First off, I am new to Plex and have searched online and through the forums here to find a solution. Let me start by explaining my issue:
Samsung UN65ES7500 - 65" 3D LED HDTV
Onkyo Receiver (I’ll get the Model Number when I get home) HDMI & 7.1
I have a handful of 3D movies and for some reason 2 of them are still giving me issues.
As of this date I’m caught up to the current releases of Plex & Plex App on Xbox One and PS3.
On my PC (i7, 8 Gigs Ram, Win 7 Pro, NVIDIA GeForce GTX465 x 2) They play SBS (Side-by-Side). No issues on the PC.
Now when I try playing them through the Apps, different story.
Xbox One, it only seems to play only one side because it shows up in 2D with no overlay, the best I can describe is that it registers one half and not the other, so it only shows it in 2D. The other movies show SBS and they work flawlessly.
Now the PS3, the SBS shows but the Anamorphic doesn’t register so it looks squished.
What I’ve tried to resolve the issue:
Changed the extension on the file (Title.half-sbs.mkv) to (Title.h-sbs.mkv)
Removed the movies, updated then added them back into the library, updated.
Separated my libraries, 3D movies were with my 2D movies. Now I made a separate 3D Movies & Movies. (Both of these 3D movies do not have 2D duplicates, just to clarify)
If there are any specifics that would help resolve this please be patient with me to get such resources together. Currently I’m not at home and when I do get home remember I’m still new at this.
I appreciate any help or assistance. I do have to admit, I’m very happy with Plex except for these issues and considering that this is it, I can’t complain too much. But now this issue has become a personal crusade that has kicked me while I’m down for not having a solution HAHAHA!
Hi there @awesomepantsfamily. Are the files being direct played on the Xbox One? If so, it would be your TV that needs to recognize it’s a 3D movie and display the correct image. Otherwise if the file is being transcoded we would need server logs to show exactly what’s happening.
If you mean if the files are being played directly on the Xbox one, no. If you mean if the files are on my PC linked by a router through Ethernet cable but played through the Xbox one by the Plex app, then yes.
I see there is a link for retrieving server logs, I will try to get this to you as quickly as I can. Thanks for your response.
There is an issue where the Xbox itself will detect the 3D stream and then it’s display out is automatically adjusted from 3D HSBS to a 2D display. There was some progress made in tracking down what the xbox was detecting but I don’t know if it was ever identified completely what triggers it.
Unfortunately, because it is the Xbox itself that is detecting the stream and changing the output display the only known solution is to transcode the file into a new format that blocks the Xbox from detecting the marker it is looking for.
Moussa is referring to Direct Play on the file. There is three modes of playback:
Direct Play - The file is sent directly as is to the device.
Direct Stream - Either the audio or the video stream needs to be transcoded and repackaged before being sent to the device.
Transcode - Everything in the file needs to be transcoded and repackaged before being sent to the device.
The most likely case above for you is the Direct Play route.
I am currently using “Direct Play”. BUT I will double check and make sure. I believe that it’s in the Xbox Plex App settings. I might be mistaken but I assumed that was only a setting for overall playback not a movie to movie setting.
Are there any suggested formats that will bypass the transcoding process?
Thanks for the post. I appreciate any input on this.
@awesomepantsfamily said:
I am currently using “Direct Play”. BUT I will double check and make sure. I believe that it’s in the Xbox Plex App settings. I might be mistaken but I assumed that was only a setting for overall playback not a movie to movie setting.
Direct Play is always the preferred Method as it is less stressful on the server. You are correct in that the setting in the app settings is an overall setting.
IE if you disable direct play from the settings menu then everything at a minimum will direct stream. This means at a minimum the file will be packaged for HLS streaming. But could also involve transcoding a stream if one of them is not compatible. If the server sees that neither is compatible the full file will transcode.
Are there any suggested formats that will bypass the transcoding process?
Unfortunately, I only had 1 file that was ever affected by this. And I did a full optimization of the file into an mp4 container with a video and audio transcode it was fixed.
It may be possible to try just disabling direct play which would cause the video and audio to copy into the HLS stream for playback (which will still be very light on the CPU) but I can’t remember if this was enough to remove what the Xbox One was detecting. (I can’t remember if it was detecting a parameter from the video stream itself or the header file for the container)
