I bought a Plex pass recently, in order to use HDR-to-SDR tone mapping on my Windows 11 client from my NVIDIA Shield TV Pro’s PMS. I only seem to be getting direct play, however; enabling tone mapping for the PMS through the client does not seem to do anything. If someone could give input on what to do to make it transcode, I’d greatly appreciate it.
Plex Desktop for Windows tone maps HDR media by itself, without requiring transcoding by Plex Media Server. A Plex Pass is not required.
Plex Web will not direct play HDR media. Playing HDR media via Plex Web requires transcoding and tone mapping by Plex Media Server.
Plex Media Server tone maps only when transcoding video.
PMS on the Shield supports tone mapping only in software, not using the GPU.
I have not run PMS on my Shield in years, but I doubt it is powerful enough to transcode and tone map 4K HDR media.
If you want to test it, play HDR media using Plex Web. That will force PMS to transcode & tone map.
Monitor playback via Plex Dashboard → Now Playing + Expanded View. It will show if the transcode is using hardware acceleration. It will also show the CPU utilization.
Despite what you’ve shared, I’ve not noticed the Plex Desktop app tone mapping while using Direct Play. It looks way too dim for it to be to me, in any case.
I just ran a test on my desktop using both the Windows app and Plex Web, and the only thing getting Transcoded for Web is the audio. Video is playing via “Direct Stream” instead of Direct Play.
In any case, if I’m unable to sort this issue out, I may have to reach out to Plex Pass Billing to see if they’ll reimburse me, if that’s even possible.
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What browser? Are you using a HDR display?
Plex Web will play HEVC video in Chromium based browsers.
However, I’ve never seen it direct play/stream HDR video.
Curious what setup supports doing so.
I’m using an LG C2 as my monitor for my Windows 11 desktop, alongside Google Chrome for Plex Web. The TV is in 4K, but afaik it should only be in SDR.
Worth noting that I tried this on Plex Web/Chrome on my 1080p laptop as well. It seems to transcode there, albeit very slowly.
Think I figured it out. I had to go into debug settings and disable direct play/stream in the debug for the windows app. If I don’t need a Plex Pass for that, I may ask for a reimbursement though.
This is correct. Actually enabling tone mapping on the shield caused a bug some time back. Not sure what the status is now.
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