I am using the Plex app (with early access enabled) on a Samsung TV. I have a 4K movie that has 3 audio tracks: TRUEHD 7.1, AC3 5.1, and DTS-HD MA 7.1.
If I select AC3 5.1 and have the external SRT subtitles enabled, it plays as expected. If I select either of the other two audio tracks, it will not play at all with the SRT subtitles enabled. If I disable the subtitles, it plays as expected and transcodes the audio.
I have a different movie that only has DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. If I try to play this with the subtitles enabled, it will not play. If I use chromecast and play this movie, it plays just fine… What’s going on here?
The video is probably transcoding. If your system cannot transcode 4K video in real time, then the movie will buffer or not play.
The Plex app on Samsung TVs direct plays AC3 & EAC3 audio. TrueHD and dts/dts-HD MA transcode.
Enabling subtitles of any type when the audio is transcoding results in a video transcode.
Enabling image based subtitles, PGS & VOBSUB, results in a video transcode whether or not the audio is transcoding.
Transcoding 4K video is very compute intensive. Unless your system can handle it that is probably why the movie does not play.
To verify:
Check Plex Dashboard -> Now Playing while playing the movie. It will show if the audio or video is transcoding.
or
You can also check the log files. Look for lines with MDE: in Plex Media Server.log. Make sure your Plex server is set for debug, not verbose, logs. See Reporting issues with Plex Media Server for details on configuring your system for debug logs and retrieving the log files.
I’ve seen several posts where you posted the same answer I thought I saw some post where this issue was resolved, though? Or was that for a different platform and does not apply to the Samsung TV app?
I disabled video transcoding on my Plex Media Server, but the error shown on the TV was “an unexpected playback error happened” or something like that, rather than “this server is not powerful enough to convert”… Because of the wording of the error, I thought it wasn’t transcoding video, and that it was some other error…
I guess I have to convert my audio tracks, then? Is that the only solution?
You have to work around the limitations of the Plex client.
If you’re using SRT subtitles, then make sure the audio does not transcode, which basically means avoiding TrueHD and dts audio.
Blu-ray movies with TrueHD audio also have a AC3 version of the audio track, so choose it if possible. If your movies do not have the AC3 track and you’ve access to the discs, you could re-rip the disc.
If you want to convert the audio tracks, look at X Media Recode. It can copy the video track while converting the audio. Handbrake will always convert the video. It cannot copy/passthrough the video track.
One other thing to consider is using a FireTV stick or similar device.
The FireTV Stick 4K or Nvidia Shield will direct stream video when transcoding audio and subtitles are enabled. Not sure about other Android TV devices (some inexpensive Android streaming boxes are not well behaved, so cannot say how they will perform).
Playing a 4K HDR movie using Plex app on FireStick 4K:
Following up on this:
I have a movie that has a 2nd audio track that appears as “AC3 5.1” on the Plex app on my Samsung TV, but it will not play, even if subtitles are turned off… (I have video transcoding disabled on my Plex server)
Mediainfo shows:
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 29 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 410 MiB (1%)
Title : AC3 5.1-EX
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
The movie format is “4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR)”, which I don’t think should be a problem. Is this audio track incompatible with Samsung TVs?
I have video transcoding disabled on my Plex server, so if it requires a video transcode it “will not play”. Sorry for the bad wording. Also, the Plex app on Samsung TVs (and probably elsewhere) has misleading error messages. The error message that came up was something like “file not accessible by the server”, although I know it is.
I just did some testing with a few movies that have different playback errors. Let me know if more details are necessary. I’ve put the mediainfo outputs below:
Movie 1 – “Will not play” on Samsung Q90T TV, even with subtitles turned off. This movie direct plays video and audio with subtitles on Plex for Mac.
Video
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 29 min
Bit rate : 80.0 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.402
Stream size : 50.0 GiB (93%)
Writing library : ATEME Titan KFE 3.7.3 (4.7.3.1003)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 400 cd/m2
Audio (only #2: "AC3 5.1")
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 29 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 410 MiB (1%)
Title : AC3 5.1-EX
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
Movie 2 – Transcodes audio (Tautulli shows “AC3 5.1 --> AAC 5.1”) on Q90T with subtitles turned off. Turning subtitles on forces video transcode, which is disabled. This direct plays video and audio with subtitles on Plex for Mac.
Video
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 2 h 22 min
Bit rate : 64.4 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.324
Stream size : 64.0 GiB (95%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 1124 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 755 cd/m2
"Audio (only #1: "AC3 5.1")
Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 2 h 22 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.17 GiB (3%)
Writing library : Lavc58.54.100 ac3
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Movie 3 – Direct plays video and audio, with subtitles on Q90T TV. Direct plays video and audio, with subtitles on Plex for Mac.
Video
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
HDR format : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 44 min
Bit rate : 75.3 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.379
Stream size : 54.8 GiB (95%)
Title : MPEG-H HEVC Video / 75334 kbps / 2160p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 Profile 5.1 High / 4:2:0 / 10 bits / HDR10 / BT.2020
Writing library : ATEME Titan File 3.9.0 (4.9.0.0)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : PQ
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : Display P3
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 845 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 196 cd/m2
Audio (only #2: "AC3 5.1")
Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 44 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 448 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 334 MiB (1%)
Title : Compatibility Track / Dolby Digital Audio / 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No
If available in the Plex app on the Samsung, set it to log to server, and at the debug level (I don’t have a Samsung, so not sure of settings).
