4K Streaming Issues

General Discussions
1

I have been recently having “issues” with 4K playback/streaming…as in, it was working before without issues, any. Here is a run down of the equipment I have:

Plex Media Server/NAS:
HP Z800 Workstation with a LSI 9341 MegaRAID SAS 9341-8i (not using the RAID feature, better performance using Z-RAID within FreeNAS)
Dual Intel Xeon® X5650 @ 2.67GHz
QTY 6 - 4TB Constellation SAS Drives raidz2-0
QTY 2 - 120GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD’s - configured as cache (RAID0) and logs (RAID1)
96GB of 1333MHZ PC3-10600 CL9 DUAL RANK ECC
Integrated Dual Broadcom 5764 1GB Interfaces

Display - Sony XBR65X930D
Pre-Amp - Marantz AV7702mkll
Switch - Zyxel GS1910-24HP

Running FreeNAS-9.10.1-U4 on mirrored Lexar High-Performance microSDHC 633x 32GB

PlexPass PKG version 1.3.0.30.59 (Transcoding - Make my CPU hurt, Background transcoding x264 preset - very fast)

I have several Plex Media Players - 2 Gen4 Apple TV’s, 2 Gen2 Amazon Fire TV (4K), XBox One S, Gen2 Amazon Fire Stick, multiple iPhone, iPads, etc…

I am having zero issues with 1080p content, seems to work great…and the 4K WAS working on the Amazon Fire TV units…when I played the UHD content on the Fire TV, it would show “optimizing for 4K playback” which I understand, it was starting the HVEC support…worked amazing…this stopped about 2+ weeks ago…but I didn’t really change anything (except for software updates - which I think is the issue)…there were some software updates to the various pieces, but I did not test the 4K specific playback in between the various updates, likely a FreeNAS patch, Amazon TV upgrade (I think), and recently upgraded Plex to 1.3, but I was having these issues before the Plex upgrade. Most of the time I am getting the error “your server isn’t fast enough to stream this content, please adjust the settings”…BUT I no longer see the optimization message from the Amazon…it just starts playing the file…and lagging…then server warning, etc…I turned on the OSD for the transcoding…and was getting errors on various files, from unsupported Audio/Video formats, etc…from these files that used to play without issue.

I am thinking everything is pointing to the Amazon TV 4K unit, since I no longer see the optimization message, but I don’t know if there is a place to check the Plex logs to see if it isn’t optimizing because it can’t get the speed it needs, etc. I just ordered an Nvidia Shield Pro, since it would appear that this is kind of the Plex preferred 4K HDR preferred player. I don’t have a problem building a higher end player, but I can’t seem to find anyone that has built a 4K specific player that has all of bells and whistles. Had this never worked, I would assume it was a hardware issue, etc…but it initially appeared to be working great. Any ideas? Thank you.

2

You can check your PMS logs to see if it is transcoding or not. Search for MDE: or provide your logs fro us to review.

You can also check the AFTV2 logs themselves. https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201573117-Android-Android-TV-and-Fire-TV-Logs

3

Thank you, I will check the logs and let you know what I find. I do know for a fact is it transcoding the video, now…it shows up as 1080p on my Sony display, and with the OSD you can see it is transcoding and why…which it gives various messaged, from unsupported content, to server not fast enough…but like I said, it all worked before with the same hardware and files. Hopefully the logs will give me/us more insight as to what/why it is not properly detecting the 4K content.

4

Here are the log files from all of the devices…I did some tests with 4K files, all of which used to play on the Amazon Fire TV in 4K. When I used to start the files, it would say “optimizing for 4K playback”…now, no matter which of the 10-12 UHD files of various qualities I select, it does not recognize the 4K content as being compatible. I did try 4K content right from Amazon Prime on the same unit, and right away saw the optimization screen, and the display showed 4K. Please let me know what you find. Thanks again.

5

That was easy. Your Fire TV log says exactly why.

12-01 22:25:17.736 i: [video] Combination of size and frame rate not supported by device. Codec=h264, size=3840x2160, rate=59.88fps
12-01 22:25:17.740 i: [video] Maximum frame rate is 30.340740740740742
The Fire TV supports a maximum of 30 fps.

6

as @MovieFan.Plex said max 30 FPS. Here is some more details on the Fire TV

https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/fire-tv-4k-ultra-hd

Amazon Fire TV (2nd Generation) supports the following output resolutions:

  • 4K UHD at 24 FPS
  • 4K UHD at 25 FPS
  • 4K UHD at 30 FPS
  • Full HD (1080p) up to 60 FPS

Amazon Fire TV (2nd Generation) is expected to stay mostly in Full HD (1080p) mode at 60 FPS, even on TVs that support 4K UHD format. Fire TV (2nd Generation) switches to 4K UHD mode only for 4K UHD content playback.

