Interesting read. I am having a similar problem with an Onn TV 4K Pro streaming box that I am discussing in the following thread:
The problem is present in both the Plex and Channels apps, but not in the VLC app. The problem doesn’t happen on my Nvidia Shield, Apple TV, FireTV Cube, phones (both iOS 18 and Android 14), or web players in Edge running on Windows 11. Nvidia Shield is on Android 11 though, while Onn TV 4K Pro is on Android TV OS 12.
Via looking at info about the problematic videos in MediaInfo, I have narrowed down that the problematic videos are interlaced, while working videos are progressive. Transcoding fixes the problem (makes sense since it changes the format). Additionally turning on Software decoder in the Channels app also fixes the problem. Not sure if there is a similar option in the Plex app. Since it works with the Software decoder, I have narrowed down the problem with something with the hardware decoder on the Onn TV 4K Pro box not properly decoding interlaced videos. Interesting to read that it might be related to the backend software used by newer versions of Android. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other Android TV/Google TV boxes with Android TV OS 12 or newer to test with.
