NVIDIA Shield client will not direct play HEVC High tier files

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: 1.25.6.5577
Player Version#: 8.30.1.31022 (b7faf36f)

Hi,

I am having an issue, which (after some investigation) appears to be that my NVIDIA Shield client Plex app will not direct play HEVC High Tier files - e.g., according to MediaInfo those with:

Format Profile       Main 10@L5@High

My shield is connected to a 1080p (non HDR!) TV. Many 4K HDR files work fine and direct play. These High Tier ones do not.

Higher bitrate 4K HDR files can direct play absolutely fine as long as they are:

Format Profile       Main 10@L5@Main

Is this a bug? Or something that’s just not possible on the NVIDIA Shield Plex Client? These files also all work OK on Kodi. :slight_smile:

Many thanks.

James

2

Example from log of a file that won’t play:

Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.411 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: 10-bit HEVC test succeeded
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mkv
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 37103
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): Direct Play is disabled
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): selected audio stream is not the first audio stream and direct play stream selection is not enabled
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/eac3
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): selected sidecar subtitle stream cannot be direct played
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/truehd
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): selected sidecar subtitle stream cannot be direct played
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/ac3
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): selected sidecar subtitle stream cannot be direct played
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/ac3
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): selected sidecar subtitle stream cannot be direct played
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.414 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] My video File - video.colorTrc limitation applies: smpte2084 != bt709|bt470m|smpte240m|smpte170m|bt470bg|bt2020-10 [list]
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.415 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: My video File (The year): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.415 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.415 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: testing hevc (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
Feb 24, 2022 11:29:40.415 [0x7efcdf80ab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi```
3

there’s a new “experience” update that I did last week or so? Installed?

4

Yes, I’m on the “latest and greatest”

5

Very happy to provide logs for this issue. I have had a look at playing back the same video file on both NVIDIA Shields that I have (one where it works, and one where it doesn’t).

The two logs aren’t really anything alike as far as I can tell (though they are both very busy!) so I may have missed something. But it’s hard to see why one decides to play whilst the other doesn’t. They just seem to go down completly sepearate paths.

If someone can be a little specific about what I should provide, happy do so!

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I’m still seeing the colorspace incompatibility that you had in your other issue.

Can you post the Plex XML info, or the MediaInfo for a video that works and one that doesn’t?

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Thanks for response. To be clear - it’s the same issue, I just don’t get it. Some 4K HDR files work; some don’t. The distinguishing feature seems to be whether they are High Tier or not.

I’ll download some of the corresponding info now.

8

3 that work OK:

3 that don’t:

Thanks again for your help and responses.

9

If the “high” tier is the issue, there should be something in the server logs about it being invalid in regards to the profile (Augmented Shield TV).

You can check again or attach the entire log entry for the video, not just the snippet above.

11

Here’s a log of the file playing on the shield that’s connected to the new OLED TV, where it works:

Here’s one on the other shield attached to an old TV where it does’t work:

I’m afraid I can’t make head nor tail of the logs, so, whilst I think I have included at least enough of the timeframe of the log, I don’t know which bits I should be concentrating on!

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And here’s the corresponding mediainfo details:

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I’m a little confused. I thought you were saying the the 1080p TV was playing “Main” but not “High”. It makes sense that your OLED TV has no issues as it’s HDR capable.

My 1080p SDR TV can’t play my HEVC HDR videos without transcoding and it has the same colorspace reason that your logs do. All of mine are “Main”.

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… That’s correct. This is a “high” file
It does not direct play on the 1080p TV. It does on the 4k one.

Have I stated something different elsewhere?

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This obviously makes it even weirder though. My “main” files work ok on my Nvidia shield on the 1080p TV, no issues.

But your client (is it a shield?) doesn’t play “main” files?

Should I share a fuller log of a successful “Main” file on the 1080p TV?

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I have a 2019 Shield Tube (9.0.1 SW) directly connected to the 1080p TV in a guest bedroom.

Yes, the successful logs on your 1080p TV would be interesting to see.

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This one successfully works on the (2017) Shield connected to a 1080p TV.

Log:

Corresponding MediaInfo information:

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My bad, the Shield TV client logs are what needs to be compared, not the server logs.

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All good, thanks for your help with this. That’ll have to wait until tomorrow. :slight_smile:

20

Had a bit of a meltdown at home and wasn’t able to do this, but I now think that hardware transcoding my not be working at all on my server, so I’ve started a new thread!

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