# Issue with UHD+HDR+HEVC on Plex Web and Plex Android **URL:** \ **Category:** Plex Players\ **Tags:** android-tv, plex-web\ **Created:** [May 12, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752 "2026-05-12T19:10:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![derfragende](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@derfragende](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derfragende)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/1 "2026-05-12T19:10:42Z")
Server Version#: 1.43.1.10611 (Raspberry Pi) Player Version#: 2026.8.1 Hello everyone, I record videos on my Samsung S26U in UHD, 30fps, HDR, and HEVC. The Plex app on Android (Samsung S26U) freezes after about 4 seconds of playback. On the Plex server, however, it appears that the video continues to stream via Direct Play all the way to the end. The Plex Web Player (Chrome, Windows 11) remains black from the beginning. Plex server tries to transcode and fails evidently during the process. The playback via the Plex app on WebOS (LG TV) works without any issues! Is this a known issue? Are there any suggestions on how to resolve it? Best regards ---
**Author:** ![seanpv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@seanpv](https://forums.plex.tv/u/seanpv)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 10:48pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/2 "2026-05-12T22:48:59Z")
> [@derfragende](#): > > Samsung S26U Try opening a [sample file](https://support.plex.tv/articles/201035968-generating-sample-files-from-media/) in [https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo](https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo) and post the txt content here for one of the source files you’re having issues with. Might be something the meta data reveals that could explain the issue. ---
**Author:** ![derfragende](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@derfragende](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derfragende)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 5:31am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/3 "2026-05-13T05:31:08Z")
here is the output General Complete name : xxxx.mp4 Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media / Version 2 Codec ID : mp42 (isom/mp42) File size : 321 MiB Duration : 58 s 467 ms Overall bit rate : 46.0 Mb/s Frame rate : 30.000 FPS Encoded date : 2026-04-29 16:00:55 UTC Tagged date : 2026-04-29 16:00:55 UTC Writing operating system : Google Android 16 Writing hardware : Samsung SM-S948B com.samsung.android.utc\_offset : +0200 Video ID : 1 Format : HEVC Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding Format profile : Main 10@L5.2@Main Codec ID : hvc1 Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding Duration : 58 s 467 ms Source duration : 58 s 433 ms Bit rate : 44.0 Mb/s Width : 3 840 pixels Height : 2 160 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 30.000 FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 10 bits Bits/(Pixel\*Frame) : 0.177 Stream size : 307 MiB (96%) Source stream size : 320 MiB (100%) Title : VideoHandle Language : English Encoded date : 2026-04-29 16:00:55 UTC Tagged date : 2026-04-29 16:00:55 UTC Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.2020 Transfer characteristics : HLG Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant mdhd\_Duration : 58467 Codec configuration box : hvcC Audio ID : 2 Format : AAC LC Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity Codec ID : mp4a-40-2 Duration : 58 s 431 ms Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 128 kb/s Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel layout : L R Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF) Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 913 KiB (0%) Title : SoundHandle Language : English Encoded date : 2026-04-29 16:00:55 UTC Tagged date : 2026-04-29 16:00:55 UTC ---
**Author:** ![seanpv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@seanpv](https://forums.plex.tv/u/seanpv)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 9:15am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/4 "2026-05-13T09:15:34Z")
> [@derfragende](#): > > (Chrome, Windows 11 The format profile stuck out to me. So, I checked it against a couple of blue ray rips. Standard 24fps Main 10@L5@High Gemini man 60FPS bluray Format profile Main 10@L5.1@High Your phone is using Main 10@L5.2@Main Did a quick search, I’d beat the issue has to do with GPU support on the playback device. **Key Technical Breakdowns** - **Level 5.2 vs. Level 5 (Processing Load):** The level determines the maximum processing speed (luma sample rate). Level 5.2 processes up to **1,069,547,520 samples per second** , enabling fluid 4K video at 120 frames per second. Level 5 maxes out at **267,386,880 samples per second** , restricting 4K video to a maximum of 30 frames per second. - **Main Tier vs. High Tier (Bandwidth Cap):** Tiers dictate the ceiling for the video data stream. The **High Tier** allows for a significantly thicker data pipeline (100 Mbps vs 60 Mbps), ensuring fewer compression artifacts in complex, fast-moving scenes at the expense of storage size. **🌐 Browser & Hardware Playback Impact** - **Decoder Compatibility:** Hardware decoders inside your graphics card or CPU are built to strict Level and Tier thresholds. A decoder rated only for Level 5.1 will drop frames or fail entirely when attempting to process a **Level 5.2** stream. - **Hardware Acceleration:** Windows 11 and Google Chrome lean heavily on GPU hardware acceleration for 10-bit playback. While almost all modern systems easily accelerate **Main Tier** profiles, files explicitly tagged as **High Tier** can occasionally trip up consumer hardware decoders, forcing Chrome to fall back to software decoding, causing high CPU spikes and stuttering * * * **No. Plex Media Server’s internal FFmpeg-based transcoder cannot transcode a video into an HEVC file targeting a specific profile level and tier like _Main 10 @ Level 5 @ High Tier_** Here is exactly why, how Plex handles it, and how you can do it yourself using standalone FFmpeg. **🚫 Why Plex Cannot Do This** 1. **Target Codec Limit:** By default, the Plex Media Server transcoder converts almost all video streams into **H.264 (AVC)**, not HEVC (H.265). While Plex has experimental support to transcode _into_ HEVC under specific conditions (using select Intel/NVIDIA hardware and a Plex Pass), it acts as a closed, automated system. 