Server Version#: 1.32.6.7521
Player Version#: 5.69.1
It appears that it’s a simple issue that AV1 is not in the profile for Samsung’s TVs:
Sep 23, 2023 13:34:24.306 [140469719178040] Info — [Req#1e81] [Plex for Samsung] [RyanHakurei:a6fwp37im4wuwo09469ycg43] [MDE] Application decision, directPlay: false, directStreamVideo: false, directStreamAudio: true
Sep 23, 2023 13:34:24.306 [140469719178040] Info — [Req#1e81] [Plex for Samsung] [RyanHakurei:a6fwp37im4wuwo09469ycg43] Cannot direct play with protocol: http, codec: av1. Not found in profile.
Sep 23, 2023 13:34:24.306 [140469719178040] Info — [Req#1e81] [Plex for Samsung] [RyanHakurei:a6fwp37im4wuwo09469ycg43] Cannot direct stream with protocol: dash, codec: av1. Not found in profile.
Sep 23, 2023 13:34:24.306 [140469719178040] Info — [Req#1e81] [Plex for Samsung] [RyanHakurei:a6fwp37im4wuwo09469ycg43] videoStream: {
Yet, as per my TV’s own user manual + testing with playing the media files directly, AV1 is supported. I have tried manually adding AV1 to Samsung’s profile, but it still wants to transcode which leads to intermittent playback failures (seems to depend if I use aomenc or svt-av1, but both will request a transcode regardless).
some tvs can play some files directly/via their internal player (ie from usb/dlna/etc), that cannot play the same files through apps.
It is a security boundary, where native manufacturer apps have more functionality than is exposed to 3rd party apps.
This has been happening from the beginning of ‘smart tvs’.
you can test this by trying any other 3rd party app and see if it will play the requested file.
TLDR: I don’t think this is plex specific, as native media player has more direct access than 3rd party apps. But, that is just my guess based on previous tvs and their limitations.
My Q60B tv (2022 QLED) from Samsung supports AV1 from usb sticks, and I have successfully got it to play an AV1 file in the (3rd party) “Smart IPTV” app.
The TV’s Youtube app will play in AV1 so it’s not an issue that it’s locked down to Samsung’s apps only. This is a matter of Plex simply not having AV1 enabled in Tizen’s profile.
EDIT: Actually taking a look at it the TV seems to heavily prefer playing in AV1 on Youtube as leaving the stats for nerds active shows that the majority of videos I opened in the past few minutes (after this video I found on an AV1 test playlist) play in AV1. It seems that as long as Youtube has an AV1 encode for the video it’ll pick it every time.
I have also been investigating this - AV1 should be available to third party apps based on the Samsung developer site specifications, and as you said, other apps can already play them fine.
It seems like the only thing left missing would be the Plex profile update ?
Which, unfortunately, Plex doesn’t support custom profiles anymore so you can’t force direct play using a custom profile. Disabling transcoding will just cause the media to not play at all.
Same here with a Samsung QN85CA.
I also configured Jellyfin to test the client with the master branch and it works.
I’d love to help, sideloading “beta” versions with sdb would not be a problem.
Same here with a Samsung QN85CA.
I also configured Jellyfin to test the client with the master branch and it works.
I’d love to help, sideloading “beta” versions with sdb would not be a problem.
How is Jellyfin these days? I just can’t get around how clunky the UI is but given there’s a way to sideload it into Tizen devices I may just make the switch if they have AV1 fully working. Only thing is is there an equivalent to Watch Together? That’s a killer feature for me and one of the few things Plex has added recently that’s actually pretty great even if there’s some hiccups here and there.
Since Plex seems to care more about pushing ad-backed content and now rentals instead of the power users that still make up their core base it may be worth switching. You’d think there’d be an option, even if hidden behind 20 warnings, to force enable codec support that’s not in the profile Plex has picked for your device with the caveat being if the media fails to play it fails to play tough luck, but no we have rentals instead. That could perhaps even be useful for Plex devs to test new devices and new codecs if power users are willing to help out.
I don’t really like it because it is slower than Plex on a DS218 (ARMv8 with only 2GB of RAM) and needs to be polished. As I understood there’s something like Watch Together called Watch Party, but never tried it.
There’s a way to sideload it using the official Samsung SDK (in particular sdb and tizen commands are needed), I saw also an unofficial repository that provides automatic builds that needs only to be sideloaded.
In the last months I thought many times to leave Plex for Jellyfin (also because I’d host my ePubs), but for me and my current NAS is something a bit too far…
If a Plex employee ever reads this, I’d be 100% willing to install the Samsung SDK to sideload test builds and provide any required logs to test this out.
I’ve noticed whatever the latest version of the plex app is on my Samsung (QE43Q60B) is able to direct play AV1, but only if I toggle the ‘Force Direct Play’ option in playback settings.
Of course, this issue causes some problems where some amount of transcoding is actually needed (eg: TrueHD 7.1 audio channels when the only aac in the file are director commentaries), but it’s a start.
I started a thread in “Feature Suggestions”–>>“Make Force Direct Play save per Movie”. So you can tag only that Movies, your TV can play, but PMS cannot transcode. A better way would be if Plex would adapt the TV profiles better to the capabilities of the smart TV and AV1 would be transferred via direct play.
