AppleTV 4K A1842
tvOS: 14.2 (18K57
Plex app: 7.9 (21968)
Server Version 1.20.4.3517 is on Synology DS920+
LAN Connection
Attempting to play 4K movie: 3840x1600, 3.7GB MKV H.264, Bitrate 4.5
After starting the movie, it just sits on a black from. It will not play.
The same file will play, over WiFi, to my iPad Pro 12.9 and a crappy old 2012 MacBook Pro without any issues at all.
(File removed) (File removed)
I did do this. I saw the video instructions before I even had the Synology yet. I wanted to make sure what I was purchasing would be able to play 4K. It didn’t help.
There’s a YT video that give instructions on adding the VaapiDriver=“i965” to the Preferences.xml file.
There’s an even better How-To written by the Engineer who figured it out.
I DID see that the notes about media files. However, it was explained NOT to put media in the chief directory. See Here.
I will, thanks.
So… media files are moved to new location. Quadruple checked the the added code. 4K video still won’t play. Is there any other setting somewhere that needs changing for the AppleTV?
I change Home Streaming from Maximum to 40Mbps, 4K. It played, however it’s looks really bad. It fact I checked, and it’s transcoding it down to 720p.
The 1080p version plays at 1080p.
This is getting a little depressing. I just spent hundreds of dollars on this Synology because I thought there would be better performance than my 2009 Mac Pro since that wasn’t playing the 4K file either.
I look at the other stuff you mentioned tomorrow.
Here are the files requested. Followed the settings for ATV from the guide provided. If I switch video quality down to the 40/4K instead of at Maximum, the movie will play, but it get transcoded to garbage quality.
(File removed)
I downloaded Infuse app on the ATV: the movie played without issue.
It’s unusual for 4K video to be encoded with the H.264 codec. Did you encode this yourself?
I also believe that the Apple TV 4K only supports HDR when encoded using HEVC/H.265.
You might try with an HEVC/H.265 sample.
The 1080p version appears to be encoded with H.264 @ level 4.1, which is reasonable.
My concern is the 4K version. I’m not confident in the Apple TV 4K’s support for H.264 at higher resolutions, H.264 levels, or HDR.
I’ve got one, I can do some tests later if you don’t get this working. But it’s “weird” to have 4K video encoded with H.264.
The file I had was originally in H.265 format. It wouldn’t play in that format when my server was hosted on the 2009 Mac Pro. I thought it was probably choking on transcoding, so I changed the format in Handbrake to what I have now. I hoped something lighter would then play the file. It didn’t.
It should be possible to play 4K HEVC/H.265 HDR video to an Apple TV 4K directly, without transcoding. Do you still have the original file?
I am much less optimistic about a 4K H.264 HDR video.
Edit: Yeah, what he said.
I just replied to trumpy81 that I resampled because the H.265 wasn’t working. I didn’t know about the Preference code fix at the time. This was my first attempt at 4K because my previous TV was only 1080p.
I can’t argue with this being a bad file. However, Infuse isn’t complaining about it.
Infuse can play some things that Plex can’t. 
I agree with @trumpy81 that it’s worth taking a few steps back. Original file, figure out why it’s not playing, go on from there.
With Plex and 4K video and HDR it’s a good idea to avoid transcoding. It should be possible to play (some) 4K HEVC HDR video directly on the Apple TV 4K without transcoding. I do so frequently.
Thanks for the constant attention you put into this. I’ll give up on this file. It’s unfortunate I trashed the OG file. I’ll take another stab at 4K in the proper format when I have one.
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