Firestick 4k Max Audio but no Video on certain movies

Plex Players Streaming Devices
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Server Version#: 1.29.2.6364
Player Version#: 9.12.2.36964

Primary Issue: Audio but no video, also I can’t see my Plex app controls or any other menu when this issue occurs, just a completely black screen with audio playing.

Hello there!

I recently set up my PMS and everything has been going swimmingly until now. I set up a brand new Firestick 4k Max for my TV in the living room, which is a Samsung UN75TU8000FXZA which I also have a sound bar/sub plugged into via HDMI.

The issue arises when I try and play, currently, 2 specific movies I have on the server through the Firestick 4k Max, however, if I go back to my smart TV home and run the native Samsung Plex app those same titles play without any issue. No black screen with only audio and no real issues at all. The only reason I want to use the Firestick is because my ethernet port on my TV is limited to 100Mbps which obviously isn’t going to work out great trying to stream 4k movies, even locally. I have gigabit fiber internet, so network speeds aren’t an issue and when I performed a speed test on my Firestick I am getting >250Mbps down on WiFi.

Any help to resolve this audio no video issue would be greatly appreciated and I’ll be happy to provide any information as well, I wasn’t sure what to provide since it’s a very isolated issue and seems to be only a problem with the Firestick 4k Max.

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Internet speeds do not matter when streaming locally.

The TV’s Wi-Fi will be faster than the 100 Mbps Ethernet port. Use a 5 GHz channel and you should be able to stream 4K movies locally.

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@FordGuy61 do I need to bother doing that if I’m using WiFi on the Firestick? The FireStick is connected to my 5 GHz already and doing great on speed. Ideally I’d like this to work with the FireStick because I want my remote users to be able to have a worry-free viewing experience, they’re older and won’t be able to troubleshoot anything properly so I’d rather try and avoid this entirely if possible.

Thank you for your response!

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The way I read your first post:

  1. FireStick, Samsung TV, and Plex Server all local.
  2. The only reason for using the FireStick was the TV’s 100 Mbps Ethernet port inability to support 4K HDR video streams…
  3. When using the FireStick, two specific videos do not play correctly.
  4. When using the Samsung app, the two specific videos play correctly.

Hence, my suggestion to use the TV’s Wi-Fi connection, as it is faster than the 100 Mbps Ethernet port.

That a) simplifies playback (one device & remote); b) plays all media; c) eliminates network speed issues.

Did I misunderstand? Are the FireStick/TV remote from the server? Is the FireStick preferred over the Plex Samsung app?

Just want to make sure I understand things. Don’t want to give you incorrect advice.


Regarding the videos and FireStick, is there anything different about those two videos than the rest on your server - video or audio formats, container (mkv/mp4/etc)?

When playing the videos on the FireStick, if you force a video transcode is the video visible? Pull up the on-screen controls, three vertical dots on right, Playback Settings, change the quality to a lower level to force a transcode.

Can you pull the XML info for each and attach it to the thread. Save it as .txt files. The forum does not support .xml attachments.

There is something about those two videos that the FireStick does not like. Just have to find out what that is.

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@FordGuy61 Yes all of my devices are local, I have multiple devices within the house and it seems that these 2 videos are the only problem. I have switched the TV over to WiFi now and I am experiencing buffering while trying to watch, video is Direct Play and it’s transcoding my audio but CPU usage on the server is showing that PMS is using some but not much (assuming because audio transcoding isn’t as resource intensive as video transcoding). The audio transcoding is fine with me, especially since it’s barley noticeable on my CPU usage, however, I’m not sure why I’m getting buffering over local network direct play with my TV now on WiFi. My wireless source is about 5" away from my TV and when I run a speed test on my laptop from about ~15’ away I can get >250Mbps so I would imagine the TV should be even better since it’s so close. I did a google search of the max WiFi speed and from what I read, it should have plenty of speed to work for this.

While I was planning on using the FireStick to circumvent the hard wired TV issue (for local playback), my remote users all have FireSticks so I’d ideally like this to just work so they don’t have any issues or any movies that “won’t work” for no good reason. I don’t want to have to have everyone get a different streaming device when it seems like this just shouldn’t be an issue, but maybe my expectations are too high. What should my playback bitrate look like when streaming locally? When I had the movie going on my aforementioned TV and I pulled up the dashboard it showed it at 113Mbps, however, when I just ran it on my laptop (which forced a transcode because my laptop doesn’t do 4k) it showed it at 10Gbps. I also got stuttering when it transcoded down to 1080p locally. I didn’t think I would get much issue with stutters playing locally, but maybe I misunderstood something.

I just adjusted the local streaming bitrate down to 20mbps 1080p and it does appear to work properly, I can see the video and hear the audio. Still getting some buffering on playback though. So it appears it’s the video codec that it doesn’t like? I just don’t understand how my TV would be able to do it but my brand new 4k Max FireStick wouldn’t be able to… What would be the appropriate format so that I can avoid this?

I’m going to restart my router and see if that fixes these buffering issues, as it seems that must be a WiFi issue and possibly not a Plex issue. My primary router and my ISP router are close to each other so I may need to completely disable my ISP router or shut off broadcast if they’re causing too much interference. I also am going to be hard wiring my PMS soon, I just need to get up in the attic and run the wire through the walls.

