@DaveBinM you mentioned that there are some issues with old devices. Specially applt tv 4k 2017. I’m having problem playing most of my 4k DV files. Most of the time, it’s using AVplayer even if I have the “use old video player” and “auto adjust quality” in the setting set to Off. I tried uninstalling/reinstalling plex but it’s the same thing. I only found 1 4k dv file that plays properly and uses mpv so far. Most of my DV files are mp4 but none of these mp4s plays properly.
Edit: Did more testing. Profile 5 uses AVplayer (even with “use old video player” Off). Profile 8 will play properly (though with audio sync issue not related to this one) using mpv.
We can only use the old player (AV Player) to decode and play Dolby Vision due to licensing issues, so it doesn’t matter what you select, it will always use the old player. We also don’t recommend using auto-adjust quality, as that feature will be being replaced in future (and has already been replaced on Android TV).
The Apple TV only supports Profile 5, so will play in AV Player. Any other profile will just play the HDR10 fallback in mpv if possible, and if not, will give an error.
I didn’t know that. I knew files with DV profile 7 (the profile UHD discs are using) were actually using the HDR10 fallback layer with an Apple TV even if the Dolby Vision mode was triggered on the TV.
But is it the same with Profile 8? I thought the Apple TV was directly compatible with DV profile 5 AND 8?
Some HEVC files are failing to hardware decode for some reason
How do I tell if a file is using hardware decode or not? I’d like to see if the problem files I’m seeing are because they’re failing hardware decode or not. No sense making/sending you sample files for something you’ve already got files for.
I’ve finally given up on the official Plex for Apple TV app. I switched to the Infuse app and it plays all my high bitrate 4k backups that the official Plex app couldn’t, without so much as a hiccup using its built-in Plex support. Hopefully Plex can find some engineers that know how to fix the root problem like the Infuse people have.
*I’m using the latest 3rd generation Apple TV 4K with an ethernet connection to my LAN with the latest TestFlight version of the official Plex for Apple TV app.
Still same problems with 8.13 (2017 ATV) - why can’t the fine Plex folks figure out how to take the previous version that was working fine and implement that code? Or regress to that version until it’s figured out? This is driving me insane, I have so much 4K hevc content that played just fine before 8.12 and the InFuse app, while working (through the Plex library no less), sucks to have to use it. Especially since I payed for Plex!
So… there was an update to the app but it didn’t fix the issue. What exactly do this update do? Does it work on earlier versions? Not on the 2022 at least.
I’m not a tech guy in the way of movie files and such, but wouldn’t it be better to release an update that you tested and make sure it fixes what is wrong?
I just tested playback with the 8.14 app update (before and after tvOS 16.3 update as well) and I confirm it seems to fix all the stuttering issues on my “old” 2017 ATV ! (mpv player, “original quality”)
Sincerely hoping such an issue doesn’t pass QA in the future. At least good test cases must have been created for this.
I wasn’t aware of these restrictions with Dolby Vision on Apple TV, that’s a bummer.
Thank you Apple I guess
Although from what I saw on some other random posts, it seems Profile 8 is only supported for content recorded with specific hardware such as latest iPhones … not a big help in this use-case.
Just putting here what I found for reference (Dolby_Vision_stuff - Google Sheets) but that’s probably off-topic regarding the issues on this thread.
Well well … turns out I spoke a little too soon …
I just tested with 3-4 files (no time to compare more in-depth right now).
All are 4K HDR HEVC ~25/30 Mbps, 24fps, DirectPlay. It works well for few of them (reference for myself: Bullet Train, House of the Dragon) while one keeps stuttering heavily (Prey)
No idea if it’s related to some HW Decode malfunction but the one file that still stutters has DolbyVision Profile 8. So if I get one of Dave’s comment earlier on correctly, it would tend to use the old player which is not capable to decode HEVC 4k content smoothly …
I might try another round of inspection at some point but I’m just tired to face this issue
@DaveBinM What about a genuine rollback to pre-8.12 version at this point ?!!
As there’s virtually very few improvements in these past few weeks (months for some people here even).
The old player is perfectly capable of playing 4K HDR files. That’s Apple’s native player that is used for all of their content. There are some known issues with profile 8.1 content at the moment that we’re working through, but if you have another sample file, I’d be happy to see it.
Meanwhile…
Plex plays fake DV (Profile 7&8) by forcing the Apple TV into DV mode and calls it support for DV.
Whilst Infuse can now play genuine DV by some on the fly trickery for profile 8 (and also simply plays profile 7 as HDR. Just like it should do.)
Old player, New player… meh! It’s not like the new player doesn’t completely suck.
MPV player on Apple TV is about 5 years behind the times.
Where’s the correct dynamic range for files?
Where’s Spatial Audio?
Where the on the fly tone-mapped Video Preview thumbnails?
But sadly Plex insist the MPV on Apple devices is the dogs bollocks and won’t admit that it’s utter garbage.
A stunning UI in Plex (compared with Infuse) will never override usability and capability.
Hopefully one day Plex will admit defeat with MPV on Apple devices and hire the Infuse code monkeys.
Yeah, I looked into it and apparently the Apple TV is only compatible with a very specific flavor of DV profile 8 that basically only comes from clips made with an iPhone.
So in our use case here, a profile 8 file will most likely fallback to its HDR10 compatibility layer even if it triggers the Dolby Vision mode of the TV.
(mpv player, “original quality”)
