Can you help me figure out what I’m doing wrong? I’m trying to get Dolby Vision files to play back on a Shield 2019 Pro, and it’s not working at all. The same files play via the internal LG Plex app on my LG OLED CX, but via the Shield I just get a spinning circle and it seems to be trying to Transcode everything DV.
Shield is set to a Dolby Vision and HDR ready resolution (I think 4K @ 59Hz), and Dolby Vision is enabled in the Shield display settings. I’m not sure what setting I’m missing.
Edit:
I checked the logs and this is what I’m seeing:
MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mkv
MDE: analyzing media item 15xxx
MDE: [Title]: Direct Play is disabled
MDE: [Title]: media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
MDE: [Title]: no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/hevc
MDE: [Title]: no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/hevc/eac3
MDE: [Title]: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to codec eac3 when profile only allows opus
I’ve tried various files in both MKV and MP4 constrainers - which play fine via the LG Plex app - and all give the same error message in the logs and force transcoding on the Shield.
With regard to the internal LG app, I found that all I had to do was disable Dolby TrueHD and DTS support in the Plex app (older LGs like the B7 support DTS, but newer ones like C9 on do not) to get DV to work. The app then automatically defaults to the AC-3 track (or transcodes DTS) and everything is fine, for both .MKV and .MP4, with no need to remux or manually remove audio tracks.
The only issue I’ve found is for files that use both DTS and subtitles, as the combination of transcoding DTS and including subtitles is too much and forced a full transcode (not an issue on older B7 that can just pass the audio through).
Now if only I could figure out how to get DV working on the 2019 Shield Pro… That’s the one that should have been easy, and I can’t figure out why it’s Transcoding instead of Direct Playing.
I’ve been playing back DV files on Nvidia Shield Pro 2019 without problem for a year until I turned on transcoding. Plex seems to think the Shield is not capable of DV playback, even though if I turn off transcoding again the files play without issue. I’ve tested a couple of movies, such as The Suicide Squad and A Star is Born.
This is a pretty big deal though, as it completely “breaks” transcoding, I’m forced to leave it off as long as this is an issue.
Weird, I haven’t noticed that, though I haven’t watched many DV files through the Shield. I prefer using the LG Plex app whenever possible. (It’s also possible I don’t sit close enough to the TV to notice? How significant is the graininess?)
To rule out the Shield, have you tried playing them through the LG OLED’s native Plex app?
I tried the LG OLED plex app and it fell back to HDR and not DV. I tried 2 separate files with the same result. Only one file has the graininess., or at least that is what I know.
not sure I’m understanding correctly. Is DV profile 5 supposed to work properly in Plex? The shield should support profiles 5 and 8, and also the iPhone 12. But I’m not able to see the profile 5 properly.
On the other hand, profile 7 should fall back to HDR, right?
Plex will stream any Profile 5 and 8 including 8.1. It will depend on the client & the container, what you will get on the other side. IDK about Profile 7 since it is not a streaming profile.
You could convert profile 7 to 8 if you want, with this tool: quietvoid/dovi_tool: dovi_tool is a CLI tool combining multiple utilities for working with Dolby Vision. (github.com) but it will discard the EL (12 Bit) Layer.
You could also convert HDR10+ to Profile 8, but the toolchain is a little more complicated.
The Nvidia Shield should play 5 & 8 from MKV & MP4, and from what I hear latest Apple TV play Dolby too, dunno if MKV is supported. LG TVs should play All profiles 5 & 8 from MP4. You can follow my previous post about how to convert the Dolby MKV into Dolby MP4… (Dolby MKV on LGs will fallback to HDR in profile 8, or green tint on profile 5 currently)
Actually, I can’t check if the Shield can play 5&8 correctly, my current AVR doesn’t support DV. I will try later on. But for sure the version of Plex installed in my iPhone 12 Pro can’t (and I was expecting to see at least DV profile 5. With Infuse, in facts, I can see it).
My Amplifier also didn’t support HDMI 2.1., So I connect it back from the TV with an optical cable. The only caveat is DTS is not supported on LGs, and transcoding will occur. Basically from my home use, I add EAC3 audio track to the videos when DTS is the only audio track. If you have a Shield you can also connect it directly to the TV, and connect back the optical out from the TV, again, DTS will be probably also not supported. But you will get Full Dolby Vision.
If you want DTS and Dolby Vision.
A) HDfury have a USD 550 adapter, which does the job.
B) Buy a new amplifier with HDMI 2.1. Onkyo seems to be the best for that specific job.
C) Have a direct connection to an LG or plex employee. On the LG Side, add by default DTS passthrough on the LG TVs. or in the Plex side, have their passthrough coded in the plex client.
well, actually you don’t need HDMI 2.1 for having DV properly managed by the chain (TV, AVR, …). And I’m not sure this is required for DV+DTS in terms of bandwidth.
Anyway, do you have an iPhone to check if you are able to see DV 5 properly? I can’t with Plex, but I’m able to do with Infuse.
