4k Direct Play from PMS to Apple TV 4K

General Discussions
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1

Hi all

I’m having a bit of trouble trying to get AppleTV 4k to direct stream.

tvOS 12,

PMS 1.9.7.4441 on Windows 10

Whatever the latest version of Plex on Apple TV 4K is

The original file I was trying to play was MKV with HVEC and DTS. That refused to play because my server couldn’t transcode such a large file. I ran it through Xmedia Recode to change the audio to AC3 and the container to MP4 and everything direct streams, but the there’s no video displaying on the screen (projector.) Also, with the above format, the entire thing needs to transcode if the subtitles are SRT.

Apple TV is match-content enabled. I’ve added the following to my tvOS.xml file:

<VideoProfile container="mp4" codec="hevc" audioCodec="aac,ac3,eac3" subtitleCodec="mov_text,tx3g,ttxt,text" />

<VideoProfile container="mp4" codec="h265" audioCodec="aac,ac3,eac3" subtitleCodec="mov_text,tx3g,ttxt,text" />

<VideoProfile container="mp4" codec="h264,mpeg4" audioCodec="aac,ac3,eac3" subtitleCodec="mov_text,tx3g,ttxt,text" />

Any tips or direction would be AMAZING. I’ve read through the oodles of forum posts about this issue but I can’t seem to find a fix.

3

Holy moly. Thank you so much for the in-depth answer. I’ll have to play around a bit later but I’ll get back to you.

Also, are you saying that H.265 can’t be in a MP4 container, meaning that I will be able to play the files in an MKV container through Plex direct stream?

5

Is there a way to check the existing specs of a video file for the specifications you’ve mentioned? I’ve got MediaInfo but I’m unsure if it is actually showing me the RefFrames and Level. Also, when you mention bandwidth, do you mean changing that on the player itself? i.e. apple tv

7

Just to chime in.
I only use .mkv ever. The limitations with the ATV 4K are as @trumpy81 mentions.
The ATV 4K doesn’t do HD Audio at all natively.
On the plus side Apple announced that later in the year they are supporting Dolby Atmos…So hopefully that will lead to more HD Audio support.

Sadly however Apple also failed to mention whether Atmos will be available in all tvOS apps or just native stuff.

As a side note…I’m pretty new to tvOS and Apple in general so I was quite surprised to find out that Apple devices actually plays really nice with .mkv despite everything I have read over the years.
For the occasions when there is something in the file that doesn’t sit well then direct streaming if required, causes minimal CPU usage in Plex.

Add to that, that with 4K content there is at least a 10% improvement in picture quality on the ATV 4K compared to the Nvidia Shield (which is probably the most versatile Plex device available.)

I’m blessed with 3 really good clients for 4K HDR content in the Shield the ATV 4K and most recently my LG OLED.

8

Are you sure about this, the plex support pages state h265 and mp4 for 4K, see link

https://support.plex.tv/articles/203810286-what-media-formats-are-supported/

9

That support article is for Plex’s Smart TV app, not for the ATV. For ATV native support of media types, see thttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV#Supported_formats (4K is 5th generation).

10

Is there a way to change the Ref Frames and Level without re-encoding the entire file? I’m noticing that my HEVC 4k files are only 1 reference frame and my H264 are 4 or 5. I also noticed on the HVEC and H.264 Wiki page that 4.1 level doesn’t support 4k resolutions. Is this correct?

12

You mentioned 4.1 in your first reply. Which is compliant with Apple TV 4K? (I’d hope 5.1)

14

“You may only have H.265 (HEVC) in an mkv container.” IF you mean you cannot have HEVC in ANY mp4 container, you are wrong.
IF you mean Plex will only support it, you are wrong too.
I do HEVC all the time in an mp4 container via plex… then again I altered my tvOS.xml file to allow it.

15

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