Nvidia Shield Pro 2019, What codecs work without transcoding?

[pembo13]

Server Version#: 1.25.2.5319
Player Version#: 8.28.2.29938

How can I tell what codecs I can play with Plex on my Nvidia Shield Pro without relying on the server doing transcoding?

For example “4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR)” seems to be triggering transcoding, and the server simply can’t keep up.

[Alucard1]

The shield will directly play just about anything you throw at it. I suspect there is another issue, look in the logs to see why it is transcoding.

[shark2k]

I suggest looking at this forum post about 4k and PLEX.

[INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k

NOTE: for 2022 – Plex has come a long way since this FAQ was originally written, HW transcoding has become more available and more stable, and tone mapping was recently added to address the hdr/sdr color conversion issues. The first 4 ‘rules’ generally are no longer as important as they once were, but may still be a good thing to bear in mind. Dolby Vision, is an entirely other mess. THIS thread/FAQ is NOT about DV. DV work is still in progress, and there are no perfect TV’s or external devic…

There are many things that can trigger transcoding with 4k, so after going through that and making sure all your settings and your setup are good to handle 4k, then I would suggest looking at your logs.

-Shark2k

[pembo13]

Thanks, ended up being the need to explicitly enable HDR on the Shield 2019 Pro