Plex Always Transcodes/Converting HEVC, Ruining HDR

I have a Chromecast Ultra, and I just recently bought a UHD TV with HDR 10. I was hoping to fully enjoy all of my new features, but when I started to play .mkv videos through Plex I noticed the colours were completely washed out.

Upon further investigation, it seems that I can’t Direct Play any of my HVEC files. They are all forced to transcode, and the video image becomes washed out. I even tried playing directly in the browser, Chrome, on my PC (side-by-side comparison with VLC player). Any transcoding removes the HDR and makes the video worse than if it was non-HDR. Playing the file in VLC on the same PC looks great and the colours are full.

Is there a configuration, or a file change, that will allow me to force Direct Play, or allow the HVEC files to be played without being destroyed by Plex Media Server?

The Chromecast Ultra does support HEVC, but Plex not transcoding the HDR is the real killer right now.

Plex doesn’t seem to want to serve up HEVC to the Chromecast for some reason, and because of that, the transcoding kills the video colour quality.

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.