Is the Plex team only working on gimmicks or actually useful stuff?
The PS4, the Chromecast Ultra, Windows Plex Media Player and the Plex LG application all fails to play 4K HDR content. But hey at least I now can watch plex on my VR headset? All the new content I add is 4K and I cant play it unless I use a unofficial application for my LG TV (XPlay) whats the deal? Will the official apps be up to par with XPlay any time soon?
Or do I have to buy yet another device, like a Android TV thing to get 4K HDR, or does the Android App not support it either?
4K SDR and HDR are supported for those devices which will DirectPlay or DirectStream them.
For those which do not (e.g.1080p) or for those whose apps have not been 4K-enabled, 4K content will be transcoded down to 1080p.
The above assumes the server’s processor is capable of transcoding the content appropriately
The Plex app on my LG OLED B7, v3.13.16, plays 4K 8-bit, HDR10, & Dolby Vision just fine.
The Plex app on my Nvidia Shield, v6.16.0, plays 4K 8-bit and HDR10 just fine. No Dolby Vision, but that’s a Nvidia limitation, not Plex.
Running PMS 1.12.3 now, but also worked on earlier releases.
I don’t understand why you respond with devices I don’t care about. Either way, I cant get the official app (on my 2017 LG OLED) or chromecast ultra or my PS4 Pro to play 4k HDR which I think is extremely disappointing since it works with XPlay.
@ollebro said:
Is the Plex team only working on gimmicks or actually useful stuff?
The PS4, the Chromecast Ultra, Windows Plex Media Player and the Plex LG application all fails to play 4K HDR content. But hey at least I now can watch plex on my VR headset? All the new content I add is 4K and I cant play it unless I use a unofficial application for my LG TV (XPlay) whats the deal? Will the official apps be up to par with XPlay any time soon?
Or do I have to buy yet another device, like a Android TV thing to get 4K HDR, or does the Android App not support it either?
Super irritating.
If you review the posts of others, including some from devices you DO care about, I believe the common theme here is why you can’t play.
Clearly Plex supports 4K HDR. The question, more correctly stated, is “What issue exists which prevents you from playing 4K HDR?”
For that, I recommend you
Recreate the issue using the device which matter most
Capture the logs (Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs) 20 seconds after it fails to play
Open a thread in the appropriate forum with the ZIP file attached
So if understand this correctly. Only some devices that uses Plex can playback HDR? because I never manage to do it on my Win 10 PC. Where MPC- HC with MadVR slaps on the HDR nooo problemo, also using MPV
On Windows specifically never say never.
But right now no. It’s pretty much the same in Emby last I knew.
I did have it working on my HTPC but decided life’s far too short when there are other devices that do it out of the box and often better.
Does the player natively support it? (most important question)
Is it cabled correctly? (very important because not all HDMI cables support HDR)
Does Plex need to perform any video transcoding? (If video transcoding is involved, it will be converted to SDR on output)
There is an update coming for the transcoder which will improve all transcoding aspects.
We don’t know to what extent but it promises to be significant.
Browsers don’t support HDR unless you’re Apple Safari. Dedicated apps can access the display glass directly and gain access to the HDR IF it’s a HDR-capable glass. Otherwise, one is fooling oneself to think it’s HDR when it’s actually tone-mapped SDR.
PMS will DirectPlay (without any alteration) and “DirectStream” (convert audio only) all HEVC 2160p streams
The weak link is the player.
a. Does it have a HDR glass or is the glass 8-bit only (SDR) ?
b. Is the app configured for it? (they can if the player’s glass can)
PMS will convert HDR -> SDR as needed. The algorithm for bt2020 -> bt709 isn’t the best at the moment but that’ll change soon. (No, I can’t give details).
A lot of players will READ it and CLAIM they support it while siliently mapping HDR -> SDR on a display not capable of HDR. If this is the definition of "Support it’, then YES PMS supports it.
Direct Read/Render applications like VLC are different than PMS. Each is customized for its target installation platform. PMS is target agnostic.
So back to all my previous replies, define “Support it”; With Specifics please.
ChuckPA, I’ve been reading this thread and need to ask something. My TV is a Sony X950G. It supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, and Hybrid Log-Gamma. I also have a Nvidia Shield attached to a Denon reciever and then to the Sony TV. I am wondering should I be using Plex app on my TV as opposed to using the Nvidia Shield in regards to streaming 4K mkv files through the Plex app?
you can easily answer this for yourself, by simply trying it.
I can guess what will happen;
you won’t get HD audio through the tv plex app, which will likely cause audio transcoding, and inconjunction if subtitles are enabled may cause the video to be transcoded as well, which of course will likely cause all kinds of problems for you.
you should be able to direct play 4k to your tv app if you select a dolby digital/dts 5.1 or stereo audio stream.