Play Movie #2 on the Samsung with subtitles off, for 30 - 45 seconds (so the logs can capture the audio transcoding).
Stop playback, wait 1 minutes for the server to settle down.
Pull the logs and attach the entire zip file to the thread.
Also, pull the XML info for the movie and attach to the thread. See Investigate Media Information and Formats for details. Save the XML info as a .txt file or zip the file before attaching. The forum does not support .xml attachments.
Attached is the Plex log and XML info as a .txt file. I have both a 4K and 1080p version of the movie, so both of those appear in the XML info…
I found the setting in the Plex app for Samsung and set it to log to server at the debug level. Do you really need the entire ZIP file? The account name for the user on the Samsung TV contains an email address, and I don’t want to reveal that in the logs…
Thanks for the info. No problem with the redactions, etc.
Try remuxing the file (MKVToolNix), leaving only the video and AC3 audio (no dts, no subtitles). Load it into a test library and see if it direct plays.
If it works OK, the create a version with the audio & subtitle streams you wish to keep and test again.
Here’s my thinking:
The file has a total of 35 streams - one video, two audio, and 32 subtitles.
An entry in the log file indicates the Plex app has a limit of 30 streams: Nov 03, 2020 11:35:01.525 [0x7f1474ff9700] INFO - [Plex for Samsung] [<REDACTED_ACCOUNT_NAME_ON_TV>:my8mww8etmc4ohh7bn8kqkmj] Cannot direct play with protocol: http, codec: hevc. Reason: Stream count exceeds 30 streams.
That log entry references video (hevc), not audio (ac-3), but that’s the only reason I can see why something is transcoding.
Stripping the file down to the minimum, one video stream and one audio stream, should take everything else out of the equation. The video already direct streams, so it appears to be OK. The TV can direct play AC-3 audio, since that happens with video #3.
If the audio still transcodes, then post a new log file and we’ll see what it shows. Check the logging setting on the TV as well. On my LG, the “log to server” setting is not persistent.
I used MKVToolNix to remove most of the subtitle streams, and now the movie (#2) direct plays with subtitles perfectly on the Q90T TV.
For #1 (the movie that “will not play”), it only has 1 video, 2 audio, and 3 subtitle tracks. I have attached the XML information for this (as a .txt file). I will get a log later this week, as I am not at the place where the Q90T TV is. Can you speculate why this movie does not play?18253.txt (79.4 KB)
It seems Samsung has a 80 Mbps (80000 kbps) limit for H.265 video. See this post for details. Another post mention a 60 Mbps limit for H.264 video.
The video stream for Lucy is above the 80 Mbps limit. See log files below.
Plex normally transcodes the video to a lower rate. However, you disabled video transcoding, so Plex cannot play the movie.
You would not want to transcode Lucy anyway. Plex Media Server transcodes all video to H.264 SDR, but does not map HDR to SDR, so transcoded HDR usually appears with washed out colors.
I did not notice a fix/workaround posted on the forum (I searched for “Samsung 80000”).
For movies where the total bitrate is over 80 Mbps (video + audio + subtitles), but the video is under 80 Mbps, you might be able to remove unnecessary audio and subtitle tracks to drop the overall rate below 80 Mbps.
The only solution of which I’m aware would be to purchase a streaming device such as an Nvidia Shield Pro, Roku, AppleTV 4K, etc.
Hopefully someone with a Tizen based Samsung can weigh in with additional information.
Nov 13, 2020 15:05:33.981 [0x7f996ffff700] INFO - [Plex for Samsung] [<REDACTED_ACCOUNT_NAME_ON_TV>:my8mww8etmc4ohh7bn8kqkmj] Cannot direct stream with protocol: hls, codec: hevc. Reason: Video stream exceeded a max bitrate of 80000
Nov 13, 2020 15:05:33.981 [0x7f996ffff700] INFO - [Plex for Samsung] [<REDACTED_ACCOUNT_NAME_ON_TV>:my8mww8etmc4ohh7bn8kqkmj] videoStream: {
"id": 79368,
"streamType": 1,
"default": true,
"codec": "hevc",
"index": 0,
"bitrate": 85343,
Well, that’s disappointing… Out of curiosity, how would something like an nvidia shield pro direct play the video if the TV itself has a hardware limitation of 80 Mbps?
Also, do other TVs generally have this limit? It was interesting to learn about this, I did not know about this before…
The way I read things is that the limit is in the Samsung video player software, which is used by the Plex app, not in the display capabilities of the TV.
If correct, then using a Shield or similar device would bypass the limit as it does not use the TV app.
@sLumpy: Am I interpreting things correctly? (and hope you don’t mind me tagging you…)
FYI, I don’t know the upper limit, but a Shield can play 80 Mbps video w/o issue. I’ve a couple of 4K HDR movies that exceed 80 Mbps. My Shield Pro 2015 plays them w/o issue. Shield --> Denon 4300 --> LG B7 OLED.
Just wanted to confirm – I have another movie that totalled over 80 Mbps, but after removing all but one audio and subtitle track, I brought the total down to around 79.5 Mbps and direct played fine on the TV.
For Lucy, it seems that the video track itself is exactly 80 Mbps, so having an audio track brought it over 80 Mbps and prevented me from playing it on the TV.
I used a Chromecast Ultra and used the Plex app on my android phone to cast Lucy, and it direct played fine.
I thought I saw some post where this issue was resolved, though? Or was that for a different platform and does not apply to the Samsung TV app?
