4k on Android

General Discussions
1

So, I went and bought myself a 4k tv, as one does.

 

It runs Android 4.3, and despite the lack of app store, I could grab the plex apk, and install it.

It works reasonably well for the most part (although i miss the move left to go to next episode on osx), but I can't seem to get it to play 4k.

 

Seems like Plex is re-encoding it to 1080.  If I turn on media info, on playback it either stalls/stutters or shows 1080. I've tried with directplay and without, with new encoding method and old (using latest PMS), just doesn't seem to work.

 

If I copy some 4k content to usb, and play in a native player on the tv it works ok, so Android is definitely seeing the resolution.

 

And yes, they're definitely 4k files.

 

Any tips or suggestions.

 

 

2

I have a feeling there isn't 4k support for the android app yet. 

There is not that much 4k content yet. 

3

Can you go into the item details in Plex Web App, hit the "i" info button on the left, and then copy the media info out of the window you get? Also, what do you have set as the local stream quality in the Android app?

I have one 4k test file myself and it played fine on my Android phone, but the phone is only 1080p, so it necessarily transcoded. I'd not be surprised if the profiles and such don't support 4k content yet. I'll go ahead and get it reported internally, though no idea when anything might get done about it.

4

I would be surprised if any of the devs have a 4k TV already...

And if they do... finding a way to get android to output to one of them in native 4k would be another hard task.

A simple HDMI won't do it unless it is one of the newer standards of HDMI 

5

The *tv* itself has android built in.  The entire UI is android based. ( I believe it presents a framebuffer device to android, but i haven't really checked, as I haven't rooted it or tried to get adb going on one of the usb ports )

Android itself on the tv is 4.2.2 (not 4.3, I gave incorrect info above)

Resolution 3840 x 2160

Quad core + quad gpu (mali 450 I think), 8g ram, 32g flash - rather basic given the newer 4k tv's here are 8 cores now, but it was cheap.

I couldn't wait for hdmi 2, this one is only hdmi 1.4 (so only 24 or 30fps @ 4k).  I don't think the panel can do more than 40fps as the TCON tops out about that.  The chipset controller can't do more than 30fps anyway as it only supports hdmi 1.4.  Not so worried about that, I can always buy another one next year in a larger size.

I paid the equivalent of $500 (2999RMB) for a 39" 

TV url here - http://kktvmall.com/Home/P39K/ for those who read chinese or google translate "badly" hehe.  

Again, I can play these 4k files using a native player within android on the tv, and they play fine *and* in 4k, so its not Android.

I'm using the built in player, not sure what its called in english, but its android based.

PMS version is Version 0.9.9.5

PMS side, transcoder is set to automatic.

Android version is: 3.2.4.87 (DEV)

Android side, I have Direct Play and Direct Stream turned on.

Quality over local network Maximum

Use new transcoder On (have tried off, makes little difference except less files play overall)

Just doesn't do 4k.  If I turn on Display Information overlay,  I see it shows

Video: transcode

audio: direct

Size: 1440 x 1080 (on a sample stutter file).  Seems all files that stutter show varying sizes.

The ones that don't stutter, show DirectPlay, but no resolution info, and are not visually playing back in 4k (compared to playing the same file on a built in software player on the tv)

Sample info for data that stutters:

MEDIA
  • Video Resolution 8kp
  • Duration 0:10
  • Bitrate 6973 kbps
  • Width 4096
  • Height 3072
  • Aspect Ratio 1.33
  • Container MP4
  • Video Frame Rate 24p
  • Optimized For Streaming Yes
  • Has 64bit Offsets 0
FILE
  • Accessible Yes
  • Exists Yes
  • Duration 0:10
  • File /nas/Video/4k/Lightbulb (4K Resolution).mp4
  • Size 8.32 MB
  • Container MP4
  • Has 64bit Offsets 0
  • Optimized For Streaming Yes
AUDIO
  • Codec AAC
  • Channels Stereo
  • Bitrate 144 kbps
  • Bitrate Mode VBR
  • Codec I D 40
  • Duration 0:10
  • Profile lc
  • Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
VIDEO
  • Codec H264
  • Bitrate 6823 kbps
  • Bit Depth 8
  • CABAC 0
  • Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
  • Codec I D avc1
  • Color Space yuv
  • Duration 0:10
  • Frame Rate 24.000 fps
  • Frame Rate Mode cfr
  • Has Scaling Matrix 0
  • Height 3072
  • Level 5.1
  • Profile high
  • Ref Frames 1
  • Scan Type progressive
  • Width 4096
6

I see a new version of PMS is out, so updated Plex to 0.9.9.6, same result as previous versions.

