That’s frankly very condescending and uncalled for! But I’m not here to argue.
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Can’t have a debate or conversation without establishing baseline facts and in this case the difference between a workaround and a fix is a pretty important. Also can’t help if commentary explaining the difference and establishing that baseline offends you.
I did not realize it was possible to get Dolby atmos working in Plex. I used sickbeard_mp4_automator and didn’t get atmos in plex but got it in Infuse. The tool you linked got me atmos in Plex and Infuse. It now makes me wonder if the atmos I got in infuse was real.
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@johnblaze00
Questioning my experience has nothing to do with establishing baseline facts. Like I said earlier, I have no problem whatsoever calling this a workaround. If anything I’m inclined to agree. Lets just stay on topic and keep this conversation productive.
tvOS and iOS 17 support Dolby Vision profile 8 natively via AVPlayer, tested with bitrates up to 80mbps with no problem. I personally don’t have any lag with AVPlayer but I do get microstutters with mpv though. I have the newest ATV 4K.
If you have any such files, run them through Subler to get them tagged correctly and try again.
As far as my observations go, subtitles are tricky on Apple devices:
tx3g (mov_text) are the only subtitle formats that work nativey with Apple devices. They are also the only format that can be embedded inside mp4 files.
External SRT subtitles result in server-side demuxing but no transcoding. Plex says selected sidecar subtitles must be segmented.
I don’t have much experience with image subtitles like PGS, but I think they trigger transcoding / burning into the video.
Maybe you can shed more light on this.
Subler converts non-image subtitles to tx3g.
This is exactly what I’m talking about. Our files are already supported by the native player if tagged & used correctly. Plex can and should do this on the fly.
Same goes with Dolby Vision, even profile 8 with tvOS 17.
Infuse shows “multichannel” as opposed to “Atmos” with my AirPods Pro so something is not right with their implementation (eventhough the TV shows Atmos for some reason).
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If this workaround works for you then great. All the power to you. I can do similar things using ffmpeg or handbrake (and I have in the past for testing) that just Remux a file to mp4 and make my viewing experience worst (as mkv are a more powerful container than mp4)
Running thousands of my files through another app (like the one you suggested) or a handbrakecli/ffmpeg script (which is how I would do it as my main machine runs a fork of fedora) to make them work with AV player is not something anyone should have to do. MP4 is is worst file format for personal media as well as it doesnt support multiple subtitle tracks and audio channels (a lot of my bluray rips have a lossless track, Dolby track and director commentary which I’m a sucker for) I appreciate that it works for you and I’m happy you found a solution that does for you, but it’s quite frankly dumb to expect people do it, especially aunt sally or uncle Joe who just want to watch a file they have on their computer. Most of my files work without issue in VLC, Swiftfin, and my iptv app on tvOS on all three of my Apple TV 4K (I have every generation of 4k and for some reason the latest model is the worst in DV playback compatibility then the last two but there’s a thread 1000+ posts long discussing that and more over at fire core). Everything out there is basically SRT and PGS (or ASS if you’re an anime person which I also am)
This is also a very Apple only solution which doesn’t work great either because not all my devices are Apple and neither are the people I share my library with.
Most users use Plex to play their “personal backup” (and we know why that’s in parentheses) media which is NEVER EVER done in a way that’s supports the way Apple wants you to do things. Plex, as it advertised itself to be, should be able to play those files like they advertised they can but as this over 4 year old thread shows, it can’t.
If all you are doing is converting your files to make it work the Apple way what are you paying for Plex for? Vlc can index all your files from a smb share and so can other apps or just use Jellyfin for media management (which is better then Plex at it imo). Heck just use the computer app on your AppleTV.
Also as a side, atmos works without issue for me in infuse using my surround sound setup, beats fit pro and solo pro. Not lossless atmos but that’s an Apple thing, not a Plex or infuse thing.
I mean, this is a thread specifically about Apple TV and the Apple TV client, though.
Again, I get the frustration/anger at there not being a lot of forward progress from Plex (it very much does look like they’ve been just shrugging at the problem instead of fixing it) and that anger/frustration gets compounded every time you look at some other, smaller company (that you didn’t pay money to already!) somehow figuring out an all-purpose solution to the problems Apple TV users specifically are having.
BUT: The suggestions Ahmad are putting forward as maybe “a fixes most everything workaround” for Apple TV users are a much more useful, interesting suggestion to poke at, I think, than the standard fallback of pointing at other companies doing what we want Plex to do and asking “but why not us” after the 3rd or 4th year straight of being shown they don’t have any intention of ever doing that.
