Local streaming quality limited to 4Mbps on Panasonic TV but not Sony TV?

Plex Players Smart TVs
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Hi All,

I’m having trouble streaming to my 4K Panasonic HX1000Z with Plex. I’m streaming locally over an ethernet LAN. I’m finding that streams over 4Mbps will transcode even if I disable transcoding on the server. When enabling the console I saw these lines. I need to stop it transcoding my Plex Server isn’t super powerful it’s a Synology NAS.

INFO [MDE] Application decision, directPlay: false, directStreamVideo: false, directStreamAudio: true
INFO Cannot direct play with protocol: http, codec: hevc. Reason: Video stream exceeded a max bitrate of 4000
INFO Cannot direct stream with protocol: dash, codec: hevc. Reason Video stream exceeded a max bitrate of 4000

I’ve looked through all the settings and I can’t find this “max bitrate” setting anywhere? This is a 4K OLED TV, we really need more than 4Mbps to get any decent quality image on it… 4Mbps is marginal even for 576p DVD quality…

Can this be fixed on my end or does Plex need to release an update for the app in order to get past this limitation. I’d like to mention that the same file streams fine on a 4K Sony Bravia TV running android in another room, and also streams fine to a PS4 console in the same room, all over ethernet as well. I can stream the files using the PS4 to the Panasonic TV but the PS4 can only output 1080p max so this is not an ideal solution.

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2

The Panasonic may not be supported.

See the Devices with Limited Playback Capabilities section of Which Smart TV models are supported?

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It’s not 100% clear to me from the article on support Models.
I want to buy a Panasonic - brilliant picture quality and supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.

If I buy a brand new 2022 Panasonic TX-55LZ980 which version of the Plex client will i get?

* `Plex for Smart TVs`:
          restricted to h.264/1080p/4mbps/no hdr/no mkv container
          i.e. crippled and pointless on a 4K TV that supports HDR10+ and DolbyVision

* `Plex for [specific brand]`: 
         i.e. 'Plex for Panasonic'
         unrestricted:   h.265/4k/native mbps/hdr-yes/mkv-yes

The article you link to has Panasonic TVs in the restricted ‘Devices with Limited Playback’ section, but then there is a table that suggest it may not be restricted.

So please, can you clarify for me.?
Which is it?

4

Scroll down to the Panasonic section.

That will show you which models are supported - “Plex for Panasonic,” not “Plex for Smart TVs.”

5

Thx. Clear now.

6

Thanks, I just found this and it explains why the playback using the Plex app on my brand new Panasonic TX-48LZ1500B smart TV is so clunky!
It’s nowhere near as good as it was on the Roku box I had connected to my previous non-smart TV. Instead of getting perfect direct play, I’m now getting slow pickup after scrubbing the timeline, and then eventually jerky stop/start playback, with multiple instances of plex transcoder.exe hammering the CPU of my PC.
This is extremely annoying, but I guess there’s nothing which can be done about it.
:rage:

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