Yea, but that’s a different story (issue). 
Oh, so would you mind sharing some details? For me this looks exactly like the issue discussed in this thread. Kodi playing 10 bit HEVC files, while the official app doesn’t.
I apologize. What I was thinking and what I ended up typing didn’t exactly match. Got distracted. Honestly I probably should not have posted at all since I don’t own this device but just going by others I know that have them and what I’ve read plus knowing how Plex software usually works.
Let’s recap a few thing and make sure we’re on the same page.
The Fire TV 4K is supposed to be a 4K HDR device according to Amazon. We are talking about this specific device correct? https://www.amazon.com/all-new-amazon-fire-tv-4k-uhd-streaming-media-player/dp/B01N32NCPM
If so it says it’s 4K Ultra HD and HDR. If it’s HDR it outputs 10 bit via HDMI. On this page: Amazon.com Help: Watch Video in 4K Ultra HD on Your Fire TV it spells out what requirements your system must meet for HDR/4K to work or be available. This page specifically states 4K Ultra HD video is not available on Amazon Fire TV (1st Generation) and Fire TV Stick which should not be an issue.
Some of the info said in this thread does not make sense. If the device supports HDR it will support the correct color space and will support 10 bit OUTPUT as well.
This page: Fire TV Device Specifications: Overview | Amazon Fire TV says it supports “Hardware accelerated up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60fps, 35 Mbps, Main 10 Profile Level 5.0, Color space 8-bit and 10-bit input with HDR10 support in rendering pipelines. *more_info_4k” for H.265 (HEVC) (first on the list).
The last part that says “with HDR10 support in rendering pipelines. *more_info_4k” is suspect and I’d like to know what that means from a technical/non marketing perspective. Is it true HDR10 or not? Is it outputting true HDR at 10 bit or not? I think this might be what MovieFan.Plex had mentioned earlier. But does it really matter?
What REALLY SHOULD MATTER to Plex is what the device will take as input REGARDLESS of what it outputs. Even if it’s not true HDR10 and uses a bit of “smoke and mirrors” for pseudo 4K HDR it’s still going to be better than anything Plex can presently do and won’t require any transcoding or remuxing hopefully.
It would appear that Plex isn’t honoring what the device can accept as input properly and is transcoding or remuxing what it shouldn’t.
Not to get off topic but the Shield can do something semi-related. Even if you have the Shield connected to a 1080p TV the shield can still except full 4K/HDR content and it will perform it’s own down mix to 1080. We went through a series of releases where Plex wasn’t allowing the device to receive this type of content as well (similar to this) which got fixed.
What is “fishy” about this thread is that it’s been reported this USED to work correctly but has been broken. If anyone can side load an older version (if you have it) and show it working I’m sure that would be proof positive it worked!
Now add to that and IF Kodi is doing nothing more than direct playing the file (not doing a local transcode) then Plex should be able to do the same.
Did I miss state anything? Get the correct device? Recap correctly?
Carlo
Did I miss state anything? Get the correct device? Recap correctly?
Yes, this is the device we are talking about. This is a very good summary of what this thread is about. I think you nailed it.
I’ll try to sideload an older version of the Plex for Android app later to see, if this really worked, but as Kodi can play it (fine without any stuttering) the device definitely CAN play HEVC 4K at 10 bit. The device isn’t powerful enough to do any kind of transcoding on its own.
What is not clear from the specs I found is what it supports via DASH or HLS. But it seems clear it should play the MKV correctly so if you have the file in that format Plex really shouldn’t need to touch it (or so it seems) or could remux to this format especially if the client is local.
@steffend_ said:
@“MovieFan.Plex” said:
It is possible that an app will covnert the 10-bit info to 8-bit for rendering purposes. The AFTV will not do this. If it receives a 10-bit HEVC file, it will not play the video, period.So how can Kodi Direct Play a 10 bit HEVC 4k file perfectly fine on the Fire TV 4K?
My response was back in 2016 before the Fire TV3 was released. The log snippet you provided earlier is from PMS after the device already decided it could not direct play the file. You’ll need to provide the log from the Fire TV devices itself for me to understand why it doesn’t direct play.
Thank you for responding @“MovieFan.Plex”!
You’ll need to provide the log from the Fire TV devices itself for me to understand why it doesn’t direct play.
OK, I’ll try to do that. How can I access the logs from the device?
@“MovieFan.Plex” said:
@steffend_ said:
@“MovieFan.Plex” said:
It is possible that an app will covnert the 10-bit info to 8-bit for rendering purposes. The AFTV will not do this. If it receives a 10-bit HEVC file, it will not play the video, period.So how can Kodi Direct Play a 10 bit HEVC 4k file perfectly fine on the Fire TV 4K?
My response was back in 2016 before the Fire TV3 was released. The log snippet you provided earlier is from PMS after the device already decided it could not direct play the file. You’ll need to provide the log from the Fire TV devices itself for me to understand why it doesn’t direct play.
Yea, I guess a lot of things can change in a couple of year! 
Thanks!
1 Like
@steffend_ said:
OK, I’ll try to do that. How can I access the logs from the device?
