What's the status of Dolby Vision + Atmos on Plex? (re: LG WebOS, Nvidia Shield, Apple TV)

The Shield supports both TV-led and LLDV modes. I believe TV-led mode is the default when connected to a display that supports both modes.

(Edited; I agree with @Grem below. I initially said the exact backwards thing.)

This bullet is correct. The HDR10 Base Layer is decoded and the dynamic metadata / RPU is applied. FEL is ignored.

FEL means the EL contains a 10 → 12 bit residual video stream.
MEL just means the EL is “empty”.

MEL is the absence of FEL; there’s no need to decode MEL, it’s empty. And there’s no conversion process to downgrade from FEL to MEL, other than discarding it.

TV-led is default if both supported. It is defined by EDID and cannot be change from Shield side.

Some devices on Amlogic chips are capable to process FEL. Like Chromecast with Google TV.

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You’re right. My statement was wrong. I haven’t kept up with the state of players for a few months and should have checked first.

I didn’t imagine that anybody would have implemented the dual decoders necessary. Wow, hardware is amazing these days!

Edited my post and removed that comment.


I’m facepalming now. I thought “TV-led” but I still wrote LLDV.

Has anyone figured out what DV combinations work on the WebOS plex player?

For example, I have this file:

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5@Main
HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.05.06, BL+RPU
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC

It will not activate DV on the WebOS plex player despite being layer 5. It works on the shield however connected to the LG.

On the other hand I have this DV file which works fine both on WebOS Plex and shield Plex:

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@Main
HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.05.09, BL+RPU
Codec ID                                 : dvhe
Codec ID/Info                            : High Efficiency Video Coding with Dolby Vision

I guess plex is at the whims of the quirks of the webos player. Is there any source of information about what exactly it can support and how to modify mkvs so it will work with DV? Thanks!

PLEX for WebOS supports DV Profile 5 in an MP4 container. PLEX for ShieldTV supports DV P5 in both MP4 and MKV.
Hope that helps.

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Thanks that explains it then.

I currently have a LG C1 and my DV files play as HDR. I am using the client on the TV itself. I would have thought it being the latest model it would be able to play DV? Is this not the case?

The WebOS internal media player works well with DV Profile 5 in MP4 (single layer, no HDR10 fallback). For all other DV formats you will need to use an external media player like the ShieldTV 2019 model or similar for playback to trigger the DV logo.

Thanks for your answer, will this change with a future update or down to hardware in the tv?

Hi, after hours spent on trying to have a nice experience with playing DoVi files on my LG OLED on internal Plex app, finally I let it go. I switched to Google Chromecast with Google TV and now evertything is just problems-less.

This device cost is about 60-80 EUR/USD and it is peanuts comparing to the cost of TV. Pros: it plays literally everything in HDR or DoVi. There is no stuttering or other buffering issues. I started to convert some of my mkvs into mp4s DoVi but then I decided that my time is just not worth it. For 60-80 EUR/USD you can buy peace of mind.

OMG you are a blessing in disguise!! so get this device and run it through the TV… So simple.
Does it manage with all these profiles and single/dual layer DV.
Thanks,

Yes it does. It plays everything that you will find in reality. DoVI 5, 7, 8 - they are the most popular. It plays both FEL and MEL layers in DoVi 7 profiles. And it is 3 x cheaper than nVidia Shield Pro. The only limitation if I remember correctly is the unability to play TrueHD/Atmos tracks if I get it right. However I never tested it with external AV Receiver as passthrough. I will do so in the next 1-2 weeks. But if you have a soundbar or TV audio only I don’t think you can hear the difference between DD 5.1 track and TrueHD/Atmos track.

There is even chaper device Fire Stick 4K but it can not play mkv DoVi FEL Profile 7. It is not too many movies but it is some limitation.

For me we use in our family:

  • nVidia Shield Pro - for the home cinema setups (with AV Receiver and proper home cinema + Atmos speeakers)
  • Google Chromecast with Google TV - for all the other rooms/setups like stand-alone TVs, TVs with some “normal” soundbars etc (bedrooms, kids rooms etc, living room of my parents etc)
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I do have an A/V that will be Atmos (5.1.4) soon so it would be great if you let me know if it works with that or if i would need a Shield. I have a Series X that i am hoping could get the update for it to work with all profiles.

