Can anyone tell me why my 4k TV is transcoding 4k?

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: Version 4.34.3
Player Version#: Not sure what the player version is on the TV i can check if required

I make my own drone videos and I want to check them out on my big new 4k TV

The info on the left of the screenshotplex , is playing the video file on a 4k computer monitor through the plex web UI

As you can see it plays directly with no transcoding

When I play it on my Samsung Q80T 4k with the plex app installed, it has to transcode it and its buffering

Didnt think it would need to transcode 4k to a 4k tv?

Is there anything I can do to make it play direct play?

2

Try going to Settings Menu / Picture Setup / Advanced or Expert mode and enable HDR if it isnt already.

Don’t remember steps exactly, but pretty confident that is the path and resolution. I had a similar problem… My Samsung TV worked great with Samsung BluRay, but went sideways with Sony BluRay Audio system. CEC could turn on setting for per event basis, but couls not leave on. Sony system didnt do that.

Other than that, check connect link and make sure it can support bandwidth required by 4k video

3

Turn on “log to server” in the Samsung app, recreate the issue, grab the PMS logs and upload them here.

4

Hi I am not sure where to find this in the Plex samsung app I checked settings and couldnt see any “log to server”

Ive also been on the plex reddit section and fixed the issue . One person suggested check what my max h.264 level was set at
It was set at level 5.1
I put it at 5.2 and it plays fine now and with direct play, no transcoding

Google Photos

5

Yup, that will do it. If the video has a higher h264 profile level then what you have set, that will trigger a transcode.

6

Thanks
So thats fixed. its working pretty well now
On some files I play the audio transcodes. Is there anyway to fix this to? Prefer everything to be direct play but if not I guess its no huge issue. I checked the activity monitor during audio transcode and it was using very little cpu

7

If the audio is transcoidng that means your TV doesn’t support that codec. If you have your TV connected to a receiver, make sure passthrough is enabled. Even then, this would use ARC and the high end codecs are not supported with ARC.

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