I have attached the 2 XML info files you requested, and thank you so much again for your help with this.

xml info.txt (164.5 KB)
xml info 2.txt (78.5 KB)

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Thanks for the info.

Your Plex Media Server definitely needs to be hardwired if you’re going to stream 4K HDR rips/remuxes.

The bitrate shown in the Plex Get Info screen or by MediaInfo is an average over the entire file. The actual bandwidth varies base on how much motion and changes exist frame to frame.

Plex measures the bandwidth at several points in a media file. This is shown in the xml files as requiredBandwidth.

Top Gun Maverick: requiredBandwidths="122476,97458,91734,88585,88096,87742,86039,85018"
Top Gun: requiredBandwidths="97734,85222,80136,77383,76352,75355,74125,72879"

As you can see, Maverick bursts over 122 Mbps at one point, well above its average of ~73 Mbps.

Pushing this much data with both the server and client on Wi-Fi can cause buffering problems. Moving the server to a wired connection reduces the amount of traffic on the WiFi network by 50%.


Second Issue: Total Number of Tracks / Media Curation

Top Gun has 55 total tracks. Top Gun Maverick has 41 total tracks.

You should remux the files, removing the unnecessary audio and video tracks. MKVToolNix is a good tool for such things.

This will avoid a Samsung limit and further reduce the bandwidth required to stream media.

Samsung TVs have a limit of 30 total tracks in a stream, video + audio + subtitles. If the limit is exceeded, Plex Media Server must remux the file to get below the limit. Furthermore, under certain conditions (remuxing + subtitles) it can lead to video transcoding.

Removing the extra tracks also reduces the bandwidth required to direct play the media.

When Plex direct plays a file, it sends it unaltered to the client. So, when you watch Top Gun, even though you are only using three tracks (video/audio/subs), Plex sends all 55 tracks to the client.

In Top Gun, removing all audio tracks except English TrueHD would reduce streaming bandwidth by 10 Mbps. Removing all but the English PGS subtitles reduces bandwidth by another 2.5 Mbps.

Obviously, if you need multiple languages, keep the ones you need, but strip out the unnecessary audio and subtitle tracks.


Do both devices provide Wi-Fi service? If so, make sure the Plex server and clients are connected to the same WiFi router/network.

Also, if both devices are functioning as routers, it can lead to problems with remote access. It can put you in a double-NAT situation, which will cause remote access to fail.

If your network is like most, it is something like: Internet <—> ISP router <—> personal router <—> devices.

With that type of setup, only one device should be routing. The usual approach is to disable routing on one of the devices, placing the ISP device in “modem mode” or placing the personal router in “access-point mode.”

A video or audio transcode forces Plex to remux the stream. That may be why the video is visible. The buffering could be due to the CPU/GPU load of transcoding & tonemapping 4K HDR or due to the server being on WiFi (as discussed above).

Strip out the unnecessary audio and subtitle tracks and see if it helps.

I’m not sure you’ll get rid of the buffering until you hardwire your Plex server. However, you should be able to play the video through the FireSticks.

1 Like
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I kind of had a feeling that would be the case, I’m going to try and sort this out today so I can put this issue to bed.

I will also be sorting this out today, as well. If that’s all it’s going to take to fix it, then I’ll just run this on all of my current media while it’s in my library and strip out the unnecessary stuff. Reducing required bandwidth sounds great as well as reducing file size to save some space.

Both were providing WiFi but I had never run into any situation, until doing Plex, where the interference was that big of a deal. Now that I’m trying to move that level of media across my network wirelessly I figured it’s time to configure it properly and just be done with it. I have my ISP router not broadcasting any WiFi and my mesh system is in bridge mode so no double NAT for me, I had that issue before and it was a pain.

So the agenda for today is getting the PMS hard wired and running my media through the tool you linked above to optimize everything for compatibility. I will report my results back once I get these things accomplished.

I want to sincerely thank you @FordGuy61 for your help with this, you’re an absolute legend and I really appreciate everything.

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@FordGuy61 so a little bit of an update, I have ran the entire library through the MKVToolNix that you suggested and it has eliminated the buffering entirely. Which is great! Thank you again so much for the help with that.

I haven’t gotten a chance to run the hard line for the PMS just yet, but this seems to be suitable for the time being. My Wife just tested positive for COVID so it’s going to be a busy few days and I doubt I’ll get the chance to run it in the near future. However, I’m still having the black screen with audio issues so I’m assuming I need to change the video codec for these files. Do you have a suggestion what would be the best video format for the best quality retention and a suitable program to re-encode everything? I want all of my media on my PMS to be playable on the FireStick 4k/4k Max and I can’t for the life of me find anything online showing what format would be the “most compatible” for this situation. Though maybe my brain is just a little foggy right now lol. Thank you again so much for all of your help with this, I truly appreciate it so much.

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Not sure about the black screen problem.

I’ve a FireStick 4K & 4K Max and I’ve never experienced such a problem.

Maybe there is some sort of “quirk” with the FireStick playing 4K HDR media on a 4K SDR TV?

Anyway, take care of your wife. Hopefully she is better soon. We’ll work on the Plex stuff later.

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