Server Version#: 1.28.2.6151
Player Version#: 9.1.0.32210 and 9.7.0.34811 (tested on both, the issue remains on both)
So for a couple of years now, I’ve run with separate 1080p and 4K libraries - for both Movies and TV Shows. My main TV/client setup is an NVidia Shield (2017 version), an LG CX OLED TV, and a Denon AVR-X3400H - and I’m hard-wired to gigabit ethernet. Watching 4K (HDR or DV) has worked just fine with this setup.
However, I recently switched to a combined Movies library and combined TV Shows library - in hopes that Plex would automatically select the proper version, based on each client - so that I could move away from separate 4K plex libraries.
Unfortunately, my first test with my above setup doesn’t seem to be working. In a combined library, I’ll navigate to a Movie or Show that I know I have both 1080p and 4K copies of, and I can see on the item’s detail page that it says 4K for it’s resolution. However, when I hit play, it plays the 1080p copy. If I instead hit the triple dot button on the item detail page, go to ‘select version,’ and manually select the 4K item from the list, the 4K HDR/DV playback starts fine.
Any ideas of how I can get Plex to automatically select the 4K version, for a setup that should have no issues playing 4K? I tried it with a half dozen movies and shows, and they all defaulted to the 1080p playback when letting Plex choose.
Player version 9.1 is kind of old (from April). Have you tried updating to a more recent version?
The 4k version plays for me (2019 Shield Pro → Samsung HW-Q70T → Sony Bravia X950G)
Note that 9.6 introduced a bug with default playback and 4k HDR / 1080p multi-version files when subtitles are pre-enabled (the subs won’t be enabled). Using “Select Version” is the current workaround.
I had the same issue with 4K HDR but standard 4K movies works as expected. What I found was that I had to go to my TV settings and set the HDMI port that the Shield was connected to as an HDR compatible port. Once that was done, then Plex started to select the 4K HDR movies.
I went digging through all of my LG CX TV settings, and couldn’t find anything about enabling a port to be HDR compatible. My shield is plugged into HDMI 2 on my LG CX, for what it’s worth. Any other thoughts?
From a settings walkthrough article on that model:
“For HDR to work from external devices, the Ultra HD Deep Color option usually has to be enabled from the ‘Additional Settings’ menu for the input you are using.”
I did find that setting, and it was already enabled (and has been for a year+). I tried disabling it, restarted the TV and the Shield, and it still didn’t work. So then I re-enabled it back on, but still no dice. I’m at a loss here…
The Shield gets supported formats over the HDMI port. If the TV or AVR does not report that the port supports HDR then Plex will not select the HDR movie.
