Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156 (Windows 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 3600 + RTX 3060 12GB)
Player Version#:
Google TV: 10.30.6.4151 (Chromecast with Google TV 4k, on LG TV with Dolby Vision)
iOS 26: 2025.27.0 (iPhone 16 Pro)
Android: 2025.26.0 (Galaxy S10 Plus)
I’ve seen this over the last six months or so for all my videos recorded from my iPhone (13 Pro Max, 15 Pro Max & 16 Pro) with HEVC HDR (DoVi/HLG HEVC Main 10) enabled (not an issue for 4k 60fps HEVC w/o HDR). I tried disabling HW encoding but the result is the same. This was playing back fine probably before March 2025 updates
On Android & iOS Players: The video plays at the original quality but flashes every second with the black screen
On Chromecast Google TV app: The audio plays but the video comes up black.
Adjusting to play lower quality does not work either. Only on web, I see playback with downgrade.
When I checked other 4K media with HDR10 or 4k HEVC without HDR, the video playback works as expected on both TV and on mobile phones.
Is this a Dolby Vision support issue?? I couldn’t find any recent information in the boards
Thanks for posting the sample. My analysis is definitely amateur, while others may have a lot more insight.
Taking a look at your sample, the most likely answer to it not playing correctly is that there are some aspects beyond what each player supports. The Plex Support Articles are unclear on the maximums allowed for every player you listed, and we’d need to ask someone with inside knowledge to be sure. See also the forum topic answered by @tom80H
Main10@L5.2@Main for HEVC - Players might support L5.1 or L5.0 maximum which is a lower bit rate
DV Profile 8.4, HLG compatible - I’ve never had a HLG video play smoothly. I don’t know if only DV Profile 8.1 is the max supported.
Frame Rate Mode Variable - doubtful where it varies from 30fps to 60 fps.
Transfer Characteristics HLG - very rare. Most common is PQ
Mastering display color primaries - missing (commonly is Display P3)
Mastering display luminance - missing
Maximum Content Light Level - missing
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level - missing
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.2@Main
HDR format : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, Profile 8.4, dvhe.08.10, BL+RPU, no metadata compression, HLG compatible
Codec ID : hvc1
Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration : 13 s 367 ms
Bit rate : 50.7 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 59.850 FPS
Minimum frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.102
Stream size : 80.7 MiB (100%)
Title : Core Media Video
Writing library : HEVC
Encoded date : 2025-10-06 20:50:34 UTC
Tagged date : 2025-10-06 20:50:43 UTC
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : HLG
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
AmbientViewingEnvironment_Illuminance : 314.0000 lux
AmbientViewingEnvironment_Chromaticity : D65
Codec configuration box : hvcC+dvvC
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 13 s 367 ms
Source duration : 13 s 421 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 215 KiB (0%)
Source stream size : 216 KiB (0%)
Title : Core Media Audio
Encoded date : 2025-10-06 20:50:34 UTC
Tagged date : 2025-10-06 20:50:43 UTC
The other helpful bit of information you can provide is your Plex Media Server.log zipped up and dropped into the thread. It will show us the decisions that PMS is making based on the player capability (whether it is Direct Played, Direct Streamed, or transcoding, etc). My guess is your other DV videos that play smoothly have much more common technical specs. You could
Enable PMS debug mode
Disable PMS verbose mode
Restart PMS
Play this sample clip you attached.
In the hosted web appSettings → Troubleshooting → Download Logs
That makes for a concise clean log for the developers who might be interested.
I would encourage you use Mediainfo to examine a few DV videos that play well and compare the characteristics I noted above. Nothing wrong with you posting the output of one into a code block here to show where I was incorrect. Fwiw I would have expected iOS videos to play smoothly through Plex back to iOS but you know
Thanks for the quick check , attaching the log here.
I tried running videos on my iPhone (same app version), Google TV app (same app version), on LG TV (new, see version), and then on my Galaxy S10 Plus (updated version, see version)
An update: No frame flickering on the following, normal playback as expected
