I had the same problem for months. Short story: I’ve downloaded infuse and 0 problems.
I hope sometime Plex will fix this, because it’s been a long time since this happened and I barely use it now since I’ve bought a 4K tv and last gen Apple TV.
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Vote please
Did you consider that some people have expensive projectors 1080p and not willing to throw them away
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Never said to throw away your devices by any means lol just that Plex doesn’t play friendly with certain tech
I have an ATV4, and started putting some 4K HEVC movies into PMS running on a Diskstation 918+. I was unable to play these files transcoded without colors looking washed out. I also got Infuse 5, and it works perfectly.
Infuse transcodes?
I’m on a Sony ZD9 HDR TV using a 4k mac mini 2018 server and also having the same washed out color issues with 4k HDR HEVC movies. Only happens in Plex. VLC and other players look fine.
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Are you direct playing?
I’m having the same issue and Plex is only having to transcode the audio down from 7.1 to 5.1. The video is untouched,so I dont know why it looks so washed out.
so in my particular case with a tv that supports 4k hdr hevc it did not support dts audio. when a mkv video file had dts and acc or ac3 audio tracks it would do fine and use the acc or ac3 but if it only had the dts audio plex would convert the audio thus sending out the hdr content as nonhdr 4k. my solution was to convert my dts audio to ac3 and add an ac3 track to the mkv file. for windows users only (unsure of linux and osx) i used a program called popcorn. (will add link to this post if moderator allows) google popcorn dts to ac3 windows and you should be able to find a download link with a tutorial on how to use it. this isnt an elegant solution but does seem to be a viable work around until the plex programmers are able to catch up to current tech/ till i buy equipment that supports dts audio.
Plex installed on Windows 7 PC
file = 2160p.UHD.BluRay.mkv
HVEC colours not washed out (direct playback)
Samsung UE40MU6400 TV
- same file played in VLC on Windows 7 = colours washed out
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This solved my issue. Ripped 4K disc with MakeMKV, transcoded with Handbrake to H.265 10-bit, but everything looked washed out on my Xbox One X Plex app. When I changed this setting on my Samsung JS9500, the colors and contrast came to life. Even my Onkyo receiver’s volume bar is brighter and more vibrant during the movie!
Thanks much!
How long did that transcode take?
I set it to “Slow” so it takes a good 24 hours or so. But I’m getting 4K movies from 50-60GB in size down to 8-10GB with all English audio and subtitle tracks in what looks like damn near perfect image conditions.
Since MakeMKV has already ripped the movies into MKV format for me, I can queue up as many of them as I want in Handbrake to run until they’re done. Easy. Just gotta be patient!
24 hrs for how many movies? What your PC config?
I have mine in MKV also, 50GB size, 1080p, 30mbps with Atmos 7.1
What settings are u using in handbrake?
I am keeping resolution same (1080p), same fps, avg bitrate or around 7-10k. Audio, subtitle passthrough.
File size decreases to around 7-9GB.
Problem is it still looks washed out on MPC on direct play on my 1600p monitor non HDR. Will trying playing in different players to see the result.
I’m in this boat, I have a home theatre, and I don’t have the cash to buy a 4k projector with HDR at the moment. My computer plays 4K HDR or 1080p HDR fine through MPV onto older non HDR monitors, with basically no overhead, no lag, no issues, so it’s just a Plex issue, and it’s something I hope their team fixes soon. Tone mapping for backwards compatibility to millions of devices can’t be that difficult, I’m pretty sure most of the work is done, just needs to be implemented into the filters.
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I just voted for the feature suggestion as well. Glad to see this thread is here. I’ll be watching for updates. Thank you all.
It’s really annoying Plex doesn’t have support for HDR to SDR conversion yet, when a lot of content is coming out in HDR format these days.
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New to the Plex forum because the software has always worked perfect for me but recently discovered this issue. Where can I vote on improving this functionality?
Recently upgraded all my movies to 4K HDR after I got a TV that supports it. Discovered that all my media now looks awful for my remote clients (and local clients without HDR support) after transcode however . Colors are very washed out and almost black and white looking in some scenes. I’m kinda picky with my media but I would consider it to be unwatchable at the moment. Hope this issue gets some attention from the Plex team 
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@kennym Just scroll up. It’s not even that far up in the thread. HDR->SDR Transcoding
@Caaaaarrrrlll Didn’t see it. New to the Plex forum as I said. Link was all I needed.
