Apple Player Update Beta Testing - Archive

Plex Players Player Betas
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621

Okay, had a chance to test the AppleTV HD, and the “experimental player” can now be used to play HEVC content as long as the file bitrate is below 10Mbps. There is still a little stutter and catch up at the beginning of playback, like it’s buffering, but it quickly catches up and then plays normally.

Interestingly, it plays transcoded HEVC content better than direct play in some circumstances. Ie a UHD HDR file transcoded down to 1080p HEVC SDR @ 10mbps will play better than a 1080p SDR 10Mbps native file.

I have not seen any force to h264 like I briefly saw on the AppleTV 4k with the old player, so that may have just been a glitch.

I still think it would be a good idea to either force H264 or maybe cap the supported bit rate to 8-10mbps on these older devices, but it’s nice to see progress.

Thanks for the hard work and open communication!

622

Seeing issues HLG HDR content is not switching TV to HDR /HLG mode with match content (range & frame rate). In fact, it looks way over exposed.

On SDR only TVs, same over exposed image can be seen.

Tested with latest build 8.41(9420) on Apple TV 4K 2022.

Codec HEVC
Bitrate 14507 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Codec ID hvc1
Coded Height 2160
Coded Width 3840
Color Primaries bt2020
Color Range tv
Color Space bt2020nc
Color Trc arib-std-b67
Frame Rate 50 fps
Height 2160
Level 5.1
Profile main
Ref Frames 1
Stream Identifier 1
Width 3840
Display Title 4K HLG (HEVC Main)
Extended Display Title 4K HLG (HEVC Main)
1 Like
623

@Craig_Holliday

Did some further testing on the functionality of the subtitles and here’s what I’ve found.

  • SRTs look and function great via direct play or direct stream.

  • Mov_text work but are enlarge an enormous amount.

  • If there is an embedded mov_text and you try to play a SRT via open subtitles, it will play both the first mov_text and then SRT. This does not seem to affect external SRTs.

  • Transcoding subtitles does not seem to work/display anything.

2 Likes
624

I am going to unsubscribe from this. I’m getting too many emails a day and I am not in the position to test stuff right now.

625

I’m seeing some subtitle issues with the latest build.

PGS subtitles will skip showing the subtitle every 3-4 “slides” during continuous playback. If I go back 10 seconds and replay the part it will show the subtitle and then start skipping (not showing the subtitle at all until the next PGS slide).

PGS subs on Apple TV seem small and are at the very bottom of the screen, while SRT are a little off the bottom of the screen and larger (you seem to be aware of this already).

SRT external subs still show /i/ SUBTITLE HERE /i/ during the singing parts of the movie instead of italicizing the font. Happens on both iOS and Apple TV platforms.

Other than that the video playback seems good.

Edit: took out irrelevant issues I corrected by turning off “use old video player”

1 Like
626

Ahh, darn it. I fixed the iOS burning subtitles issue. Wasn’t using the new player! Not sure how “use old player” got selected.

Now I’m seeing that I’m missing the center channel of dialogue audio on my iPhone. I only get background noise/music from the movie. It is direct playing “Direct Play (English - DCA 7.1)” Seems to not downmix multichannel correctly.

PGS subtitles on iOS are huge! And the skipping every so many “slides” of text is still present on iOS as I see on my Apple TV.

IMG_0301.PNG
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SRT subtitles on iOS also show the < i > SUBTITLE </ i> as shows on my Apple TV. But sizing and placement is perfect.

IMG_0302.PNG
IMG_0302.PNG1040×481 54.3 KB

627

updated yesterday to the latest testflight version:

Apple TV:
Issues:
auto credit skip: will loop back and trigger the credit auto skip again on a loop (disabled for now)
subtitles: .mkv with subs : will show each sub multiple times on the screen, if you rewind, it will add it another time, until it reaches top of the screen then crashes. (burn in: auto, override: yes, burn in: always does help) Seems random, not always the same file.

iphone:
issues:
volume: voice volume on directplay 5.1 audio or more is almost non-existent, all other audio from the movie/show plays fine. file plays fine on Apple TV.

1 Like
628

I’m having the same experience here, only on Apple TV though.

629

Hi Rosemary, on what model ATV are you experiencing this behavior? Are you using the Testflight Apple Player Beta?

I’m being curious as I only use the Manually Skip

630

It’s model A2843 (4k latest gen with Ethernet), currently running tvOS 18.0.

The show I’m watching at the moment has the credits right at the end of the show which probably contributes to the problem.

1 Like
631

I’ve not been able to reproduce on my end, though I do have some shows, especially 90s sitcoms, that do not detect credits properly when they’re over picture. Modern shows and movies seem to be working as expected on my end with auto end credit skip.

632

I definitely have encountered the auto skip credits loop - though I can’t say for sure it occurs 100% of the time.

633

Posted in my own thread but seems no one has taken a look, but running the beta i just get the experimental player crashing/not working for any video, my log is: https://forums.plex.tv/uploads/short-url/eP2CVwvK1swzKrziaBEwkZ4I4te.log

1 Like
634

I’m also having an issue with improper downmixing. I can hear all the background audio crystal clear but no dialog comes through.

Seems to be happening on 7.1 DDP. I’m using ATV direct HDMI to OLED65C7P

Can also confirm Direct play from Plex

635

Oh… Cisco

I can also confirm 7.1 channel media will not play correctly to a TV as a sound source, 5.1 channel media works fine.

Cheers Pancho :wink:

636

Hi

I am also have same problem as Anqui3tas when it comes to using the latest test build on iOS. I have an iPhone 16 pro max on latest version of iOS. When ever I try to play any file via directplay with audio 5.1 or higher the voice volume is non existent. I can hear the background music fine but and voice audio doesn’t work.

I have latest test build on my AppleTV and everything is fine.

I tested an old file that only has 2 channel audio and that works fine on iOS plus appletv.

637

This isn’t directly related to the latest player update beta but wanted to post here to see if anyone else has run into this…when playing back on my iPad and having audio output to a pair of HomePod Mini’s, Plex transcodes everything.

Has anyone maybe seen this in the latest beta?

FWIW, it appears that Infuse direct plays when using HomePods without issue…

1 Like
638

What is the source codec and what is the codec it’s transcoding to?

Ie if the source codec is TrueHD, this is expected behavior as the plex players on Apple devices don’t support TrueHD at this time (it’s been in and out of various betas, but currently TrueHD is transcoded).

Infuse does play TrueHD and allows the AppleTV to output it as PCM (dropping any Atmos metadata).

639

Yes, aware that TrueHD isn’t supported. In my case, source audio is EAC3 5.1. Also tried another video with AAC 5.1 with same results.

Does it on my iPad 10th gen and iPad Mini 6th gen, but only when audio is streaming to HomePod Minis. When playing using the iPad speakers they both direct play.

640

Copy, so 5.1 audio is down mixing to stereo AAC when playing to 2 HomePods?