2. **No Advanced Parameter Controls:** Plex’s automated pipelines do not allow you to manually inject specialized internal encoder flags (like changing a container’s explicit tier or level profile markers) * * * That said, it is weird that the same phone can play the file back, suggests it could also be a gap with the android app supporting that profile. What happens if you try to play the file directly on the Win11 machine instead of within a browser? ---
**Author:** ![derfragende](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@derfragende](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derfragende)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 10:51am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/5 "2026-05-13T10:51:45Z")
the issue accures allso with level 5 (not only 5.2) sources. for some reason samsung produce both levels. on same devices, Win 11 notebook or Smartphone there is no issue by using another player such as windows media player or vcl or google photos app. There should be no hardware restrictions this way. WebOs-Version of the plex app works normally. It indicates a software cause for other plex app versions. regarding transcoding . Plex shoud transcode **into** the h.264, not vice versa (unstable, experimental) Update: Plex App for windows fails the same way. Plex server shows direct play with freezed buffering. My Notebook is a new lenovo with i7 CPU inside. Like I wrote other players on the notebook make no trouble with the same videos. Same behavior for following format: Format : MPEG-4 Format profile : Base Media / Version 2 Codec ID : mp42 (isom/mp42) File size : 929 MiB Duration : 6 min 6 s Overall bit rate : 21.3 Mb/s Frame rate : 30.000 FPS Encoded date : 2026-05-10 17:09:52 UTC Tagged date : 2026-05-10 17:09:52 UTC Writing operating system : Google Android 16 Writing hardware : Samsung SM-S948B com.samsung.android.utc\_offset : +0200 Video ID : 1 Format : HEVC Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding Format profile : Main 10@L5@Main Codec ID : hvc1 Codec ID/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding Duration : 6 min 6 s Source duration : 6 min 6 s Bit rate : 21.1 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Variable Frame rate : 30.000 FPS Minimum frame rate : 30.000 FPS Maximum frame rate : 30.010 FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 10 bits Bits/(Pixel\*Frame) : 0.340 Stream size : 924 MiB (99%) Source stream size : 924 MiB (99%) Title : VideoHandle Language : English Encoded date : 2026-05-10 17:09:52 UTC Tagged date : 2026-05-10 17:09:52 UTC Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.2020 Transfer characteristics : HLG Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant mdhd\_Duration : 366633 Codec configuration box : hvcC Audio ID : 2 Format : AAC LC Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity Codec ID : mp4a-40-2 Duration : 6 min 6 s Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 128 kb/s Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel layout : L R Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF) Compression mode : Lossy Stream size : 5.59 MiB (1%) Title : SoundHandle Language : English Encoded date : 2026-05-10 17:09:52 UTC Tagged date : 2026-05-10 17:09:52 UT ---
**Author:** ![seanpv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@seanpv](https://forums.plex.tv/u/seanpv)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/6 "2026-05-13T17:51:22Z")
I just saw the server is (Raspberry Pi)? Specs? Pretty sure the 4k transcode fail on windows is because of that. Any 4K transcode is going to need a capable GPU are a 12-16 cpu cores. I imagine when you use the phone it’s over wifi, what about WebOS is that connected over wifi? Same network? is the pi connected via wifi? are all these devices running off of one access point? this could be a network issue ---
**Author:** ![derfragende](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@derfragende](https://forums.plex.tv/u/derfragende)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 6:34am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/7 "2026-05-14T06:34:49Z")
You are on the wrong track. All the facts presented point against server or network issues. With Direct Play running, no transcoding or cpu loading issues could and are accure. I can see it in monitoring. I have a very strong network far above required bandwith. My current suspicion is that the Plex players on Android and the web are unable to handle very high bitrates—ranging from 90 Mbps up to 250 Mbps with HEVC. Unlike VLC, with its own highly efficient decoder, or the hardware-optimized version of the Plex app on webOS. webOS is optimized to handle high bandwith due to blue ray and hdmi storage input. ---
**Author:** ![seanpv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@seanpv](https://forums.plex.tv/u/seanpv)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/issue-with-uhd-hdr-hevc-on-plex-web-and-plex-android/938752/8 "2026-05-14T18:07:03Z")
If everything is connected via wifi and only running off of one AP or two… it could be network. Even if it’s WiFi 7 The web players can’t handle high bit rates at all. All my videos are blue ray rips and I have to use the desktop app. Even with my Roku, there are some videos that bitrates overwhelm the GPU which look like sparkle or corruption. But I check the file and playback on a computer without issue. I don’t know how those apps are designed, I never use them but if they took shortcuts and designed them like the app client that could be the case.