@jmckee said:
I have seen a few people report success with the Dolby Access app
Thanks, I’ve given that a go; seem to have it set up ok, because my receiver states atmos when playing content from the Dolby App, but Plex still insists on transcoding the audio. Also read somewhere that you have to set the Dolby app up for headphones - I did that too, receiver now states multi channel audio, which I assume is right with Dolby app muxing it, but still no difference in Plex functionality - still transcodes.
@HeartWare42 said:
Just to clarify then. HEVC is now supported as an encoding format in HLS so there’s no implicit need to transcode HEVC to H264 just because there’s an audio transcoding being done?
Partly. HEVC direct streaming is usually used through a different transport stream. In previous version of the framework this transport stream would break when attempting to direct stream the HEVC. With the fairly recent update to the new media framework the HEVC streaming was successfully able to be used. This means that HEVC will only transcode if you have a limit in place that forces it to transcode (IE Bit rate limit, direct play/stream disabled, or have selected graphical based subtitles)
And HEVC/TrueHD should be Direct Stream’ed as HEVC/AAC audio to all X-Box Ones (except the original non-S version)?
TrueHD will not be direct streamed to X-box Ones until one of two things happen:
1)Microsoft adds a TrueHD decoder
2)Plex implements audio passthrough to allow the xbox to skip trying to decode it
Is this implemented in all current versions/players of Plex, or “just” for some?
The HEVC limitation is only for the Non-S version of the Xbox One. The Xbox One S and Xbox One X both support direct streaming HEVC now.
–EDIT
I realized that you may have been asking in general about HEVC support. To my knowledge HEVC is still not an official part of the HLS standard. There was talks about implementing HEVC, but I haven’t seen anything making it official that would cause the various device manufacturers to be begin implementing it to stay HLS compliant.
I can’t speak for all versions of the Plex software as I only got pointed in this direction because of the question about the Xbox One side of things. But in general if a device supports the dash protocol (I believe that is the HEVC supporting one) then the client would be able to direct stream the HEVC instead of transcoding it. For the most part a device that supports HEVC is also going to support this streaming mode, the Xbox system was an exception that needed a fix (Partly because HEVC support was added later in the development and not a standard part of the initial release of the framework.)
@28061 said:
Thanks, I’ve given that a go; seem to have it set up ok, because my receiver states atmos when playing content from the Dolby App, but Plex still insists on transcoding the audio. Also read somewhere that you have to set the Dolby app up for headphones - I did that too, receiver now states multi channel audio, which I assume is right with Dolby app muxing it, but still no difference in Plex functionality - still transcodes.
Dolby Access doesn’t actually change the playback functionality of the Xbox One. So formats the Xbox One media player can’t natively decode still need to be transcoded before being sent. What I believe the Dolby access app does is remux whatever signal the xbox one gets into a dolby stream for output. This would mean that the xbox one still needs to decode the audio before the app attempts remux it out.
Currently the only type of atmos I am aware of that would work out of the box is the atmos stored in (e)AC3 tracks. Other higher versions of the codec (such as TrueHD) will show is unsupported in the app and trigger a transcode.
@MediaHorder said:
Plex can’t tonemap down the HDR at the moment. That’s why it looks washed out.
Exactly what I was going to say, but I would have thought it wouldn’t be an issue with the Xbox one s…
It is an issue because the Plex app on Xbox does not currently support HDR.
@jmckee said:
This means that HEVC will only transcode if you have a limit in place that forces it to transcode (IE Bit rate limit, direct play/stream disabled, or have selected graphical based subtitles)
The Xbox One S and Xbox One X both support direct streaming HEVC now.
So in the case described above with the Thor file (media file attached in OP), why isn’t it direct streaming; does the TrueHD audio track force a transcode of the video file too?
@MediaHorder said:
It is an issue because the Plex app on Xbox does not currently support HDR.
Neither does the HdBaseT extender that sends the signal downstairs, so Kodi is under the same limitations, but it doesn’t wash out the colour or detail, or force a transcode.
