Pixelation - Sony Android TV

Plex Players Streaming Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.16.5.1554
Player Version#: 7.20.0.11992 (a0514e20)

I’ve noticed in the last month that programs I have recorded from live tv have started showing pixelation near the bottom of the screen and sometimes on other portions of the screen. It also seems to affect shows that were recorded months ago, so I don’t believe it is a recording issue, rather a playback issue.

It only affects the Android TV client running on my Sony TVs. If I play the same recording back through my mobile phone (Android) or the web or my Samsung (smart hub) tv then it plays just fine.

I am using Direct Play, if I force it to transcode the pixelation goes away. However I am also Direct playing through my mobile and my samsung tv and there are no pixelation issues.

If this isn’t a known issue then I’ll provide logs.

Here is the xml file for an affected video:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="15" librarySectionTitle="Recorded TV" librarySectionUUID="d54f3c2a-aafc-4861-8edc-9fd2fd4d0872" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1566300724">

<Video ratingKey="44611" key="/library/metadata/44611" skipParent="1" grandparentRatingKey="44560" guid="tv.plex.xmltv://episode/Celebrity%20Treasure%20Island/2019/3"parentGuid="tv.plex.xmltv://season/Celebrity%20Treasure%20Island/2019" grandparentGuid="tv.plex.xmltv://show/Celebrity%20Treasure%20Island" librarySectionTitle="Recorded TV"librarySectionID="15" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/15" type="episode" title="Celebrity Treasure Island" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/44560" grandparentTitle="Celebrity Treasure Island" parentTitle="Season 2019" summary="Tonight on Celebrity Treasure Island: Mako get their first chance to earn some cold hard cash for their charity. And things get heated in a tense face-off challenge; leaving one team feeling the burn." index="3" parentIndex="2019" viewOffset="2945741" lastViewedAt="1566688919"thumb="/library/metadata/44611/thumb/1566289810" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/44560/thumb/1566115510" duration="3601145" originallyAvailableAt="2019-08-20" addedAt="1566289801"updatedAt="1566289810">

<Media id="143183" duration="3601145" bitrate="6836" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="ac3" videoCodec="h264" videoResolution="1080"container="mpegts" videoFrameRate="PAL" channelIdentifier="2" mediaGrabBeginsAt="1566286200" mediaGrabDevice="device://tv.plex.grabbers.hdhomerun/1251AD53" mediaGrabStatus="complete"origin="dvr" videoProfile="high">

<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="148764" key="/library/parts/148764/1566289799/file.ts" duration="3601145" file="E:\Media\Recorded TV\Celebrity Treasure Island\Season 2019\Celebrity Treasure Island - S2019E03 - Celebrity Treasure Island.ts" size="3358209972" container="mpegts" deepAnalysisVersion="4" indexes="sd" packetLength="188"requiredBandwidths="7972,7724,7277,6986,6986,6986,6986,6986" videoProfile="high">

<Stream id="314700" streamType="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="6255" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv"colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="25.000" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="1080" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="4"requiredBandwidths="7389,7142,6695,6413,6413,6413,6413,6413" scanType="interlaced" separateFields="1" streamIdentifier="256" width="1920" displayTitle="1080i (H.264)"/>

<Stream id="314701" streamType="2" codec="aac_latm" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="96" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="he-aac"requiredBandwidths="96,96,96,96,96,96,96,96" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="257" displayTitle="English (AAC_LATM Stereo)"/>

<Stream id="314702" streamType="2" codec="aac_latm" index="2" channels="2" bitrate="96" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="he-aac"requiredBandwidths="96,96,96,96,96,96,96,96" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="258" displayTitle="English (AAC_LATM Stereo)"/>

<Stream id="314703" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="ac3" index="3" channels="6" bitrate="384" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)"requiredBandwidths="384,384,384,384,384,384,384,384" samplingRate="48000" streamIdentifier="259" displayTitle="English (AC3 5.1)"/>

<Stream id="314704" streamType="3" codec="dvb_subtitle" index="4" bitrate="5" language="English" languageCode="eng" requiredBandwidths="7,7,7,7,7,7,7,7" streamIdentifier="260"displayTitle="English (DVB_SUBTITLE)"/>

</Part>

</Media>

<Extras size="0"> </Extras>

</Video>

</MediaContainer>
2

@DaveBinM - how do I get some assistance with this?

3

Please don’t ping me directly on things, but perhaps a sample would help us look at this?

4

Sorry for pinging you. But the Android TV client has lots of issues and has for some time. It’s very frustrating and there is no easy way to raise these issues.

If you can direct someone that knows more about the Android TV client I would be happy to follow instructions and provide whatever is needed for someone to look into this.

5

Can you provide the model of your TV, logs from client and server, as well as a sample file, please?

6

Sure thing. The only thing I’m not sure on is how to get logs from the TV client - are you able to point me to a guide?

Thanks.

7

Never mind I think I figured it out.

Server and client logs and a sample file have been PM’d to you.

Other details are:
TV Model: KD-49X7500F (Sony)
Time index where I see pixelation is at 16:21. This occurred at 15:59:00 (I skipped back a couple of times). There is plenty of other bits with pixelation, but that is the bit I watched while logging.

8

@DaveBinM - logs are uploaded now. Are you able to copy them locally so I can remove them? If not I will set a password and PM you the password.

9

I just watched some live TV and noticed the same issue occuring on several different channels.

Hopefully that information will also help to track down the problem.

10

@DaveBinM - sorry to ping you directly. Just wondering if there has been any progress at all? Happy to provide more logs if needed. Hopefully you also passed on my other feedback, that it happens even when I watch live TV.

11

Sorry, I’m still making my way through it all! I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. :slight_smile:

1 Like
12

I’ve been able to reproduce that issue (hello from across the ditch!), and I’ll work with our Android team to see what we can do :slight_smile:

13

Oh bonza! Thanks that is great news.

14

Hi @DaveBinM - has any progress been made on this one?

Cheers!

15

I’ve passed it along to our Android team, but nothing concrete yet, it’s still being investigated.

16

Thanks very much

17

Hi Dave, it’s been awhile and I’m still getting this issue on all recorded shows. Is it still being worked on?

I’m afraid if it’s not addressed soon I’ll be sending the NZ cricket team over to deal to your rabble in the test series.

Cheers.

18

Hi @DaveBinM, sorry to tag you directly. Is there an update for this one?

Because I didn’t hear back from you I have let your team off with the first test - but I won’t be so lenient when it comes to the boxing day test I’m afraid.

19

Sorry, been super busy recently! We’ve looked into this, and it seems to be specific to some Sony Android TV models, but not others, and we believe it’s to do with the chipset in those models. From our own testing, it appears to be limited to 2016 models (usually containing the letter D in the model name). We’ve been unable to reproduce this on 2015, 2018, or 2019 models (we don’t have access to a 2017 model at this time). Could you please let me know the model of your TV?

20

That’s all good and thanks for the information.

I have two Sony TV’s and they are both exhibiting the same behaviour.

Sony KD-55X8500E (2017)
Sony KD-49X7500F (2018)