Using the latest beta player I’m getting buffering when direct playing 4K Dolby Vision + Atmos files again, this was working prior to the update. I previously had this issue but it was because I was using the wrong HDMI port - obviously not the case this time.
shield pro debug.txt (4.7 MB)
Anything else you can try to play on, java connection timeouts are not good, but that doesn’t seem like something in the code. You on wifi?
I don’t think so, the Shield is the only client I have that can reliably play any of my Dolby Vision+Atmos content. I have an Xbox Series X but Atmos doesn’t work well on it, and my Hisense TV transcodes the audio, won’t let me direct play even with audio set to passthrough.
It’s hardwired, everything is. I’ll re-test my John Wick movies I had issues with last time to see if they’re affected, but prior to the latest update - after I sorted out my HDMI issue they all worked (minus Hunger Games, I didn’t have it yet).
UPDATE Confirmed, Hisense TV wouldn’t even load the movie, just sat there loading with a black screen, Xbox would load the movie and attempt to play it, but it was a stuttery buffery mess and totally unwatchable. I switched HDMI ports so the Xbox could use the 2.1 port to test.
4K dolby vision and atmos is completely borked at this point (version 9.6.34175). Movies load and play for 30 seconds then begin to buffering and doesn’t recover. The logs below are from movies that did work previously. I’ve verified my HDMI is 2.1, 1gb ethernet and the files are fine.
shield logs dovi_atmos.txt (2.8 MB)
My 2019 Shield Pro is on public release v9.5.0.33736 and is working just fine.
I stopped using beta editions of all Plex products some years ago.
I was having this issue on the public release as well, I switched to the beta because auto play next wasn’t working, same with fast forward and rewind.
This only appears to be happening with remuxes, straight Blurays work fine. But even still, remuxes did work fine a few updates ago.
Effectively only happens on larger files with higher bitrate.
The movie I tried it on was a 4K BluRay rip, remuxed via MKVToolNix to remove the unwanted tracks. The overall bitrate is 58.5 Mbps
I’ll certainly try a few others and will report back, however have you tried remuxing a problem file using MKVToolNix? You will certainly get a cleaner version out the other side. Worth a try 
When I tried using MKVToolNix previously to clean up a file it completely removed the Dolby Vision layer. The overall bitrate of the files in question is 60 - 78 Mbps though I’d have to doublecheck, this is just based on my recollection.
I’m trying just a bluray rip of Hunger Games Catching Fire now (just HDR with atmos) and it still buffered for a few seconds, when it recovers the Atmos logo is displayed. It’s the atmos and the player, that’s the feeling I’m getting - but what do I know lol.
I provided logs that show when it happens for several files, so the client should be telling the story of what’s happening here. I just don’t know what I’m looking at.
My setup never changes (since it was confirmed working), and it was working previously for these files.
Ah ok, so this implies Dovi is not the issue… I presume your system is capable of full fat TrueHD Dolby Atmos?
Unfortunately the fact that “it was working previously” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s Plex, and to be fair, depending on what kit you have, it may be regularly changing with Firmware updates for the TV, audio device, the Shield itself, and there is also a possibility of degrading HDMI cables…
Reading back through your posts, you haven’t mentioned what audio gear you are using?
Sorry, I should have done this from the get go for context. I keep referring to my “previous issue” without linking to it.
Yes, fully capable. I’ve got the 2019 Shield pro, Hisense 55u78G Smart TV and a Samsung hw-q950a soundbar all of which support Dolby Vision, Atmos and TrueHD.
I get what you are saying here, but firmware updates for my devices require user interaction to complete, and the only one that has had an update lately was the Shield with experience 9 where playback was still working. HDMI 2.1 cable is brand new and the stock one is in use with the soundbar which is brand new.
Thanks for the clarification on the equipment…
I have looked through the log file from your opening post, and cannot see anything obvious in there, although I also am not sure what I am looking for other than obvious errors.
This should never happen, and certainly doesn’t when I use it, and I remux EVERYTHING myself.
The only time I can think that this might happen might be on an older style BluRay rip where the there are 2 video tracks, the primary being the largest and is the HDR10 version, and then there is a 1080p track that contains the DV content… However Plex wouldn’t actually recognize the 2nd video track anyway.
And so as long as the rip is good, remuxing it with MKVToolNix should never remove the DV info.
As an experiment, could you please post the MediaInfo of a problem file, then copy it to one side and remux it with MKVToolNix, and then post the resulting MediaInfo ?? I would be very curious to see why that is happening.
As an example, here is the MediaInfo of the file I retested yesterday, and to prove the point I actually re-watched the entire film earlier this afternoon, without any problems…
Video:
Audio:
Unfortunately beyond suggesting a remux, the only other thing I can think to help is to ask are you sure the file is Direct Playing, or is it Transcoding?
Thank you for putting in the effort to help, it is appreciated.
I did go back to the latest stable version of the client on the Shield, just to completely rule that out since you’re not experiencing this issue. I’m positive it’s direct playing, I’ve verified via Tautulli.
I’ll need some time to remux a file and get the mediainfo. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to it tomorrow and report back.