Your POV here isn’t really addressing the whole aspect Ahmad’s setting forth that this is a workaround specifically for Apple TV users, and it can be a client-side workaround on top of that, it’s not intended to be a All-Plex All-system workaround, nor is it supposed to be applicable to other clients in other formats. I don’t think he’s actually suggesting you run your whole library through subler and then add those files to Plex! Sure, you can do the myriad other things with other apps to arrive at the same result, but it appears to me (and this is what seems extra interesting/useful to me as a better workaround moving forward) that Ahmad is pointing out Plex for Apple TV can do all that itself; and that the team should focus more on figuring out how to make Plex work best with the native AV Player, instead of trying to force a larger “one-size-fits-all” approach that clearly doesn’t fit here the way Plex is implementing it.
Most users use Plex to play their “personal backup” (and we know why that’s in parentheses)
They’re actually in quotes. The parenthetical about knowing why they’re in parentheses is what’s actually in parentheses.
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Which I commented on as Plex isn’t an Apple only solution. This thread is about the fact the Apple TV app can’t play back anymore modern media files, not Apple specific ones but I’m glad you figured out the difference between a workaround and a solution quote master.
Again can’t have a conversation if the main point of this thread is being diverted from to fit a workaround
“ Plex is the key to personal media bliss. Once you download our free and easy-to-use software where you store your files (usually a computer or external hard drive), it takes care of the rest. Plex magically scans and organizes your files, automatically sorting your media beautifully and intuitively in your Plex library. Once you’ve downloaded our app on your favorite devices, you’ll be up and streaming everything in minutes.”
What you are doing/suggesting is literally opposite of what Plex describes the experience should be.
That’s the whole point. I use Plex on other devices as well as Apple TV. If I had only Apple TV and iPad then I wouldn’t even persist with Plex - it would be Infuse all the way.
Why should we have to modify media files to get them to play nicely with Plex on Apple devices? It’s been proven that there is no need. Imagine Plex but with the Infuse player engine. Marriage made in heaven.
All these previous posts do is encourage Plex to take their foot off the gas.
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Literally this and I don’t get how people don’t see that lol
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My suggestion is literally the opposite of modifying media files!!!
MKV files remain untouched on the server so other platforms can play them as usual.
I’m basically suggesting a way to play MKV files with Dolby Vision and Atmos using the native player by unpacking/demuxing the files locally on the Apple TV and spoon feeding the streams to AVPlayer (since it can’t unpack MKV itself).
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Your “solution” is to dumb down the experience and make it worst (which I’ve shown how mkvs are superior) and get Plex to remux and transcode the files locally instead of just making a competent modern media player. That actually sounds like more work and you may as well let your server do that which means we are back at square one
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You know, this thread has gone on for so many years and I’ve used Infuse primarily for the last few months. I can’t remember what the issues were with avplayer, but there ARE issues. I remember a time when we were switching between both players, and avplayer was severely lacking.
If your “solution” truly is a solution then I’m sure Infuse and Plex would have gone down that route instead of spending all this time writing their own players.
I’m sure someone will remember the issues and point us in the right direction soon!
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avplayer can’t direct play any .mkv files and has poor codec support. If you rip blu-rays it can’t do VC-1 or any HD audio formats. My library consist of high quality .mkv files (blu-ray and 4K UHD blu ray) so the avplayer for my use is severely underpowered.
Infuse is just in another league. Plex HTPC was my go to for a while but I started to run into frame glitches on some files. So it’s crystal clear that Plex at the moment has very little concern for being a powerful media player across any platform. I hope that changes in 2024.
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well if you look at their marketing now they are a streaming company and the thing EVERYONE who uses plex for, personal media management, is now a secondary feature that is available for plex pass users. they dont care lol
Yeah, Infuse rocks as a player (which is the most crucial aspect of any media player!). It’s definitely long overdue for a UI overhaul though. It was stunning looking when it was first released, but it’s definitely showing its age now.
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Yeah I guess it’s obvious but the optimist inside of me hopes this is temporary. PlexAMP gives me hope, Plex HTPC was doing the same but it started to drop frames on 4K files lately and introduce weird bugs into each new update.
If I was a conspiracy theorist I would almost think they were trying to sabotage personal media playback to push you towards Movies & TV Shows that they offer with ads smh.
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Wait, when did Plex hit the gas? I thought they were still adding layers of unwanted window tint… 
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That’s just it - I recently gave Plexamp a whirl and it’s impressive. Like REALLY impressive. If I had the patience to curate my own music then I’d be all over it!
So they are capable of making high quality stuff when it suits.
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have the plex devs tried asking chat gpt for help?
simply-- upload all your source code then ask it, “yo gpt, make this player work with apple metal, aight?” and bam, solution. Or you know, pay the infuse guys to come over for a week and fix it.
Please care about us, Plex. Please!
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