HEVC direct play does not work.
Am I missing something?
NEW:
- Add direct play support for HEVC video codec.
MKV - HEVC still converts?
I don’t think MKV is supported yet. MP4 or m4v only.
Just download Infuse by firecore. Maybe if everyone cancels their plex pass they will get the hint that we want mkv-hevc…
As much as I hate to admit it jcar84 has the best solution yet. I’ve been struggling with a way to get HEVC 4K content to direct play with very little success. Based upon the suggestion above I’ve given Infuse a go–and now can play the content flawlessly. I’m a longtime Plex Pass member and I’m confident that they’ll come around, so I’ll not transition all of my viewing to Infuse–yet, but I’m definitely dipping my toe with 4K.
Infuse direct plays flawlessly with .mkv HEVC 10-Bit HDR videos. While Plex doesn’t even play .mkv HEVC 8-Bit SDR without transcoding. Infuse will also be incorporating HDR/SDR and frame rate switching in their next release. I would love to see Plex do what Infuse can do and will be glad to pay if it is a licensing limitation. I just don’t understand why Infuse can do it but Plex can’t/won’t.
MP4 HEVC has issues as well, a lot of my files will not direct play. Although they play fine on my itunes / computer app on my apple tv.
@justwood said:
Infuse direct plays flawlessly with .mkv HEVC 10-Bit HDR videos. While Plex doesn’t even play .mkv HEVC 8-Bit SDR without transcoding. Infuse will also be incorporating HDR/SDR and frame rate switching in their next release. I would love to see Plex do what Infuse can do and will be glad to pay if it is a licensing limitation. I just don’t understand why Infuse can do it but Plex can’t/won’t.
The main reason is we’re limited ot whatever Apple’s video player (AVPlayer) supports, while Infuse (or VLC) have their own video player, which gives them more flexibility. We depend on AVPlayer video format support and Plex Media Server to transcode whatever is not supported.
Right now HEVC can only be direct played if it’s in a mov/mp4 container. AVPlayer doesn’t support MKV, so that will require transcoding. At some point, the server will add support for fMP4, which will allow us to direct stream HEVC instead of transcoding it.
If the audio stream can’t be direct played, that again will require at least remuxing, but since the server still doesn’t support fMP4 we need to transcode it.
If the container is mov/mp4 and the audio stream is supported by AVPlayer, the app should be able to direct play it (assuming you selected maximum quality and all that). If not, we’ll probably need the server logs to diagnose the problem 
@sergiou87 said:
Right now HEVC can only be direct played if it’s in a mov/mp4 container. AVPlayer doesn’t support MKV, so that will require transcoding. At some point, the server will add support for fMP4, which will allow us to direct stream HEVC instead of transcoding it.
If the audio stream can’t be direct played, that again will require at least remuxing, but since the server still doesn’t support fMP4 we need to transcode it.
booo