7

There's either two things happening here:

  • The Android application is thinking that it can't Direct Play your 4K file and is requesting a Transcode
  • The Android application is trying to Direct Play your 4K file, detects a failure and then requests a Transcode

The easiest way to determine if the application can handle the file is to do the following:

  • Go into the application's Settings
  • Select Device Media Profile
  • Change to "Force Direct Play"

This bypasses the step where the application checks to see if it wants to Direct Play the file. It if detects an error, it will still try to fallback to transcoding it instead. With this setting enabled, does the file Direct Play or does your server still get asked to Transcode?

Thanks in advance

Ian

8

Bit of a late response, but it seems to be working properly for 4k playback  in the newer Plex versions 

eg working on this combo plexmediaserver_0.9.11.5.774 / Kepler-plexpass-3.8.0.292-(e7f0c840).apk

Would be nice if Plex showed the resolution info in playback vs displaying:

Player: Native

DirectPlay

However it does appear to be working better now - no stuttering or plex crashes :)

Next up, testing h.265 playback (pretty much all the chinese 4k tv's support h.265 natively now).  

9

Well, its a no for the h.265 playback via plex on the tv using the 4k hevc files from here - http://www.divx.com/en/hevc

(via force directplay, without force plex wants to re-encode at 1920x1080)

Oh well, at least we're halfway there now!

Media
  • Video Resolution 4K
  • Duration 12:14
  • Bitrate 10229 kbps
  • Width 3840
  • Height 2160
  • Aspect Ratio 1.78
  • Container MKV
  • Video Frame Rate 24p
10

Have you looked at the XML profile used for your TV?

Maybe you just need to edit it a bit (make a copy first of course).

Carlo

11

Also, do some research on your TV to find out if the H265 support is through software decoding or hardware decoding.  Plex needs to use hardware decoding.

12

Hardware decoding, its built into the chipset.

Still have to download a few more videos for testing - while there is a fair amount of 4k stuff its mostly Korean music video's, which aren't my favourite thing to watch.

13

Have you looked at the XML profile used for your TV?

Maybe you just need to edit it a bit (make a copy first of course).

Carlo

Since he's using the Android Plex App the XML is going to be the Android.xml.

However, that is mostly for reference when it comes to playback capability.  You can normally only modify things that will affect what a device can transcode to.  The choice to transcode is handled on the application side.

So you should be able to modify the resolution that the serve will transcode into by modifing these lines in the Codec Profiles section:

       
       

to

       
       

But unless the Dev's add in a check for H265, possibly a box like they have for AC3/eAC3/DTS there isn't really a way to force h265 without selecting the 'Force Direct Play' option.  As Ian mentioned above if you're doing Force Direct Play and the app is still transcoding then the app is detecing the playback failing and fallingback to transcode.  Modifying the profile with the above change will let you keep your resolution on a transcode, but won't really fix the h265 not playing problem.

14

is the Mali-450 GPU Supported by plex for android?

15

Shouldn't matter - its hardware playback, vs software.  As long as Android has the driver support it works.

I should add, I have a couple of 4k tv's now, with different chipsets. 

Current one I'm using is PowerVR SGX 544MP display chipset.

Tried the latest Plex ( Kepler-android-3.9.1.306-388824f2.apk )  get a reboot now on 4k playback, or freezes / stuttery playback, so its broken since the last release I tried that worked ( Kepler-plexpass-3.8.0.292-(e7f0c840).apk ) on this particular TV.

16

I’ve tested the mali-450 on a chinese (cheap) tv box. very stutery. But when I used the option to play with another player i chose Kodi the movie played complete smooth even the server stopt transcoding. what is going on in the plex for android app? but when I played the same movie on my samsung S4 or S6 no problem, very smooth. So tested again with the mali-450 and again stuttery movie and the server is transcoding. so there is something in the hardware which is not supported I guess

17

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