125 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / frame-packing=3 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

`

Thanks!

Interesting, and good work. Unfortunately the problem is rooted in the Xbox One media player as Plex just is really just a wrapper for that player. If you were unable to manually fix a file by editing the header, then the Plex server would also be unable to “fix” the file on the fly.
My experiments with the new VLC UWP Xbox app shows it does not suffer this problem. So the problem will likely be remedied when Plex moves to UWP and plays files natively or wraps the media to the VLC player. In the meantime, I’ve given up on this issue and ignore the files that get converted to 2d and replaced them with fresh encodes that work properly.

@obveron said:
Interesting, and good work. Unfortunately the problem is rooted in the Xbox One media player as Plex just is really just a wrapper for that player.

Ah, interesting. I didn’t realize that was the case, although, in retrospect now that you mention it, that does make sense. I am really curious now what the XBone is doing to decide to do whatever it’s doing to flatten the video. Regardless, I guess I will just live with it for now, as well.

Thanks!

You can install Kodi on your Xbox One for viewing 3D SBS movie.

That wouldn’t be a sollution for me, the reason i’m using plex in the first place is it’s streaming capability since my server isn’t at my home. And i’m aware that there are some sollutions for kodi, but they have proven unreliable (there’s about 500km distance between me and my server)

One solutions to play the file with VLC, there if it works the SBS and the HOU.
The other solution is to convert them back to MKV but disabling multi view count 2
I do not know if the metadata edited will work.
But it has worked for me using a video converter.
In PS4 that problem does not happen.