Transcoded HEVC videos from iPhone playback upside down

Plex Media Server
,
1

Server Version#: 1.30.1.6497
Player Version#: iOS 8.13 and Plex Web 4.97.3

I’ve run into a slightly weird issue here! We have a library on our server of home videos shot on our iPhones. All are 4K HEVC, with a mix of some also having HDR and some not.

Most of the time we’re watching them they’re direct playing, and they playing back correctly. However, as of a recent server release (sorry, I don’t know which one), if the video gets transcoded for any reason, it then plays back upside down! I can easily reproduce this, by changing the playback quality to anything other than maximum, to force it to transcode. Has anybody else seen this problem? Anything I can to do fix it? Here’s the xml for an example video that has this behaviour:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="10" librarySectionTitle="James Home Movies" librarySectionUUID="3dc1aff5-7110-412c-9b59-ad2ee0321254" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1671045426">
<Video ratingKey="79613" key="/library/metadata/79613" guid="com.plexapp.agents.none://a283d99ec7bc99db03386f3da77fce3c89cb6f57?lang=xn" type="movie" title="Two Christmas Trees" librarySectionTitle="James Home Movies" librarySectionID="10" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/10" subtype="clip" summary="" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1671915211" year="2022" thumb="/library/metadata/79613/thumb/1671915201" art="/library/metadata/79613/art/1671915201" duration="12392" originallyAvailableAt="2022-11-26" addedAt="1671911059" updatedAt="1671915201" createdAtAccuracy="epoch,local" createdAtTZOffset="0">
<Media id="216961" duration="12392" bitrate="62760" width="3840" height="2160" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="hevc" videoResolution="4k" container="mov" videoFrameRate="60p" optimizedForStreaming="0" audioProfile="lc" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="main">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="218655" key="/library/parts/218655/1669474189/file.MOV" duration="12392" file="/volume1/Video/Home Movies/James/2022/Two Christmas Trees.MOV" size="97370588" audioProfile="lc" container="mov" deepAnalysisVersion="6" has64bitOffsets="0" indexes="sd" optimizedForStreaming="0" requiredBandwidths="60264,57336,48555,44899,44899,44899,44899,44899" videoProfile="main">
<Stream id="540998" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="62565" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codecID="hvc1" codedHeight="2160" codedWidth="3840" colorPrimaries="bt709" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt709" colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="59.943" height="2160" level="153" profile="main" refFrames="1" requiredBandwidths="59996,57068,48288,44743,44743,44743,44743,44743" streamIdentifier="1" width="3840" displayTitle="4K (HEVC Main)" extendedDisplayTitle="4K (HEVC Main)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="540999" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="196" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="140,140,140,140,140,140,140,140" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="Unknown (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (AAC Stereo)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Field locked="1" name="thumb"/>
<Field locked="1" name="art"/>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>

EDIT: I also forgot to mention - this is super obvious when new videos are added, because the transcoder is obviously used to create the library thumbnails. All of which come out upside down as well!

2

A small update to this. I’ve just added another batch of videos to this library, and again most of them are coming out with upside thumbnails from the transcoder. I say most, because there were a couple that came out the right way up!

The difference with these videos (which were also shot on an iPhone, my sister’s) was that they’re only 1080p. They’re still HEVC, and also HDR as well. Perhaps this can help narrow the issue down? Here’s the XML for one that came out the correct way up, for comparison:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="10" librarySectionTitle="James Home Movies" librarySectionUUID="3dc1aff5-7110-412c-9b59-ad2ee0321254" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1671045426">
<Video ratingKey="79629" key="/library/metadata/79629" guid="com.plexapp.agents.none://8eeac94fdbf72864716017d729b31fca7c10f50a?lang=xn" type="movie" title="Playing Peekaboo with Danny 1" librarySectionTitle="James Home Movies" librarySectionID="10" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/10" subtype="clip" summary="" viewCount="1" lastViewedAt="1672602644" year="2022" thumb="/library/metadata/79629/thumb/1672602439" art="/library/metadata/79629/art/1672602439" duration="69677" originallyAvailableAt="2022-12-20" addedAt="1672602382" updatedAt="1672602439" createdAtAccuracy="epoch,local" createdAtTZOffset="0">
<Media id="216993" duration="69677" bitrate="8793" width="1920" height="1080" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="hevc" videoResolution="1080" container="mov" videoFrameRate="NTSC" optimizedForStreaming="0" audioProfile="lc" has64bitOffsets="0" videoProfile="main 10">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="218687" key="/library/parts/218687/1671553018/file.MOV" duration="69677" file="/volume1/Video/Home Movies/James/2022/Playing Peekaboo with Danny 1.MOV" size="76583235" audioProfile="lc" container="mov" has64bitOffsets="0" optimizedForStreaming="0" videoProfile="main 10">
<Stream id="541250" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="8524" DOVIBLCompatID="4" DOVIBLPresent="1" DOVIELPresent="0" DOVILevel="4" DOVIPresent="1" DOVIProfile="8" DOVIRPUPresent="1" DOVIVersion="1.0" bitDepth="10" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" codecID="hvc1" codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920" colorPrimaries="bt2020" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="bt2020nc" colorTrc="arib-std-b67" frameRate="29.996" height="1080" level="120" profile="main 10" refFrames="1" streamIdentifier="1" width="1920" displayTitle="1080p DoVi/HLG (HEVC Main 10)" extendedDisplayTitle="1080p DoVi/HLG (HEVC Main 10)"> </Stream>
<Stream id="541251" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="201" audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" samplingRate="44100" streamIdentifier="2" displayTitle="Unknown (AAC Stereo)" extendedDisplayTitle="Unknown (AAC Stereo)"> </Stream>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0"> </Extras>
<Related> </Related>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
3

I think that most videos and photos from a phone have an “orientation” tag so that they are displayed properly right side up, landscape or portrait, etc. My guess is Plex isn’t reading that metadata (or applying it correctly) so the direct play works, but the transcoding fails.

I suppose if you can figure out which way to hold the phone when shooting a video or photo so that it doesn’t matter about the orientation tag, you can use it as a workaround until Plex fixes the bug. :thinking:

4

I’ve also been having this problem for a short time, but only on the Fire TV. With Plex on Windows, everything is displayed correctly. It would be nice if the bug could be fixed. PS: it used to work

5

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