I’m thinking about moving over to H265 for the future and to save on space. How can you tell which Plex client/devices support H265? I want to be able to direct play all H265 files.
How can you tell whether a particular device will support direct playing of H265 files? Where can you get this information?
2019 and up Samsung TV running Tizen OS, iPads and iPhones running iOS 14, Apple TV’s. Is the support hardware or software dependent?
HDR media is H.265, so any device that supports HDR will support H.265.
Otherwise, you’ll have to check the device specifications.
There will always be a few “gotchas” for which you have to watch.
Some hardware may support H.265, but with limitations. Playback may be limited to 30 fps or to certain H.265 profiles & levels. As a result, direct playing of 10-bit video or framerates above 30 fps may fail.
Some Plex clients have limitations that affect direct playing H.265 video. For example, the LG & Samsung TV apps cannot direct play PGS or VOBSUB subtitles (no matter the video format). Enabling either forces a video transcode in Plex. Transcoded audio + SRT subtitles also forces a video transcode in both apps.
Specifications may be misleading for some clients. For example, the FireTV Cube v1, seems to support 4K HDR if you read the specifications, but in reality it does not work with Plex. 1080p, non-HD H.265 playback works fine.
No web browser on Windows supports H.265 video. Safari on iOS and MacOS supports H.265, but has minimum software and hardware requirements. I do not know if the Plex Web client supports H.265 video, even with current Apple hardware (My MacBook does not meet minimum h/w reqs). See HEVC/H.265 video format | Can I use... Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc.
Thanks, seems like I should just stick with h264/aac/mp4 for the time being for the most compatibility. All this is confusing. I want to avoid the dreaded ‘transcoding’ if at all possible.
I have some friends that I use the ‘watch together’ feature with on iOS devices, and some videos will trigger the dreaded transcode and I am trying to figure out how to avoid this. Is it because the file has a DTS audio track and that iOS devices can’t natively play it that’s why PMS has to transcode the audio?
If I can recall correctly, when I had my Apple TV (4th Gen), I was able to direct play movie files with DTS audio tracks without transcoding.
So what would happen if I were to play a video (mp4 file encoded in H.264, with a DTS audio track) on the Plex client on my 2019 Samsung TV?
Would PMS trigger a force transcode since the TV doesn’t natively support DTS and then direct play the video? Or would it transcode both audio and video?
Audio transcoding, unlike video transcoding, is not CPU intensive. Unless you’re using a low-powered system it should not present CPU utilization issues. Caveat: Aforementioned issues with subtitles and transcoded audio resulting in video also transcoding.
Whether audio direct plays varies by device. Some devices may direct play certain audio formats even if they are not supported by the device.
AppleTV: AppleTVs do not support dts or TrueHD audio. The audio is converted by the Plex client and sent to the attached TV/receiver/soundbar as PCM. Therefore, Plex Media Server still direct plays the audio.
Amazon FireTV: Basically, the same as AppleTV. The audio is converted by the FireTV and sent to the attached equipment as Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus, depending on the FireTV settings.
No subtitles
Plex Media Server will transcode the audio to a supported format. The video will not be transcoded.
The Plex Dashboard will show this as Direct Streaming, as the Plex Server must remultiplex the video and transcoded audio into a single stream before sending it to the client.
Example: See screenshot below. Playback is via Plex Web, which also supports H.264 video but not dts audio.
Subtitles
Plex will transcode both the audio and the video. Plex must burn in the subtitles to keep the audio, video, and subtitles in sync with each other.
Thanks for clearing up some of the confusing I’ve been having.
As for subtitles. Would it be better to use an external file (.srt) for subtitles instead of having it being part of the file itself? Or will Plex always transcode if you have subtitles enabled whether it’s using an external subtitle file or directly baked into the video file itself?
I did a test on my iPhone by playing a tv show that is using external SRT for the subtitles and under ‘playback info’ it is showing that it’s Direct playing the source, even with subtitles enabled. I thought that with subtitles enabled that plex would have to transcode the video?
If you decide to encode your material to h264 for avoid transcoding, I absolutely recommend reading about the profiles in this post.
Also, h265 has generally been available on most devices in the past few years, even most low-end ones. If possible, you may want to see if all the devices support it by doing a few test encodes and playing them back.
Lastly, a good rule of thumb: At an equivalent quality level, h264 will have the larger file size, but h265 will encode much slower. So along with compatibility concerns, consider your CPU and storage capacities.
[Full disclosure: I typically use h265 10-bit on everything now, because my playback devices support it. However, I’m considering a separate friends/family folder with specially-encoded copies that are 720p/4mbps/pro-logic-stereo, for both compatibility and bandwidth reasons. Plex’s client will automatically choose the best version based on their device and bandwidth restraints.]
10-bit H264 shouldn’t be used in general, it’s often not supported in players.
When used with SDR videos, 10-bit H265 allows for slightly better encoding at similar bit rates, which basically means it will either have slightly better quality, or a bit smaller file size at same quality. Typically dithering is also better, especially in dark scenes. All my devices support it, so I use it. HDR is always 10-bit H265, but not all 10-bit H265 is HDR.
Figuring out which devices can handle 10-bit H265 is even more complicated than just H265 in general. If you’re unsure, I’d shy away from it.
Note that Handbrake has 8-bit internals. Encoding to 10-bits in Handbrake does not buy you anything (that I can see, anyway). If Vidcoder is a front-end for Handbrake, the same would seemingly apply.
All your stuff supports it. Your Apple devices even support it with image based subtitles. Go right ahead and move to h265. Its tons better so long you dont have to transcode it and the source file has 10bit colors.
Ninety five % of my movie libraries are now H.265 10 bit, it’s just awesome. But as long as you don’t have to transcode, as Rockstar said. It’s like time stood still and your PC fans are out of control.
I recommend mkv containers and if you wish to keep everything simple audio AAC.
I heard others recommending to use MP4 as the container because of less overhead. Which means it won’t need to buffer as much as MKV. Is this true?
I have some 80’s and 90’s TV Shows on DVD that I plan on ripping soon. Would encoding them using H.265 for the codec, and AAC for the Audio and MP4 as the container be the best and most optimized setting for my particular setup?