4K Local streaming does NOT work

Plex Media Server
, ,
1

Server Version#: 1.32.3.7162
Player Version#: 9.23.0.1746 (80d0211) - on My TV
Plex Server: AMD Ryzen 7 (8c/16t) / Windows 10 / 16GB RAM / 2.5Gb/s NIC
Plex Storage: Synology NAS DS920+ / 4 HDD’s in SHR2 “raid” (WD Red WD102KFBX)
My TV: Sony Bravia X75K [VU3] (Android 11) - Using WiFi
Friends TV: Sony Bravia [VH1] (Android 10) - Using WiFi

I’ve been using Plex for 7+ years with no issues until I recently decided to get a 4K TV and started putting 4K movies on my Plex.

Whenever I try to watch a 4K movie on my Sony TV while on my local network it gets transcoded down to 1080p HDR. When I got into the “Playback Info” screen while it’s playing, the “Transcode reason” is “Resolution or bitrate exceeds maximum allowed”.
My friend who access to my Plex library is able to play this exact same move from my Plex server and it shows as 4K HDR.

For testing, I gave him the same file to put on his Plex server that I have on mine. When I stream this same file from him on my TV it shows as 4K HDR. He’s running his Plex server directly on his own Synology NAS.

I’ve tried plugging a network cable into my Sony TV to see if that fixes anything and nothing.

I’m at a total loss for what the problem could be.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I’m only having this issue when I stream to my TV locally. If I stream this same movie from my Plex server to my Gaming PC, it shows as a 4K stream no problems.

Edit 2: Forgot to mention that I have a Plex Pass account.

2

One the Plex server, check that the network interface is a private, not public, network.
Settings → Network & Internet. Properties to change.

Play something from your server on your Sony.
Monitor playback via Plex Dashboard → Now Playing + Expanded View.
Does the connection show as local, remote, or indirect?

3

Windows see’s my Network Adapter as “Private” versus

While playing a movie on my Sony TV, I can see that “Remote” bandwidth was 0 and “Local” bandwidth jumped up to ~40Mbps.

Edit: To clarify your point about the “expanded” view.

Plex server shows that it’s sending this movie to my “Plex for Android(TV) - BRAVIA VU3”
Video 4K (HEVC Main 10)
→ 1080P (H264) - Transcode

Audio: English (DTS HD MA 5.1)
→ OPUS - Transcode

Edit 2: same info for home PC
Plex server shows that it’s sending this movie to my “Plex for Windows - PC-Hostanme”
Video 4K (HEVC Main 10)
→ Direct Play

Audio: English (DTS HD MA 5.1)
→ Direct Play

4

Thanks for the info.

Check the settings in the Plex app.

  • Adjust Automatically = off
  • Home streaming = Maximum

Make sure this shows as a local connection (not just the bandwidth graph).

5

I don’t see “Adjust Automatically” but I do see “Resolution Switching” and it’s already set to off

Home streaming is set to Maximum.
Remote streaming is set to Unlimited.

6

Screenshot (713)
Screenshot (541)
Screenshot (681)

7

image
image298×288 27.7 KB

image
image931×537 175 KB

Same TV while streaming from my friends Plex Server.

image
image1574×918 99.7 KB

8

Not sure why it is transcoding.

The transcode reason suggests it is a TV limitation.

I don’t have a Sony, so not familiar with its setup menus.

Maybe review the TV set settings for something that would mess with playing HDR video.

One other thought…

Try this demo from Sony. It is straight HDR10. Put it in an Other Video library.

It is 60fps and runs at 70 Mbps. It might buffer, but it should direct play.

9

When I try to watch that from my Plex server: (New message this time)

image
image297×294 20.7 KB

image
image921×543 100 KB

When I try to watch that same movie from my friends Plex server.

image
image295×286 23.4 KB

image
image1594×943 87.4 KB

When my friend streams that test video from my Plex:

image
image293×289 20.4 KB

And now I had to do a Sanity check to make sure my TV still allows 4K from my friend : )

image
image285×337 31.3 KB

image
image1581×922 64.8 KB

10

This makes no sense. :angry:

Probably missing something easy, but dang if I know what it is.