When I put this file through mkvtoolnix the media info came out identical, mind you I’m not sure what I’m doing with mkvtoolnix - so I literally just put the movie in as input and hit start multiplexer.
@BigWheel Any chance you could take a look at the logs above to try and determine if this issue is with my files or the Shield? Just to be safe, the previous HDMI 2.1 cable I got was cheaper so I did get an “8K certified” cable yesterday just to completely rule out cables and ports.
I just re-read this so I could check that I was using mkvtoolnix for it’s intended purpose. You were using it to remove unwanted tracks, but that won’t do much for me if there are no “unwanted tracks”… I just want the file to play as-is for wider compatibility (I share too). So the DoVi with HDR fallback is required for me, same with the Atmos plus additional audio track.
I’ve copied the same movie to an external ssd, I’m going to try and play the vanilla file straight through the USB port on the Shield, if it’s the file - I imagine I’ll have problems playing it.
So your movie isn’t a “native” DoVi movie. It looks like the RPU data was extracted from a DoVi Profile 5 version and injected into the HDR10 version. If the frames aren’t identical between versions, there could be decoding issues.
I know this because this movie is only released in either DoVi Profile 5 or HDR10, but not both. The 08.06 profile also tells me this as well.
It’s a remux, played beautifully in Kodi off an external ssd.
It doesn’t actually matter that that you didn’t make any changes in MKVToolNix, as long as it successfully outputted a new file without error, then it would have essentially remuxed it, giving you a clean copy, or at least “a known clean copy”
You can prove this when you check the MediaInfo of some files and they might now show the correct language against the various tracks.
When that happens, you can remux with MKVToolNix and correct the language selection at the same time.
Obviously if you share this with external users, you are going to have to ensure you have adequate upload internet bandwidth to ensure that other users can Direct Play the file, AND they have to have adequate download bandwidth as well… If either of those are not true, then you are now into Transcoding 4K territory, and your server will need to be pretty lethal do be able to do that.
And with the bandwidth, although the “Overall bit rate” is 78.6 Mbps, it will very likely have been encoded using VBR (Variable Bit Rate) and because of that, I can guarantee that parts of the movie will likely peak well over 100Mbps. These will be the very busy scenes where the entire screen is changing with every frame. Scenes with smoke are like this, or a scene where the entire screen is panning from one direction to another, say left to right.
In regards to HDR10 fallback, that “should” work on clients that don’t support Dovi, as long as the video track is also HDR10 compatible, which your example appears to be.
However Plex doesn’t “fallback” audio… If the client cannot support the currently selected audio track, it will trigger a transcode, although if the end user was to manually select the additional NON Atmos track, then that should be OK, so long as all other parameters are OK, such as bandwidth etc.
Ah ok, thank you for the information there. I believe I still have the re-remuxed file (been reorganizing) but I’ll do it again to be sure and try that file out as a test.
I’m only sharing my 4K media with users I’ve personally worked with to ensure they have appropriate bandwidth and settings configured in Plex (direct play, original quality, etc). This on top of my 10GbE fiber internet, there’s no issue there.
Bitrate I don’t see being an issue, unless there’s a “cap” that Plex tries to keep things within - which I would hope is not the case. I only threw bitrate out there because of something I saw in the logs of my original post which no one said anything about - so I assume it’s not an issue, I was just trying to figure out what I needed to fix if it needed fixing.
It does, works wonderfully!
Not a problem, I have atmos for me and anyone else with a capable receiver - but that’s why I keep the ac3 5.1 audio as well, for anyone doing 4K without the atmos. As much compatibility as possible.
With this all being said, I’ll run the movie through mkvtoolnix again and see if it plays in Plex - it “should” as I said the file plays just fine, DoVi, Atmos and all just straight through Kodi.
Thank you again for taking the time to explain some of this to me. It’s very much appreciated. I’m completely okay with there not actually being an issue with Plex itself lol - I just to know what is needed to get the files to play properly… Nothing worse than getting immersed in a movie only to get the spinning wheel of death mid-sentence or when something exciting is happening…
10GbE internet??.. Wow 
No, there’s no cap on Plex unless you have configured it on the server side.
Only reason I mentioned this was because many people don’t understand the concept of VBR and so I find it important to point out that there are likely to be peaks well over the stated bitrate that MediaInfo shows. However with your internet connection, indeed not a problem.
I guess I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to solve your problem, and we might need a Plex bod to look at your logs.
Good luck 
lol yeah, I got luck with my ISP here. It’s not symmetrical, but 1.5Gb down and 985Mb up - can’t complain with that.
I was pretty sure this was the case, and is uncapped server-side.
I’m running Catching Fire through mkvtoolnix and will try it again in Plex because I really want to know lol. I’ll also double check the movies I’ve already successfully played and see if they still do play successfully - I imagine they should.
You’ve at least given me some good information and things to check out. I did poke a dev earlier about the logs, they either haven’t seen it or just didn’t get to it yet. Either way, if it’s Plex that’s the problem - I’ll definitely be a squeaky wheel lol.
