Server Version#:4.147.1
Player Version#: Plex for Smart TVs - Generic (Panasonic Smart TV)
Ok my problem is after great expense in upgrading my NAS system so that I can play back 4K music videos in shuffle mode, I’ve run into a frustrating problem.
1st was Plex on my Panasonic Smart TV didn’t like playing back MKV 4K videos with OPUS sound, I could get the picture to work but no sound? So at an extra expense I’ve purchased a copy of Wondershare UniConverter so that I can convert my 4K videos into mpeg4 with AAC sound that now works a treat on my Panasonic Smart TV? However I then noticed from my Server Dashboard control panel Plex was in fact transcoding my 4K video down to 1080P and then playing them at low res? The pic shows it now working on two streams, both in 4K after I selected Forced Direct Playback on my Genric Plex APP on my smart Panasonic TV..
So on my client APP if I pause the video, go into settings there is a tick box to Force Direct Playback! and WALLA it now plays back in 4K as shown in my clipped image.
Then on the next video it’s gone back to transcodeing 1080P Why? obviously that tick won’t stay selected so I have to select it again every time? This is obviously NOT ideal as i want ALL my 4K videos to play in 4K and not have to stop everyone and have to keep selecting Force Direct Playback every time!
Is there a setting somewhere I need to change to STOP this from happening!
The Plex app on the TV is limited to 1080p at 4 Mbps.
The solution is to use a streaming device capable of 4K playback such as a Nvidia Shield Pro, FireStick 4K Max Gen 2, Roku, AppleTV, etc.
I’ve a Nvidia Shield Pro and FireStick 4K Max Gen 2. Both use the Plex Android TV app and are capable of 4K HDR playback.
I do not recommend Roku devices, as their subtitle support is lacking. Enabling PGS subtitles (found on Blu-ray discs) results in a video transcode.
Many people, especially those in the Apple ecosystem, use the AppleTV 4K.
Unnecessary. As mentioned above, the issue is with the Plex app, not the video. Also, there are several free tools that can perform the job, such as XMedia Recode.
This is a workaround at best.
One problem you will find is that if the audio format is unsupported by the TV then it will not be transcoded by Plex Media Server and you will hear no audio.
I’m not sure how the setting behaves on Panasonic TVs. You might try setting it in the Plex app settings before starting playback. It might then be persistent.
Thanks for all the useful ideas. I did find that when I 1st tried Forced Playback, I got the 4K image and lost the sound. Hence why I converted ALL my 4K videos into MPEG4 with AAC sound as the audio codec to get around this problem.
I did try an Amazon Fire TV 4K stick but found the audio too quite so I sent those back!
I also looked at the Nvidia Shield, but they at this moment in time don’t support HDR10+ and are hard to get hold of. A mate thinks a new model is just around the corner, so we’re waiting to see what happens there.
I have just ordered an Amazon Fire TV Cube 4K box to see how that behaves.
It’s really frustrating as I’m so close to cracking this, as I said, it now works if I keep selecting the Forced Playback option, but the setting doesn’t seem to stay on for some reason.
I DON’T BELIEVE IT! You’re a star! I think that has actually worked? I never realised there was a setting menu hidden right at the bottom, had to scroll right down to the bottom and indeed there is a main setting page, ticked the FORCED PLAYBACK, and I think that’s cracked it?
There is another setting for H264 say recomended setting is 4.1, but this goes from NONE to 5? What’s this for?
Glad you got it working. If you have more problems, look at the ONN streaming boxes. They are cheap and seem to support all the major video standards.
I agree that spending money and effort to actually change your files is the last resort. With the right client and server setup you should be able to play anything without doing extra work ahead of time.
That setting lets you mess up playback of H.264 video.
Best to leave it alone at the default/recommended value unless you’ve a specific reason to change it.
H.264 is the video used on standard 1080p Blu-ray discs (and from other sources as well). It has several levels, more or less corresponding to different resolutions and frame rates.
Every TV has a max value that it supports. 4.1 is the level used on 1080p Blu-ray discs. If set at 4.1 and you play a video with a higher level (ex: 4.2, 5.0), then Plex will transcode the video.
It should have no impact on playing 4K video. 4K Blu-rays use HEVC (H.265) video, as do most 4K video you see posted online.
Finally got it all working I set the H264 level back to the recomended value of 4.1 that seemed to make no difference?
The problem I then ran into was the last few video files I converted i thought I’d be clever and set the audio bit rate to a higher 256kbs bit rate but it didn;t like it and I got the dreaded playback failed message came up so using the auto settings in wondershare it came out as 128kbs AAC and now every thing plays back just fine on shuffle mode I thougly recomend the AI feature in Wondershare UniConverter for when up scaling 1080P videos to 4K it looks amazing!
On a side note, while playing my music video on shuffle, I randomly get presented with this countdown timer with as much as 20 second countdown clock before the next video plays. Why am I seeing this?
I do not know why that is happening. I do not have music videos on my server, use shuffle, etc.
Some, but not all, clients support changing the countdown timer. It is in the Settings → Player Experience section.
Here is the announcement from 2023: Player Experience. The settings are also in the “new experience” mobile & Roku clients, which were released after the original announcement.
Looks like I’m stuck with the 15-second default then because my client version on my Panasonic Smart TV is version 5.93.2, and I don’t think there’s any way at updating this? Unless you know a way to side-load a newer version onto my OLED TV,
Thanks for all your help on this. I’ve found that setting mine was set to 15 seconds, so I’ve changed it to immediate, so hopefully that won’t bother me again
