I finally got a modern TV, the Hisense U7k. It supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and HDR 10+. Naturally I am trying to see what Plex can do with HDR content now that I have an HDR display, but I am unable to play DV files.
For example, this .ts DV file cannot be played at all. Plex on my 2015 vintage Shield TV just says, “Error: Unable to play file.”
If I play it back on the web client, the error is more informative: it says “File is unplayable. DoVi (Profile 5) color space is not supported.”
I think I read somewhere than the 2019 Shield can play back more DV files… Anyone know if it can play back Profile 5 to a compatible display?
If I rip a disc with DV Profile 7, will Plex play Profile 7 or will it just play back the HDR10 core?
I am trying to catch up on like 10 years of HDR info overnight, this is all new to me. Is there a cheat sheet somewhere showing the various HDR file format limitations?
It direct plays for me on HTPC and Fire TV but I have a Samsung TV so the colors are trash. I don’t think the trees are supposed to be pink LOL.
I think the problem is that Plex can’t transcode profile 5 because they don’t have the license and it doesn’t have an HDR10 layer to fall back to
I would try to remux the file into mp4 or mkv and see if that’s what causing the attempted transcode
Other than that the only thing I can think of is to check the settings in the Hisense to make sure DV is enabled. I was actually eyeing that TV for the same reasons you mentioned
If you can’t get it to work you can ask FordGuy. He knows this topic inside and out
Interesting, thanks for checking. Clearly this is another place where the clients differ a lot.
I guess the core misconception that I have is this: if the display is capable of rendering the video stream, then the client shouldn’t have to do anything but push the data to the display. That is why I expected a DV profile 5 test file to play even on an old Shield with Plex; the TV supports it, Plex only has to push the bits up there. And a year or two back, some Plex clients would happily play a DV Profile 5 mkv in pink and green on an SDR display, if you accidentally got one instead of a Linux ISO. Now, I see that error message.
But clearly, playback is not as simple as, uh, playing back the file. Apparently the Shield would not play any DV content at all before the 2019 version.
In the TV, there’s only one setting related to HDR, and it’s on. (You have to make sure the HDMI port is set to “enhanced” mode.) Outside of this issue, which is not the TV’s fault, I am super happy. This TV at the current sale price feels like a real steal. But I can also confirm that the reviews’ main criticism is correct… Off-angle viewing suffers, at least on my 55" version. Some people say the larger TVs have different panels which may be better in that regard.
That’s interesting. I have a 2015 Shield pro and I was almost sure there was a setting to enable DV. I haven’t had it connected in so long I must be mixing it up with something else
Does that TV come with Google TV? I would install the Plex app on that and see if it works there
It does come with Google TV and I am going to try that… But I am really hoping to keep it in dumb TV mode and use the Shield if I can. I have a USB DAC hooked up to the Shield and this sends stereo to a pair of powered monitor speakers. If I have to use Plex on the TV then I’ll have to mess around with sound hookups again.
The Plex app on the TV’s own OS does play Dolby Vision files as expected. So, I am looking at a limitation of the old Shield box I have.
To switch to the TV OS, I have to see if I can still sideload the various apps I depend on. And, I still have to figure out how to get stereo audio out of the TV. It does have plenty of outputs though including analog headphones and optical so I will figure something out.
Interestingly, the Android TV OS can use the USB DAC that I have connected to my Shield box. If I plug it in, it immediately begins working without complaint. I guess all Android TV devices have the drivers. Unfortunately the TV OS does not include all the right settings for an external DAC. It does not appear in the list of sound options and there is no way to set it to variable volume so you can use the volume buttons on the remote control. It’s pinned at a fixed volume which unfortunately doesn’t work for me.
(Side note: I am returning/rebuying the TV since I lost the panel quality lottery, there are artifacts visible in some scenes that are driving me nuts.)
I hate to suggest to anyone that they spend money but as an alternative I would consider something like a Firestick 4k or 4k max. 25-40 bucks. The only obvious thing I see at a quick glance is 8gb vs 16gb of storage between the two, but I haven’t done a deep dive
It has Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR 10, HDR10+, HLG. As far as I know, none of the Shields have HDR10+ and won’t any time soon
Supports Dolby Atmos, 7.1 surround sound, 2-channel stereo, and HDMI audio pass through up to 5.1.
I know don’t laugh but I got a crazy deal on Craigslist for 30 bucks on an older Samsung soundbar. Ebay had some for around 200 so I figured there’s no way in hell this POS actually works but for that price I couldn’t help but gamble. Surprisingly it works and works well
Honestly audio problems are just as confusing to me as DV problems.
What a PITA, that you have to swap it out.
But if you can get a good replacement, I still don’t see a better deal right now.
I’ve the 2015 Shield Pro as well (Shield → Denon AVR → LG B7 OLED)
It plays the LG Amaze DVp5 video, but the colors are wrong.
I’m surprised the video plays, since the 2015 Shield does not support DV. I expected to see the “color space not supported” error message.
With DVp7 or DVp8, which have an HDR10 layer, Plex plays the HDR10 video and I see the HDR banner on the TV.
HDR10+ plays as HDR10. This is expected, since neither the TV or the Shield supports HDR10+, and HDR10+ is backward compatible with HDR10.
I’m not quite sure what happens with HLG. Using the Plex app, the video direct plays and looks like HDR video, but the TV does not display an HLG banner. Using the Plex LG app, the TV does display a HLG banner when the video starts.
FYI on the FireSticks. Amazon recently updated the 4K & 4K Max models and Plex is still working out the kinks. I just bought the 4K Max. On the plus side, it now has passthrough for TrueHD + Atmos. On the downside, DTS passthrough is not yet working. Similar problems happened when the updated Cube shipped awhile back. Amazon had to issue a couple of software updates to get things working correctly.
With Plex on the TV’s OS, my HDR10 and HDR10+ test files seem to work fine.
I have a large set of DV test files, and some of them work… But some of them with odd names like “Dolby Vision FEL Test p7.06 Dual Layer.mp4” are labeled as HDR by Plex, and will play, but do not activate the display’s DV indicator. However the normal DV media files I tested seemed to work fine so perhaps it does not matter if every edge case test file plays correctly. (I may also be misunderstanding something about the test files, maybe some of them are supposed to fall back to HDR10? The TV has no indicator for that mode and I didn’t dig in the menus to check.)
Unfortunately this TV seems to have a 100Mbit ethernet port so I think whether or not it can be my Plex client will depend largely on if wifi can perform adequately. I used its built in browser to do a speed test and the results were abysmal, less than 50 Mbit when it should have displayed my ISP speed of 200 Mbps. Hopefully that’s an artifact of the crummy off-brand browser that Hisense put in the TV, and not a real limitation.
Anyway I detoured to TV topics; I think the DV questions I had are now settled with “that’s just how it is with the 2015 Shield.”
Transcoding I know well, I have been breaking the law and happily transcoding 4k HDR to SDR for a long time. All I had to remember is “avoid Dolby Vision.”
It’s doing things the RIGHT way with a modern TV that is unfamiliar, haha.
