Attached you’ll find logs from Plex Media Server and the AppleTV app. When I play movies from my Plex server in Infuse 6 or MrMC, they utilize Direct Play no problem… where as the exact same movies will utilize Direct Stream on video, and transcode on audio when playing in the Plex app. These movies are in MKV containers, HEVC/H265, 4K HDR10 or DV, audio varies but its usually DTS, DTS-MA, DTS-X, 5.1 or 7.1. You’ll see in the logs where I go to play the movie 1917 as an example.
I’ve tried using the old or new player. I’ve tried turning off Auto Adjust Quality, as previous posts have suggested, but its still Direct Streaming/Transcoding.
I’m a bit confused because I thought the new player for the Plex app on AppleTV was able to handle these files? And it can’t be an AppleTV issue when Infuse and MrMC can both play it just fine… right?
Are you sure Direct Play is enabled in the Apple TV Plex settings?
For anything mkv/hevc you’re gonna have to use the Enhanced player.
Also make sure your home streaming is set to Maximum quality.
From your logs:
Jan 31, 2021 13:51:33.067 [0x80f7aa000] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: 1917 (2019): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
Jan 31, 2021 13:51:33.067 [0x80f7aa000] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: 1917 (2019): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/truehd
Jan 31, 2021 13:51:33.067 [0x80f7aa000] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to codec truehd when profile only allows flac
Jan 31, 2021 13:51:33.067 [0x80f7aa000] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: 1917 (2019): selected media 0 / 8
Jan 31, 2021 13:51:33.067 [0x80f7aa000] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Added session 0x810c290d8:42E945E5-1116-42B9-8B2D-083B4F5893B4
Jan 31, 2021 13:51:33.068 [0x80f7aa000] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=4 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. No direct play video profile exists for protocol http, with container mkv, and video codec hevc. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=8 part=(id=8 decision=transcode container=mkv protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=16 decision=copy width=3840 height=2160) Audio=(id=17 decision=transcode bitrate=9000 encoder=flac channels=8 rate=48000))))
Yes, Direct Play is enabled, and home streaming is set to maximum quality.
You might see some different results in the logs because I tried both with and without the new enhanced player at the advice of some older posts on this forum. I didn’t see any difference in results between the two.
See attached logs. From about 11:10:45am to 11:11:20am I tested playback of the movie 1917. According to the PMS dashboard, the video utilizes Direct Stream and the audio is transcoding to FLAC. No Direct Play for either…
Unfortunately the conclusions FordGuy61 has drawn are inaccurate. Yes, it’s correct that the AppleTV 4K can not passthrough TrueHD or Atmos… but no, that does not mean that PMS must transcode to FLAC/PCM. What acribb is asking for is entirely possible, for PSM to Direct Play the file directly to the AppleTV and to allow the AppleTV itself to be the one that transcodes to FLAC/PCM for audio that it will not passthrough.
How do I know this? Because I’ve seen its possible myself already… As I’ve mentioned in the original post, both Infuse and MrMC (Kodi fork) can connect directly to PMS, and when testing movie 1917 they will both Direct Play video and audio to my AppleTV no problem, it shows right in the dashboard that its Direct Playing. It is ONLY when using the Plex app specifically on the AppleTV will it make PMS Direct Stream the video, and transcode the audio on this same file.
I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert here… but if Infuse can do it, and MrMC/Kodi can do it, why can’t the Plex app do it on the very same AppleTV connected to the very same PMS playing the same file? To me, that sounds like a Plex problem… not an AppleTV problem.
This was similar with AFTV. Kodi would happily direct play and PlexForKodi would also happily direct play. This was because the Kodi app had it’s own player that could handle the files.
The AFTV player couldn’t handle them so the Plex AFTV app also asked PMS to transcode. Plex kept on saying it wasn’t possible and ignored the fact that the PlexForKodi app could do it.
A couple of years later and they have improved elements of the Plex app on AFTV so it has better compatibility… still not perfect but better.
Bottom line is that it isn’t currently possible unless Plex improve the inbuilt player in the ATV app.
…or at least that’s my understanding.
That definitely seems to be the case. I wish a Plex employee would comment on if this is something they’re working on or not… It’s been a while now since the Plex Enhanced player came to the AppleTV, an improvement over the native player for sure… but it still lags so far behind what Kodi and Infuse have offered for basically forever… which is full native playback of any media you got (whether your device can output that content or not).
