And one more.
Never used Plex before, kind of sad that the first time I use I had to search “why the hell it’s transcoding my files I know my TV can play it!” and found this topic 
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I just became aware of this thread so I’m providing answers where I can.
The processor in the Panasonic TVs are not very powerful. This is one of the reasons our new v2 app has not been released to these older TVs.
It is a problem with the TV. When using DLNA, that uses a specially made video player and does not rely on the hardware. Our app can only use the native capabilities of the TV, which does not support AVI.
Again, an issue with the built in video player. It does not support direct playing subtitles.
That is a limitation of our app. I don’t have any info if/when this may change.
As mentioned above, your TV doesn’t have the processing power to run the new app. It’s like trying to run Windows 10 on an old 486 computer.
Again, die to hardware and some software limitations these features couldn’t be added to the app. Only our newer v2 app supports these features.
The Plex app is free. Not sure what you paid for.
If you are referring to hevc, it’s not a bug. The app and your TV doesn’t support direct playing hevc.
The answers above are mostly related to non-UHD Panasonic TVs. We have yet to test our new app on newer UHD TVs so it’s possible the v2 app will appear on those devices in the future. We will release that new v2 app to other platforms as we go through our testing, but be aware that the TV needs to have newer, better processor and OS for the app to run. This typically will mean only UHD TVs. Even non-UHD Samsung and non-UHD LG TVs can’t run the new app.
Just to add: I have a 2018 UHD Panasonic - it can play HEVC on DLNA, using the subtitles encoded on the MKV only on this case.
HEVC and external subtitles work OK if form a network share or USB drive.
So for me at least there is hope.
It’s my first time using Plex and I loved the interface.
What kind of ETA can we normally expect in a situation like this? Dont get me wrong - make it work in 2020 and I will still love you, I’m just asking to see how how frequently I will check this topic.
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Using the DLNA player is not a good indicator as that may use special software decoding to handle certain situations. I don’t know what UHD Panasonic devices the team has, but it is scheduled to look at all the brands we support. I don’t have any timeframes.
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Hello MovieFan,
Thanks for your feedback.
Don’t get me wrong but it doesn’t convince me very well…
I don’t know the details of how the TV works inside, but you mentioned that for DLNA there is a “special player” ?! Well, its certainly an app that is powered by a processor, right? Something will have to give the power to that player to render the frames and subtitles. So it must be executed inside the TV.
To put DLNA out of the equation, I just tried another scenario, by putting two different files (MP4 and MKV) on a USB pen, and attached it to the TV. The can play it without any issues, either with subtitles or without. Again, where does the power to play the video come from?
So, my ask is that since an app v2 is to be tested on all brands PLEX supports, do give it a try for these old TVs as you mentioned. There are a lot of gents and laddies out there that would benefit from it.
I am a PLEX Pass holder and use it everyday on my mobile in the car (which reminds me need to open another issue :-), my kids use it every hour on their toys room to play movies (Samsung TV), with a great experience. PLEX transformed their lives and the way they consume media. If i had the chance to use it better on my Panasonic TV, would be lovely and am pretty sure would consume even more media.
My suggestion would be to create a beta program and would be more than available to provide PLEX feedback about the real experience from end user perspective. I understand that based on SoC capabilities there could be limitations, but this could turn into some features being disabled (dimmed) on the UI. You do this for Android versions for example, when the device doesn’t support certain features. Trust me, i’m not here to judge PLEX dev team, and am available to collaborate. Not a problem. Just give the chance for us to help you.
Regards,
Johnny Bravo
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So let me give you an update in this thread, my previous attempt at getting this issue fixed involved providing a log as requested on the file I was playing but after that I got no further responses since the forum was upgraded or any other attempts afterwards.
So let me tell you some of the previous information I gave:
TV - Panasonic TX-50CX700B
Sound - Sonos Playbase (Optical)
NAS - Synology 1815+
Handbrake MP4 (H.265), AAC, AC3
Now lets take the only variable, like Aristofeles if I play a film via the Synology media server (DLNA) I get no transcoding but as soon as I play exactly the same file through Plex it transcodes H.265 down to H.264 which just isn’t good on a 1815+.
I was hoping to offset it slightly by using the Chromecast but as you know from the other thread using it results in AC3 sound not working so in the end I’m stuck to DLNA to stop transcoding and getting AC3 sound.
