Roku Ultra 2020, aka 4800x, direct play, colors distorted when playing back HEVC, 1080p content on 1080p screen. Applies to both 8-bit and 10-bit packaging of 8-bit content

[gbballpack]

@granjan7

One problem putting all the blame on Roku is why, when I play a HEVC MKV container with AAC audio from a thumbdrive with Roku’s Media Player app, does it appear to play just fine? Have you attempted that? Just making sure Im not missing something in debugging this.

It goes back to the problems with AAC audio and Rokus. You could be using any container that supports AAC audio. MKV, MP4, etc., etc., Plex will transcode the AAC audio to AC3.

See: https://forums.plex.tv/t/roku-plex-acc-5-1-to-ac3-5-1-transcode-after-latest-update-to-v6-5-1/572161/2

Thus, the plexmediaserver is remuxing a new file with AC3 and in doing so, adds a proper header to the new MKV file that is streamed to the Roku, which causes the 4800x to have its known issues with proper MKV files and HEVC video.

In theory, if you set “direct play” to “forced” then the plexmediaserver should not remux your file, at least in theory. With “direct play” set to “forced” an MP4 with AAC audio plays HEVC properly on the Roku, but then you are introducing the Rokus known issues with AAC audio into the mix.