@28061 said:
So in the case described above with the Thor file (media file attached in OP),
It would be simpler to look in the Plex Media Server as it will tell you exactly why the video is transcoding. Otherwise it is just a guess as to why it transcoding. My current guess would be you have one of the subtitle tracks selected: Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs
That would be one of the graphic based subtitles that needs to transcode as soft subtitle support is only for SRT’s.
why isn’t it direct streaming; does the TrueHD audio track force a transcode of the video file too?
There isn’t any other way to explain this. The audio track does not affect the video track for transcoding decisions unless you are using the very first generation of Xbox One’s. Every other version of the Xbox One the decision to transcode audio and video are two separate checks independent of each other.
@jmckee said:
It would be simpler to look in the Plex Media Server as it will tell you exactly why the video is transcoding. Otherwise it is just a guess as to why it transcoding.
Thank you for your continuing advice and support.
Would you mind explaining how to do this? In the Status->Now playing section, it just says transcoding HEVC->H264 and TrueHD->AAC.
I’ve tried searching the logs fod MDE entries, but struggling to find anything of value.
Also tried installing Tautulli, but again, that just shows what it’s transcoding from->to, not the reason why (Picture attached).
My current guess would be you have one of the subtitle tracks selected:
I’ve even used MkvToolNix to remove the subtitle tracks from the file and Plex still insists on transcoding.
Logs attached if they’re useful (Debug, not verbose).
@28061 said:
I’ve tried searching the logs for MDE entries, but struggling to find anything of value.
The easiest way I have found to look for these types of entries is to search for: MDE:
In this case the logs show that the video is transcoding due to a bitDepth limit:
Mar 26, 2018 09:14:52.946 [0x80ca62400] DEBUG - Thor: Ragnarok - video.bitDepth limitation applies: 10 > 8
I doubled checked with the developers and this limit was removed in version 1.11 of the server and the developer suggested installing at least that version to get the updated profile that removed this limitation.
@jmckee said:
Mar 26, 2018 09:14:52.946 [0x80ca62400] DEBUG - Thor: Ragnarok - video.bitDepth limitation applies: 10 > 8
I doubled checked with the developers and this limit was removed in version 1.11 of the server and the developer suggested installing at least that version to get the updated profile that removed this limitation.
Thank you, I hadn’t updated to the newest version yet because the FreeNas Plugin hadn’t yet been updated (and still isn’t), but for those interested finding\following, I was able to update to the latest version manually following the instructions here.
I can confirm the update script worked and that my Xbox One S Plex client is now direct streaming HEVC. B)
It still hasn’t changed the colour\detail quality of my original post, but at least my CPU isn’t having to work hard now!
I understand that the colour is washed out because the Xbox One Plex client isn’t HDR compatible (yet), and that Plex is unable to colour map yet either. Because my HDMI extender isn’t HDR compatible either, I assume that the only reason the Kodi client playback looks so much better is because Kodi can currently colour map better - but still isn’t ‘real’ HDR.
Have I finally got it?!
(apologies for the slow reply; night shifts )
@28061 said:
I can confirm the update script worked and that my Xbox One S Plex client is now direct streaming HEVC. B)
It still hasn’t changed the colour\detail quality of my original post, but at least my CPU isn’t having to work hard now!
I understand that the colour is washed out because the Xbox One Plex client isn’t HDR compatible (yet), and that Plex is unable to colour map yet either. Because my HDMI extender isn’t HDR compatible either, I assume that the only reason the Kodi client playback looks so much better is because Kodi can currently colour map better - but still isn’t ‘real’ HDR.
Pretty much spot on. The team is working on enabling/fixing HDR support. The problem has been that not every HDR video is failing to properly display it’s color so its currently a process to figure out why some videos correctly trigger the HDR mapping and others do not.
But I can tell you that getting HDR support working correctly is right on the list with audio passthrough support for features the team wants to get out.
@jmckee said:
But I can tell you that getting HDR support working correctly is right on the list with audio passthrough support for features the team wants to get out.
Great - HDR and audio pass through would pretty much enable me to use my hardware to its full capability, and achieve all my media streaming aims.
This has been my first thread on the Plex forums and I just wanted to say thanks for helping me navigate through these couple of issues. I’m hugely impressed and grateful for the quality and speed of the responses. Thanks again! B)
)