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Let me try to clarify some more. When playing a video, not with Plex, such as from another DLNA server or from the USB drive, the software you are using is Panasonic’s video player. This is the code they wrote to play videos. The OS they run, some version of Opera, also has code to play videos. The OS is limited and can only support specific codecs. Panasonic’s code bypasses the OS code and handles everything within it’s own code. This allows that code to support additional codecs that the OS cannot. The Plex app does not have it’s own code to play video. It uses the code from the OS, which is why codec support is hardware dependent. We can’t use Panasonic’s code to give us the same abilities.
Think of the Windows OS and their built in photo viewer. It can view bmp, jpg, gif and a few others. But it can’t view pdf or Apple’s new aiff format or any type of video files. A program dependent on the OS would be limited to the same things. Notice that Windows file explorer which works at the OS level can generate preview icons for these formats, but not others. This is Plex. Put if you have PhotoShop, you can see in it’s UI, previews for almost any format. This is the Panasonic player.
The solution would be for Plex to write a native player app. This may happen in the future, but it’s not easy. Plex did do this with PMP and Android, where we now have our own player so we can support more codecs that the device itself does not natively. Starting to appear on Apple now too.
For you, this is a newer UHD TV, which does support HEVC. Our older app isn’t able to detect hevc support, which is why you still can’t play HEVC even though it is technically supported. You will need to wait for our new app which can detect hevc support. It is just a matter of time before the v2 app makes it to Panasonic.
This is something that could happen. We did this for LG where we allowed users to opt into the new app. We still need to go through internal testing before releasing anything, even for Beta. We’re just not there yet for Panasonic.
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Thanks for the information, that is all I needed to know.
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Yes, thanks for giving a thorough run down of the current situation. Fingers crossed that the HEVC support for newer UHD TVs comes at some point.
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Okay… just for me to understand. The currend Plex Client 3.13.21 does not realise that he is running on a UHD platform.
I tested yesterday a lot and will run some test with konsole protokolls when i’m alone on my server.
But one thing I can already say. I have the same result with the Plex client PS4pro but NOT the AppleTV4k. AppleTV4k can do it.
Sort of the opposite. The TV’s don’t tell the Plex client that it supports UHD.
The Apple TV client is totally different so you can’t compare. But it does say it supports UHD.
+1 for pushing a beta program. I’m seeing a deeply frustrating issue where playback stops at 94:51 and would be very keen to test a beta of the new app to see if that resolves the issue.
I’ve got a (2015) TX-55CX802B which can play UHD & HDR natively, just not through Plex. The TV reports itself as using the HTML TV App profile which appears to have significantly limited capability/compatibility in comparison to the Samsung and even 2013 Sony TV profiles. The Panasonic 3D TV profile does not appear to be compatible with my TV.
I have just brought a (2018) TX-55FX600Z and used Plex, a little slow starting up than my ATV4.
I would like to see in the new version for TV show episodes to advance to the next one after it has finished, not to automatically play but there ready for you to press play instead on going back to play it.
+1 for testing beta app.
I believe all clients will be going UNO, like Roku, apple TV 4. So it’s a waiting game.
I was using an older LG WebOS 1.4 and all you can do is limit the apps installed and Try Uninstall, Restart TV from wall, Remove the authorised device from PMS, Update your server to the latest, re install the TV client. Often this can result in better UI performance. Also Try Dim instead of Blur for TV app Background.
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Getting a little tired of waiting as well to be honest, DX-902b here. The .265 issue plus it stopping on films longer than 94mins and having to go quit the app and go back in is a right pain.
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Well it isn’t much longer now until the initial release arrived on Panasonic TVs nearly 1 year ago.
I have a recent Panasonic TV (2018 FX750) which should have reasonable on board computer, support HEVC, 4k, UHD etc. so disappointed the Plex app doesn’t support this functionality. Would be great to get a beta program or someway to sideload the new Plex app on newer Panasonic TVs.
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Are there any news about h265 with play on Panasonic TVs? The official Plex App for Panasonic ist vom May 2018
I have to say this isn’t very impressive after the initial positive response.
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I gave up a few months ago, it seems we’re not seeing any improvement, that’s lame and I don’t want to waste my time any longer with this service which, apparently, doesn’t try to appeal to people like me looking for video quality.
So I bought a standalone video file player (a Zappiti 4K HDR, could be a NVidia Shield too for example), and hooked HDDs to it. Everything is played without any transcoding, it’s great, and I can use the Panasonic remote to control most of the player (but not turning it on or off, nor access advanced options).
UI isn’t as good as Plex, but in the end, what matters the most is the movie.
Yeah, I’m not bringing much to the discussion, but maybe some people are in the same situation I was, wondering what to do and waiting for something that’s not happening. Standalone player did the trick for me, no more Plexing.
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