See https://support.plex.tv/articles/201573117-android-android-tv-fire-tv-logs/. Basically
- recreate the issue
- enable debugging logging, note the URL shown
- Go to a computer and enter the above URL into a web browser
- save the resulting page to a text file
- attach that file to your next comment (or PM it to me if you are concerned about privacy)
[MediaDecisionEngine] Unable to direct play; Direktes Abspielen ist nicht möglich, da diese Mediendatei mit diesem Gerät nicht kompatibel ist.
Translated: Direct play isn’t possible because the media file isn’t compatible with this device.
Your file has DTS audio. The device does not support DTS audio, nor can it pass-through DTS, so Plex has to transcode the audio. When audio gets transcoded, the device is also unable to direct stream HEVC so it has to transcode the video as well.
Well sorry, but no. The device (Fire TV 3) CAN direct play H264 files with DTS (and DTS-HD) just fine. It also CAN direct play the same file (HEVC + DTS) using Plex for Kodi. For me it looks like the “MediaDecisionEngine” isn’t working properly.
Oh, my last response was wrong. Although the device does not support DTS, we added the ability for the app to decode DTS locally. Sorry about that.
Can you provide me the XML for that video? It doesn’t show in the log, but I think it has to do with the video being 10-bit. I was checking the app, and we do have an 8-bit bitdepth limit. I don’t know if this is just a carry over from the 2nd gen device which would not play 10-bit video or if it is intentional. I’m looking into this limit.
1 Like
Yes, the Video is 10-bit:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="Filme" librarySectionUUID="4fb71d08-57e5-475a-8de8-a6dac50c4880" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1527172021">
<Video>
<Media videoResolution="4k" id="3553" duration="6486240" bitrate="20483" width="3840" height="1608" aspectRatio="2.35" audioChannels="8" audioCodec="truehd" videoCodec="hevc" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" videoProfile="main 10" title="Original">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="4799" key="/library/parts/4799/1518119705/file.mkv" duration="6486240" file="/mnt/drive/movies/Deadpool (2016).mkv" size="16607492804" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="2" requiredBandwidths="47522,42676,36327,34081,32143,30663,24041,22460" videoProfile="main 10">
<Stream id="16648" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="19075" bitDepth="10" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="bt2020" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt2020nc" colorTrc="smpte2084" frameRate="23.976" height="1608" level="153" profile="main 10" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="40521,34272,30221,28052,26129,24658,17650,16075" width="3840" displayTitle="Unknown (HEVC Main 10)" />
<Stream id="16649" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="dca" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="768" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" profile="dts" requiredBandwidths="768,768,768,768,768,768,768,768" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="Deutsch (DTS 5.1(side))" />
<Stream id="16650" streamType="2" codec="truehd" index="2" channels="8" bitrate="5024" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="7.1" bitDepth="24" requiredBandwidths="6888,6464,5413,5259,5220,5220,5220,5220" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (TRUEHD 7.1)" />
<Stream id="16651" streamType="2" codec="ac3" index="3" channels="6" bitrate="640" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="640,640,640,640,640,640,640,640" samplingRate="48000" displayTitle="English (AC3 5.1(side))" />
<Stream id="16652" streamType="3" selected="1" default="1" forced="1" codec="srt" index="4" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="Deutsch (SRT Forced)" />
<Stream id="16653" streamType="3" codec="srt" index="5" bitrate="0" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1" displayTitle="English (SRT)" />
<Stream id="16654" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="6" bitrate="33" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" requiredBandwidths="48,48,48,48,48,48,48,48" displayTitle="Deutsch (PGS)" />
<Stream id="16655" streamType="3" codec="pgs" index="7" bitrate="42" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="52,52,52,52,52,52,52,52" displayTitle="English (PGS)" />
</Part>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
Thank you for looking into this!
Hi there!
I’m bringing this up again.
Is there a solution for this problem by now?
I’ve encountered the same problem: Kodi says “yes” and do a direct play - Plex says “no”
1 Like
I’m having the same issue. 10bit HEVC videos are transcoded when played through the native Fire TV Plex app- but can be direct played/streamed fine through the Plex Kodi add-on.
I realize this post is old, but I did a bit of research and wanted to post an update for any others who might find this in the future (or are still struggling with it).
I sideloaded Plex for Android on my Fire TV (Gen 2) running Fire OS 5.2.7.2: https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/device-specifications-fire-tv-pendant-box.html?v=ftvgen2. HEVC 10-bit direct playback works with Plex v4.25.2.588. It does not work with Plex v4.26.2.654 (or any subsequent versions). Whatever change was made in between those versions caused it to stop working.
When playing an HEVC 10-bit file in v4.25.x (or earlier), a message pops up that says “Optimizing for Ultra HD Playback” and playback then works as expected. That doesn’t appear in later versions.
Details for v4.25.2.588:
Details for v4.26.2.654+
Those version numbers are wrong. The latest Plex app on the Fire TV should be 7.25.0.
No…those are correct. I had to sideload an older version of Plex in order to get HEVC 10-bit direct playback working. Direct playback is not working with v7.25.0.
On anything higher than 6.12, Plex refuses to even transcode HEVC Main 10 files, let alone direct play them, on the Fire TV Stick.