The following frame rates are recommended when playing content:

  • For Full HD (1080p) and HD (720p) content, leave the device in Full HD (1080p) 60 FPS mode and use frame rate conversion from the content’s native frame rate (as in Fire TV - 1st Generation).
  • For 4K UHD content, switch to the nearest 4K UHD mode before starting playback. For example, switch to 4K UHD at 24 FPS to play 4k UHD content of 24 FPS or 23.97 FPS, switch to 4K UHD at 25 FPS to play content of 25 FPS, and switch to 4K UHD at 30 FPS to play content of 30 FPS or 29.97 FPS.
  • Initiate a mode switch only if the user enters the playback window or if the next title in the queue requires a different playback resolution / frame rate.
7

Hello,
Thank you for looking into the logs. I did review the specs on the Gen 2 Fire TV and after seeing the errors in the logs and pictures I posted, it would appear to have been a player compatibility ‘issue’…the odd part is, like I stated…every file, except for the X-Man one, was tested and previously worked in 4K, BUT, I would agree that the facts here in the logs and when compared with the specs of the unit, despite it previously working…it should not have. I did find one of the demo videos (Imax Pre Show Never Compromise 2015 4k) that did playback in UHD, but the 'optimizing for 4K video playback" did not pop up first…but the player showed it was player without transcoding on the video and audio, and the Sony display showed UHD. It is possible that the player is actually supporting these playback settings but they have chosen to limit it to the current specifications…and a software update could have ‘fixed’ the issue(s) that were allowing these out of spec files to play…??? We might never know, more importantly…is there some other device, other then the NVidia Shield Pro (since these are not easy to find new at the moment, but I have a used one coming from eBay)…something I can build or use, that would give me more freedom with UHD content and playback? and Intel i7 proc running windows/linux (with a specific video card, although I though I read that currently Plex does not support GPU processing?). A Mac Mini, RasPlex (which I can’t imagine has the power to handle UHD)…I have a relationship with Acrosser and have several developers that I work for me…we would certainly entertain putting together a Plex appliance player with a focus on handling high bitrate UHD and the more advanced audio formats (DD True-HD, Atmos, DTS-MA, and DTS-X)…which would be a bit easier with a more direct relationship with Plex development, but someone might already be working on this I assume? I quickly had a chance to meet with Plex Pro team at CEDIA in Dallas this year, but they were really too busy to have this discussion at the time, which is understandable, since they had a lot of dealers buzzing in the booth. :slight_smile:

I have spent a lot of time searching the web and forums, but I haven’t been able to find anyone that was really focusing on UHD playback, but it does appear that in terms of appliances, the Nvidia Shield Pro is currently top dog in the UHD playback support, but you have any suggestions for a link that I missed with some build specs for a faster UHD player, or you have some specs to share…please let me know. I think, given the limited UHD support of the Amazon hardware…I am not going to spend too much more time with it…although, it is one of the best UHD streamers (Amazon Prime, Netflix) I have tested/seen for the money. Thanks again…

8

@sneffets said:
Hello,
Thank you for looking into the logs. I did review the specs on the Gen 2 Fire TV and after seeing the errors in the logs and pictures I posted, it would appear to have been a player compatibility ‘issue’…the odd part is, like I stated…every file, except for the X-Man one, was tested and previously worked in 4K, BUT, I would agree that the facts here in the logs and when compared with the specs of the unit, despite it previously working…it should not have.
If by “player” you mean the Fire TV2, then yes. The device physically cannot handle 60 fps.
I did find one of the demo videos (Imax Pre Show Never Compromise 2015 4k) that did playback in UHD, but the 'optimizing for 4K video playback" did not pop up first…but the player showed it was player without transcoding on the video and audio, and the Sony display showed UHD. It is possible that the player is actually supporting these playback settings but they have chosen to limit it to the current specifications…and a software update could have ‘fixed’ the issue(s) that were allowing these out of spec files to play…???
The log doesn’t indicate the FPS for that video. It is playing back at 4K. Can you provide the XML output from PMS?
We might never know, more importantly…is there some other device, other then the NVidia Shield Pro (since these are not easy to find new at the moment, but I have a used one coming from eBay)…something I can build or use, that would give me more freedom with UHD content and playback?
4K video is still fairly new, despite all the hype the TV mfg’s are making about it. Even the Shield has it’s limitations.
and Intel i7 proc running windows/linux (with a specific video card, although I though I read that currently Plex does not support GPU processing?). A Mac Mini, RasPlex (which I can’t imagine has the power to handle UHD)…
The most versatile at the moment would be a computer running the latest Plex Media Player. Plex doesn’t utilize the GPU for transcoding, which is done at the PMS side, not the client end. Playback can utilize the GPU if your video card supports it. You can find more detail in the Plex Media Player section of the forum, https://forums.plex.tv/categories/plex-media-player.
I have a relationship with Acrosser and have several developers that I work for me…we would certainly entertain putting together a Plex appliance player with a focus on handling high bitrate UHD and the more advanced audio formats (DD True-HD, Atmos, DTS-MA, and DTS-X)…which would be a bit easier with a more direct relationship with Plex development, but someone might already be working on this I assume? I quickly had a chance to meet with Plex Pro team at CEDIA in Dallas this year, but they were really too busy to have this discussion at the time, which is understandable, since they had a lot of dealers buzzing in the booth. :slight_smile:
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