Still having HDR playback issues with the Plex TV app on my Sony x900F

Plex Players Smart TVs
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My x900F is still not detecting the HDR signal within the app for certain files. If I play the same exact files on my Nvidia SHIELD, my TV detects & plays the HDR signal. I’ve done a hard reset. I then checked other apps: Amazon Prime, Disney+, Netflix, etc., etc., and my TV detected & played the HDR signal. I deleted the Plex app, reinstalled it, played the files again, and still no HDR.

The Plex TV app is also no longer playing Dolby ATMOS, the same files play on the Nvidia SHIELD. I also get ATMOS on Netflix, so it’s definitely not an issue with my AVR or the TV itself being unable to play the codec.

I’m currently using the new player that rolled out, on both the TV & the SHIELD. I’ve tried using the old player also, same results. I’ve recently allowed Google Play to update the app, so whatever version you guys rolled out, it’s on the latest one.

On my computer, the current Plex Media Server version that I’m on when viewing under “Web Client” then General is Version 4.8.4, when I scroll down to “Settings” then click General the version is 1.18.2.2058, and it’s currently up to date as well.

  • Direct Play: Enabled
  • Direct Streaming: Enabled
  • Hardware Decoding: Enabled

I also occasionally get “This server is not powerful enough to convert video” on certain files when I play them on the native Plex TV app. I never get this message when playing the same exact files on my SHIELD, despite having both my TV and SHIELD connected via ethernet ports with the same modeled cables (cat7) on the same ISP.

When I check the server dashboard on my computer for some of the troubling files, this is the information that’s provided:

  • Solo: A Star Wars Movie: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> 4K(H.264)— Transcode
  • MI6: Fallout: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> 4K(H.264)— Transcode
  • Cpt. America Civil War: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> 4K(H.264)— Transcode

None of the above files are playing in HDR on the native TV app.

The files below, play just fine on the native Plex TV app, and this is the information that comes up when I check the server dashboard on my computer

  • Aquaman: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Stream
  • Cpt. Marvel: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Stream

As you can see, they’re the same exact type of files (HEVC Main 10 HDR), but some files are Transcoding while others are Direct Streaming, why?

Now, if I play all 5 of the same files on my Nvidia SHIELD, this is the information that is provided when I check the server dashboard on my computer

  • Solo: A Star Wars Movie: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Play
  • MI6: Fallout: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Play
  • Cpt. America Civil War: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Play
  • Aquaman: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Play
  • Cpt. Marvel: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) -> Direct Play

As you can see, they’re the same exact files (HEVC Main 10 HDR), they’re “direct playing” (not sure there’s a difference between direct play & direct stream), and the HDR signal is detected by my TV and it plays just fine. Again, this is when playing the files on my Nvidia SHIELD.

What else can I do to figure out why the native TV Plex app won’t play all of my files properly like the Plex app on my Nvidia SHIELD? It’s all connected on the same network and no changes have been made ever. Or is this something that needs to be addressed on your end?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

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Hopefully Plex will make enough money from the advertisements in Movies & TV to license the codecs from the various TV Manufactures to overcome the limitations of a FREE app.

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Your TV only has a crappy 10/100 nic. Change the TV to WiFi. I play 4k HDR on my 900F with no problem.

Your ISP is irrelevant on your LAN

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This didn’t correct the issue either. Despite me knowing that it wouldn’t work due to the fact that the x900F is only capable of up to 100 mbps speed on both WiFi & LAN. This was something that I confirmed with a tier 2 level technical service rep with Sony when I first bought the TV.

The issue has to be with the Plex TV app. It’s the only thing that makes sense at this point. Especially when everything works just fine on my Nvidia SHIELD.

I don’t know if you’re being genuine with your statement or just trolling given the emphasis that you put on “FREE”, but, I don’t see what this has to do with my current issue, given that some files work fine while others don’t despite them being the same exact file type with some transcoding to H.264 (which it shouldn’t be doing) while the others direct stream (which is what it should be doing). So respectfully, if you don’t have a suggestion on how I can go about fixing this issue, please refrain from adding non-constructive posts to the issue at hand, thanks.

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This is blatantly false. Run your own tests on your network with iperf to your PMS.

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Be that as it may, you say it’s false, a Sony rep told me otherwise. It actually doesn’t matter to me.

I’ve always had my TV hooked up via LAN. And up until recently, it has always played HDR signals on all of my files when playing them through the Plex TV app. Seeing as I want to correct this issue, I did as you suggested, & after disconnecting my Ethernet cable (as the TV instructed) so that I could connect the WiFi. After doing so, I went back and played the problem files and the issue still remains. I still receive this from information from the Plex server dashboard on my computer (while playing the files on the Plex Tv app via WiFi this time).

  • Solo: A Star Wars Movie: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) → 4K(H.264) — Transcode
  • MI6: Fallout: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) → 4K(H.264) — Transcode
  • Cpt. America Civil War: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) → 4K(H.264) — Transcode

It’s still transcoding HEVC Main 10 HDR to 4K(H.264) for the files above, while the files below are playing as they should via a direct stream even though the file types are the same.

  • Aquaman: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) → Direct Stream
  • Cpt. Marvel: 4K (HEVC Main 10 HDR) → Direct Stream

It’s quite frustrating that Plex Tv app is only doing this on certain files where it didn’t used to do this at all.

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Have you tried using Kodi and Plex for Kodi on the TV with the same content, to rule out network or other device issues?

A few months back I couldn’t get smooth 4k hdr playback with the native Android Plex app on my Bravia and successfully used Kodi instead. Since then though I’ve been able to use the native Plex app with some very high bitrate 4k hdr movies and its been perfect, never transcodes the video and I get hdr (checked in the TVs display menu for each movie). X900f connected via LAN, same as you.

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I’ve always had this setup. I just never used it as I don’t really like Kodi at all, and I certainly don’t like the interface that the Plex add-on offers in Kodi. That being said, the HDR works just fine when playing all of my files within the Plex Kodi add-on.

The only issue I’ve ever had with this method was my audio wasn’t passing through Dolby Digital +, and DTS despite having pass-through enabled, which is why I never really used it. I decided to try to fix that today, and it turns out that as all I had to do was go in and change the audio output from 7.1 to 2.0, after doing that, everything worked as it should.

All this tells me is that the native Plex app for the Sony TV is broken since it’s working within an add-on for another app and working just fine on other devices in general. Someone at Plex needs to look into fixing this issue.

For now, I’ll probably just stick to using my SHIELD since it plays every audio codec that’s out, the only downside to my version of the SHIELD is no Dolby Vision, but I suppose I could always get the 2019 version when it drops in price.

Thanks for your help @5stringdeath and @jdbrookes it was greatly appreciated.

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I do use my 2019 Shield almost exclusively now. Much faster than the built in Sony Android. Gamestream rocks too (which is why I bought it really.)

An added benefit is it eliminated ARC from my viewing chain. Everything runs from the Shield → Receiver → TV now.

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