Using Plex Media server , question about streaming 4k UHD remux MKV to TV need recommendations

General Discussions
1

Running Plex media server on a

7700k 5ghz
32GB RAM
GTX 1080 TI

Streaming to Nvidia Shield 1GBPS CAT 5e

What processor should i be using to alleviate and solve any buffering issues or should i just turn off Transcoding and use direct play on the shield?

Also will i still have DTS sound if using direct play?

Streaming to a 4k HDR TV

Forgot to mention HDD is 8TB seagate . Should i be running raid ? for faster read times?

Also i believe the bit rate is around 66mbps for the movie

2

wow no comments ?

3

anyone? can help on this subject?

4

Hi,

what version of Shield do You have?
If it is Shield TV 2017, direct play must work without any problem.

5

Why would you want to choose anything except Direct Play?

6

I also own a Shield TV 2017 on a 1Gbps Ethernet connection. And in fact, you should, whenever possible run direct play in local network.

The Shield TV (at least the 2017 model, not sure about the older ones) should play 4K content in MKV containers, also with HDR, without a problem. The only thing I was experiencing was, that when the server is handling some heavy IO or Network activity, there can be some buffering issues with high bitrate 4k files (obviously) but everything else is fine.

Just think about it, even when you have a very high bitrate 4k file, it’s mostely fine. For example, my highest bitrate is about 150000 Kbps, so about 150 Mbit/s which is fine for the ethernet. However, there could be a HDD bottleneck there. In fact, when there is no other Disc activity, this file actually plays fine without RAID for me.

But either way, this is a extreme case, and most files don’t have such high bitrates, especially when the encode is H.265. So usually everything below 100000kbps should work without any problems.

For audio: in direct play you will have all the audio that is in the file. So if the file has DTS, you will have DTS. However, depending on what audio setup you have, you may have to enable DTS pass through in the settings.
And also sometimes I have some issues with E-AC3 on my shield, it will play, but sometimes only in stereo.

Now, just make sure all the settings in the plex app on the shield are set to:
-DTS, AC3, Dolby etc. pass-through enabled
-Prefer Direct Play
-Disable the force transcoding setting

So this post was a little longer then I would’ve liked, but I hope it will help you.

7

@redxon said:
Just think about it, even when you have a very high bitrate 4k file, it’s mostely fine. For example, my highest bitrate is about 150000 Kbps, so about 150 Mbit/s which is fine for the ethernet.

Where do you get such high bit rate files from? The 4K Blu-ray UHD specs allow for three different rates (50 GB with 82 Mbit/s, 66 GB with 108 Mbit/s, and 100 GB with 128 Mbit/s) all lower than your files.

8

Dual-layer UHDBR discs (66GB capacity) will support a max bitrate of 108Mbps, while triple-layer discs (100GB) will allow for up to 128Mbps.

Maybe he or someone else has transcoded the HEVC to H.264 or something???

9

Yes, it is a H.264 file. I have most of my content in H.265, for exactly these reasons to save space, but I experimented with compatibility and exactly network speeds and such. it does work, like I said.

At the moment tough, I’m keeping that file, as transcoding such a large file into a h.265 file takes up loads of time and uses much system performance.