Server: 1.27.0.5897
Player: Latest (out of box after firmware update)
I just received an Nvidia Shield Pro to use as a dedicated Plex client that can handle Dolby Vision and Atmos.
According to Tautulli the video is playing direct play, audio set to passthrough and DV and Atmos logos appear on the screen, but every few minutes I get buffering - this was happening on all other DV capable devices I have as well (hence why I got the shield). The shield was the recommended device according to the internet when it comes to DV and atmos… so I’m confused why I’m getting buffering for direct play.
The Xbox Series X (which I tried too) couldn’t handle DV movies at all without garbling up the audio and video.
Would greatly appreciate some insight as to what’s causing the buffering, server is on the same LAN everything hardwired.
UPDATE Helps if you re-analyze files after replacing them. I am still seeing some weird behavior though, the files are playing fine but on some of them the Atmos logo pops up a couple of times throughout playback. It’s playing, so I’m happy - but it does seem like it’s possibly a bug?
Analysis checks the details of the file to it knows how to correctly playback on the client device. It usually runs during scheduled tasks. AFAIK much of that is figuring out how bit rate changes throughout the file which if often varies wildly.
You’re correct about scheduled tasks, it just hadn’t run in the timeframe I was doing all of this so it required me manually running analysis. Not a big deal.
The repetitive Atmos logo is a little odd though. This happens when I have the sound on the TV set to dolby digital plus (allows for atmos), the soundbar I have also supports Atmos, but if I set the TV to passthrough the Atmos logo doesn’t show, and Tautulli still shows as direct play but just says TrueHD 7.1 so I don’t have any indicator that the Atmos sound is working, unless TrueHD and Atmos are one in the same?
Doesn’t show on TV or soundbar? I’m not sure what brand TV you have but guessing since the TV isn not doing the processing and passing it along to the end device soundbar it does not show.
Atmos and trueHD are not the same. TrueHD is more like your standard surrounds with 8 channels, and what Atmos has if I recall are sounds objects that can be processed different speakers dynamically in a 360 sorta layout so you have have things like ceiling speakers. Afaik Atmos has a trueHD fallback ,sorta like DTS-MA has a DTS core. (I’m sure there are websites that can explain it much better than I ever could)
If you only have a soundbar not sure how much difference Atmos would make over TrueHD.
Ah yeah sorry, giving model names etc helps a bit.
I’ve got a Hisense 55U78G and a Samsung Q950a soundbar (has rear satellite speakers). I can’t say I’ve seen any indicator on the soundbar other than D.IN eArc but I’ll have to double check - I only just got it so I’m not too familiar with it yet.
I do believe that if I have the TV on passthrough the audio should still be atmos, both the shield and soundbar are atmos compatible, I just haven’t seen an indicator on the soundbar so I’ll have to take a closer look. At the end of the day, it’s direct playing - looks and sounds good, done deal.
Thank you again for the responses and information
I just finished researching the difference between trueHD and atmos and you’re correct, they’re different.
Not to overtake the thread but having an issue with some 4k content giving me an unable to play media error message. I have hw transcoding enabled so not sure why it’s not even attempting to transcode. The file plays fine in kodi though…any ideas?
Hi! I do have tone mapping enabled, I dont actually want to transcode but I just included that info to show that it doesnt attempt any type of transcode. I know this isnt a lot of info but I was watching S01 of Game of Thrones in 4k DoVi in the native plex app. The first episode played fine and then the 2nd episode this error popped up. I changed my player to kodi which played the file fine but not all of my 4k has an HDR fallback so just want to pinpoint what the issue might be.
Ill try to provide some info when im back at my desk! How exactly do i pull yhose kind of logs? Im running pms in a docker on my unraid swrvers…guessing not the logs of the container since thats not showing me anything. You reminded me about something else with analyIng. I have intro markers enabled si im pretty sure theyre all analyzed on add. Odd thing is, my skip intro for these files was just goikg to 30 seconds but sidnt actually skip the entire intro…never seen that happen before.
You can grab the PMS logs by going to Settings > Troubleshooting > Download Logs in the webui, for the client (if needed) I’ve never grabbed them (yet) from my shield, but instructions should be below.
The Intro markers I believe Plex uses audio fingerprinting to determine when the “theme music” etc is playing (I think) and it tries to get each episode to the exact same spot, it’s hit and miss with accuracy (within 1-2 seconds) but I haven’t had any problems with it.
I would maybe try the Plex Dance with files where the intro detection is wonky. Should force it to find new markers I would imagine because it thinks it’s a whole new file.
You and me both! Lol I feel like my setup is exceeding my knowledge/know-how too quickly so I’m constantly researching to try and keep up!
This is my first real attempt at messing with 4K and Dolby Vision/Atmos, so it’s been quite an adventure :P. I’ll continue to help out where I can!
appreciated! I wish i knew hdr fallback was a thing when i started finding dovi files lol bow im swapping back ajd forth with kodi depending on issues haha
Oooh man, I feel your pain. It was maybe a week after I got my first DV movie that my cousin messaged me saying it was purpleish looking. So I had to look it up and discovered the HDR fallback and died a bit inside… Now I’m redoing all of my 4K’s as well lol.
I may have been too hasty in thinking this issue was resolved.
I’m attempting to play a movie with DV and Atmos (again), whether the TV audio is set to Dolby or passthrough, I’m still getting buffering - it’s worse on some movies than others. Tautulli still shows video, audio and container as direct play on the Shield. I’ve analyzed the file twice and it didn’t help this time.
I tried enabling network logging on the Shield and reproducing the issue, but I couldn’t find the entries in the logs.
John Wick which was working yesterday is now giving me the same issue again.
Update Turns out Plex just doesn’t like Atmos period… Trying to play The Shallows now which only has HDR with Atmos and still getting the buffering. Kinda leaving a sour taste in my mouth.
John Wich with DV and just 5.1 also buffers so I really have no clue what gives…
I have Dolby processing enabled on the Shield if that’s what you mean. I didn’t see any other settings that could be adjusted for it.
The HDMI cable that came with the shield I believe is 2.1 (I guess I’ll have to double check now). I had it plugged into my soundbar just now to test, but if I do that I lose the Dolby Vision, only way for me to get DV and Atmos is by connecting to the TV, the TV supports Atmos and the soundbar supports Atmos, so really in my eyes it should just work. Only factor I can see now would be the HDMI cable, I’ll have to check what cable came with the Shield and check the cable going from the TV to the soundbar to see if it’s 2.1.