I’m planning on buying a LG C Series oled and I have a Nvidia shield 2019. I’m fed up with the amount of downloads with the DV issue. I’m hoping Nvidia will fix this dual layer/DV issue will resolve but it takes such a long time to even acknowledge the issue at all.
I don’t own a windows computer anymore I work with a NAS server through android apps so I can’t even change the files from mkv to mp4.
Do you think it’s worth waiting for a fix from Nvidia or shall I look for another TV and or media player setup?
Thx for your time

Shield has never officially supported DV profile 7.

Perhaps TCL C825 might be solution. MiniLED+supports TrueHD, DTS-HD, Dolby Vision.

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@nesta75 You need to get Shield 2019 Pro. Everything works perfectly on Shield 2019 Pro. We got 2 in our family. No issues. the NON-Pro 2019 Shield is s**t for HDR and DoVi Playbayck.

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Thx for your response. I do have the Pro but on a Qled from '18. Does this affect the DV issue? What I understood from this and other threads is that the TV also plays part in showing the well known pink, green washing (doesn’t seem logical to me though)

I can compare:

  • Shield Pro

  • Chromecast with Google TV

  • Fire Stick 4K

Dolby Vision on all of them looks fine to me on my LG OLED. I can’t see much difference in terms of better/worse quality. They are all ok.

Fire Stick 4K does not play FEL layer so the only fully compatible DoVi players are Shield and Chromecast. And to be honest their video looks a bit different. Shield is a bit more reddish and Chromecast is a bit more greenish. But I don’t prefer it over Shield or vice versa. The difference is negligible. To me Chromecast is kind of pale-ish. Shield is more vivid. On the other hand it might be just a bit too red.

Anyway… You can not really go wrong with any of them in my opinion.

Remember that Chromecast does not play TrueHD (still, I have not double checked it, only later in November).

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST! Forget about Dolby Vision on internal TV player. Small buffer, stuttering, low compatibility with audio, subtitles, DoVi profiles etc. Waste of time trying to get it right directly on TV.

I found the internal LG Player used by plex, support Profile 5 and Profile 8 in mp4 containers, and both triggers Dolby vision.
There are some caveats to making everything work flawless.

  • mp4 cannot be remuxed with FFmpeg right now, they just don’t trigger Dolby vision. I also have issues with GPAC as a muxer. Hanging. The only reliable muxer for me was mp4box.
  • Audio on the internal player might get choppy on the internal player or plex, is that is the case, remux the mp4, or the mkv to an mp4 with mp4box but set the interleave to 240 ms instead of the default 1 second. [-inter 240] that will fix any audio choppiness.
  • Of course, DTS and Dolby TrueHD are not supported, also, any mp4 with TrueHD will not play correctly, at least on my tries, including adding an AC-3 track at the beginning. So if the track is in there, it makes it not playable.

My current ‘flawless’ pipeline to convert MKV DV to MP4 DV playable by Plex in the LG is the following:

  1. Extract the video track (input.h265) from the mkv, with mkvextract or Inviska Mkv Extract
  2. Use the Dolby Vision mp4muxer.exe tool to reprocess the video. IDK why this step is needed, but if I skipped it doesn’t work, maybe it adds some headers.
    • For Profile 5
      mp4muxer.exe -o output_vid.mp4 -i input.h265 --dv-profile 5
    • For Profile 8
      mp4muxer.exe -o output_vid.mp4 -i input.h265 --dv-profile 8 --dv-bl-compatible-id 1
  3. Mux Audio and Subtitles with ffmpeg.
    ffmpeg.exe -i input.mkv -c:a copy -vn -map 0 -map_chapters 0 -c:s mov_text output_aud.mp4
  4. Mux all together with mp4box
    mp4box -add output_vid.mp4 -add output_aud.mp4 -inter 240 output.mp4

Additionally, if the track has TRUE HD remove it, or convert it to something else, you can include a DTS track (that will not break the mp4), but in that case, is heavily recommended that you add an AC-3/FLAC/AAC track first so playback will start with that default track in plex. Because the other know limitations of plex, try to not include any image-based subtitles, if they’re present remove them or convert them into a text subtitle first (srt). Image subtitles will force transcoding and make the video unusable, also DTS but IDK why.

EDIT 1: If you have a multiaudio release with lots of audio tracks reduce the interleave (-inter 240) to (-inter 120) or further.

EDIT 2: Some mkv (h265 video stream) have TRASH NALs after the ending, is that is the case when you process the H265 with ffmpeg, you will see ffmpeg saying invalid NALs. The H265 stream needs to be cut at that time. Otherwise, the Dolby Vision mp4muxer will return an empty file. I created a tool for it and can be requested via PM.

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From my brief encounter, Samsung TV does not support Dolby Vision. Can you check your TV model number and look up the HDR support?