Force h265 Support in PlexApp for AndroidTV?

Plex Players Streaming Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.21.1.3876
Player Version#: 8.11.0.22186

Is it possible to force h265 support for the PlexApp? (like it’s possible in the Plex Kodi Addon).

The situation is, i got a shield 2019 pro which ist connected to a 1080p Samsung TV. If i play 4k content in h265, my plex server starts transcoding 4k h265 to 4k h264 … which does not make any sense, because the shield is capable to play it directly. It seems the PlexApp does not recognizes the abilities of the shield. I’d tested it with an Himedia S500 yesterday … same problem. If i connect the shield to a native 4k tv, the problem disappears, 4k content in h265 is correctly played direct without transcoding.

It would be great if the plex-developers let the user choose wether the device supports h265 or not … could be easier as to find the reason :wink:

EDIT: kodi works fine with the plugin, no transcoding when h265 support is enabled (not enabled by default). but i dont want to use kodi because the plex app is more up-to-date

2

My guess is that your video is either 10-bit video or HDR or both. Since your TV doesn’t support this, your Shield won’t output that troublesome video so it tells PMS to transcode.

3

You might start something, let it play for a minute, then share server + device logs to positively ID why it’s transcoding.

As of 8.2 the Shield is capable of performing HDR -> SDR tonemapping itself, and should do so automatically.

But like @anon18523487 mentions … there are a hundred other reasons it might be transcoding.

4

Just because the shield supports it does not mean your TV does. If your TV does not support a format, the shield will report this to PMS and then PMS will transcode to something that your TV does support.

5

Of course. But the Shield is more capable than many devices at doing media conversion itself.

Others have reported that it will play 4K media and downscale to 1080p. HDR → SDR tonemapping is a feature in the Shield 8.2 software.

Here’s a screenshot of a Shield Direct Playing a 4K stream on a 1080p TV:

Perhaps the media is larger than 3840x2160.
Is it 4096 wide, by any chance?

But that’s all conjecture. Logs could confirm the reason for transcoding.

6

Having been summoned… :rofl:

Please verify DEBUG logging enabled, VERBOSE logging disabled.
Start Playback of an impacted video.
Play for 1 minute
Stop
Wait 20 seconds for logs to flush
Settings - Server - Troubleshooting - Download Logs.

I am highly suspicious of Shield app settings because I can DirectPlay HEVC HDR at 59.94 FPS (yes, 59.94 2160p).

I also ask for verification.

  1. OP states AndroidTV in the title.
  2. First post is regardind Nvidia Shield Pro 2019

Are we discussing the Plex Android TV app or the Shield app?

7

Beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice!

:ghost:

8

Hej folks,

thanks for all your replies … but the answer is very simple. It’s just an display error by the plex servers webinterface (Dashboard). My tv was not capable to decode dolby true hd, so the plex server starts transcoding an displays on the dashboard that it transcodes video as well. Which is very confusing because it tells “4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) (hw) → 4K (H264) - Transcode (hw)” while it’s just transcoding TrueHD7.1 to AAC.

I guess this case is solved and maybe just a bug report :smiley:

greetz
g1n

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