Could you pull the server log files (settings → troubleshooting) and post to the thread?

Maybe they’ll show something.

Make sure the server is set for debug level logs (settings → server_name → general + show advanced).

Play Avatar from your server on the Sony for ~30 seconds, stop playback, wait one minute for server to log everything, then pull the log files.

11

Server logs were always enabled, but i enabled verbose logging, then waited about a minute, ran a 30 second test, waited a minute, and then downloaded the logs.

image

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-06-09_16-29-38.zip (2.0 MB)

12

He may ask you to get another set. Verbose tends to inject a lot of extra stuff into the logs which make it hard to read

13

well, here’s non-verbose just in case : )

Plex Media Server Logs_2023-06-09_17-17-50.zip (2.5 MB)

14

Looks like it might be making a generic decision because it does not have info on the media file

Jun 09, 2023 17:15:15.233 [10764] DEBUG - [Req#2fdee/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Required bandwidth unknown (media requires deep analysis) Changing decision parameters provided by client

If you are comfortable with command line I would run a deep analysis on that movie.

Info here https://support.plex.tv/articles/201242707-plex-media-scanner-via-command-line/

After you find the item ID ton windows the command would be like below where X is the item ID

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server\Plex Media Scanner.exe" --analyze-deeplu --item X
15

I’m very happy on command line : ) also, you mis-spelled deeply : ) Thanks for the suggestion.

While in the main directory, I ran the following command: “Plex Media Scanner.exe” --list
Which returned the below:
1: Music
2: Photos
6: ZZ-Long Form Content
4: ZZ-Movies
7: ZZ-Movies-4K
5: ZZ-Music-Videos
3: ZZ-TV-Shows

Then I ran: “Plex Media Scanner.exe” --list --section 7
I wont’ post all of the output, but it returned the following:
30217: Alita: Battle Angel
29211: Avatar
29212: The Way of Water

I then ran your command: “Plex Media Scanner.exe” --analyze-deeplu --item 29212

image
image760×57 1.61 KB

Not sure if something is supposed to display on cmd line or not. But I tried streaming it again on my Sony TV and it’s still being transcoded down to 1080p.

I was curious how this could be the problem but only for me streaming the movie from inside my own network. But thanks again for the suggestion.

Any other suggestions?

16

I think your friend has turned off tone mapping on his server, which allows the video to direct play. You have it enabled on your server, so that is triggering the transcode. If you turn it off, it should direct play.

If you want tone mapping, then check in the Plex for Roku app settings under 'Video" → "Maximum H264 level. Looks like you have it set to 4.2. When tone mapping, PMS will transcode to H264. Level 4.2 does not allow 4K. Raise that to 5.1 or higher and see if that helps.

Also, your logs still have verbose info. You have to restart PMS when you turn off a logging level, for it to take effect.

17

So the first thing i did today was go into my TV and change the H264 setting from 4.2 to disabled. Still getting transcoded to 1080p.

image
image1586×916 84.3 KB

Then I restarted PMS and my TV. Still transcoded to 1080p.

Then I disabled the following settings in my PMS.

image
image978×91 11.3 KB

Is this the correct setting?

And it’s still being transcoded to 1080p.

Here’s the logs from today.
Plex Media Server Logs_2023-06-10_09-41-56.zip (3.5 MB)

As a test I also enabled this setting, in PMS and now none of my 4K movies play on my TV.

image
image839×63 5.92 KB

18

Can you post the xml info for the movie? I’m seeing this in the log.

Streaming Resource: Reducing playback quality for 190476kbps

That’s a really high bitrate. Looks like your app has the local quality set to 20 Mbps. Since that video is so high, going from 190Mbps to 20 Mbps, there isn’t enough data to produce a 4K video.

19

Here’s the XML as requested.
Avatar.2.xml.txt (114.1 KB)

Here’s my quality settings for the App on my TV.

image
image1599×955 69.8 KB

I made sure that my TV is on the 5Gh’z Wi-Fi connection, and as mentioned in my original post I’ve also tried a physical ethernet connection with no luck.

20

Ok. Can you try playing again, then get the Android logs this time.