Hi I just got my first 4k TV a 65" Sony X900F. I don’t have any 4k content yet. I don’t even have a plex server setup yet. But I am able to get one of the older computers from work that has an intel i5 4570 processsor in it, atleast 8gb of ram. I would put a dedicated graphics card such as a gtx 1030 or radeon rx550 that would support 4k HDR in it if I had to. I currently have a fire stick 4k. My question is I keep seeing so much about direct play for 4k HDR content. I know my fire stick wont’ do it from what I have read. I have been thinking about getting an Nvidia Shield, or not sure if I could use my PS4 Pro for that? The next question I have about 4k direct play is I see that it looks like you need an audio system that can handle the audio that is being sent. I don’t have any audio system right now, might add a sound bar down the road but just using the TV speakers for now. Would it still be possible for me to direct play? I want to try to setup a media server and want to be able to handle 4k HDR content. Do I need a shield TV, or can I use my PS4 Pro?
Your 4K fire stick should be able to direct play 4K HDR if it’s in H265 codec. It won’t direct play TrueHD audio so try to switch to AC3 instead. If your server is powerfull enough it should be able to transcode audio only. TrueHD to AC3 is the key here.
well my server will be an i5 4570 so a 4th gen i5 and atleast 8gb of ram. I will also put a better graphics card in it if I need to but If I am doing direct play with the fire tv I shouldn’t need the better graphics card as the computer won’t be hooked up to the tv at all. So I should be able to direct play with H265, and possibly have the server transcode just the audio from true hd to ac3. But would it still play ok using just the TV speakers?
I am confident that this TV model will be able to play the audio but it won’t be optimal quality compared to a soundbar or home theater speakers. And here’s a list of audio and video codec the device supports, so try looking for a video file that have these codecs to direct play as much as possible. https://developer.amazon.com/fr/docs/fire-tv/device-specifications-fire-tv-stick.html. And a graphic card won’t change anything unless you plan to use hardware transoding with plex pass.
Correct.
A graphics card will be of zero help for your installation.
Transcoding video using a GPU, whether embedded in CPU or discrete, requires a Plex Pass. As you do not have a Plex Pass, all transcoding will be performed by the CPU.
Note also that transcoding 4K HDR in Plex is a horribly bad idea. When transcoding, Plex converts all video to H.264. Furthermore, Plex does not currently support HDR to SDR tonemapping. As a result, transcoded HDR material generally looks very poor, with washed out colors.
Yes, with the caveat that you cannot use subtitles when this happens.
On Android TV devices, including FireTV devices, when audio is transcoding, AND subtitles are enabled, the video will transcode. Plex does this to keep the video, audio, and subtitles in sync with each other.
Blu-ray discs with TrueHD audio also include an AC3 version of the audio track. You are much better off using the AC3 audio.
Yes. It will just sound like audio from TV speakers.
Good thread with additional information
I understand it won’t be optimal audio quality and plan on a sound bar eventually. I also would like to eventually get an Nvidia shield tv, the only thing that is holding me back from that is we use the food network go app and use an xfinity log in to access the food network programing, and right now foodnetwork.com/androidtv does not have xfinity as a provider so that would leave me using another streaming box just for food network.
The GTX 1030 is crippled by Nvidia. It does not support encoding in hardware. It would not be of much use with Plex.
For Nvidia, you’ll probably want a GTX 1050 minimum, as it supports H.265 video. Also, Nvidia limits their GTX cards two two simultaneous transcodes, so a higher spec’d card is not necessarily better.
Hacked drivers are available to remove the two transcode limit. If you use those, a GTX card with more memory may provide a better experience.
Nvidia Quadro cards, P2000 or higher, have no transcode limit. That may be an option as well.
See the Nvidia Encode/Decode Matrix for detailed card information.
Regarding AMD cards, do your research before using one with Plex. Some reports give them unfavorable reviews, both for performance and video quality.
Additional Information:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/
well it seems I am not going to be using the computer to do any transcoding of 4k anyway so I probably wouldn’t need it anyway. I am going to focus on getting direct play working with 4k content once I get setup.
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