Why won't this 4k HEVC 10 Bit BT2020 Atmos file direct play on XBox One S?

Plex Players Gaming Consoles
1

Looking over the native support I would think this file would play no problem on my XBox One S over gigabit ethernet, but Plex transcodes it back to 1080p…

General
Unique ID : 2231124835517832073411773250444829125489 (0xA7D9E6BBD91C9C56472E5109BA9FEB71)
Complete name : Z:\Movie Archive\HDR Movies\2160p\ATMOS\TestEncode.mp4
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 15.0 GiB
Duration : 1 h 41 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 21.3 Mb/s
Movie name : TestEncode
Encoded date : UTC 2017-03-06 21:55:23
Writing application : mkvmerge v9.7.1 (‘Pandemonium’) 64bit
Writing library : libebml v1.3.4 + libmatroska v1.4.5
Attachments : TestEncode.jpg
FileExtension_Invalid : mkv mk3d mka mks

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5.1@High
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate : 15.4 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 1 600 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.104
Stream size : 10.9 GiB (72%)
Title : TestEncode
Writing library : x265 2.3+17-6e348252e902:[Windows][GCC 6.3.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings : cpuid=1173503 / frame-threads=3 / numa-pools=8 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=3840x1600 / interlace=0 / total-frames=145605 / level-idc=51 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=2 / no-allow-non-conformance / repeat-headers / annexb / aud / hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / no-open-gop / min-keyint=1 / keyint=24 / bframes=4 / b-adapt=0 / b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=20 / lookahead-slices=8 / scenecut=40 / no-intra-refresh / ctu=64 / min-cu-size=8 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=1 / tu-intra-depth=1 / limit-tu=0 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=0 / nr-inter=0 / no-constrained-intra / no-strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=2 / limit-refs=3 / no-limit-modes / me=1 / subme=1 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / deblock=0:0 / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=2 / early-skip / rskip / fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=2.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / analysis-mode=0 / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpstep=4 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / vbv-maxrate=160000 / vbv-bufsize=160000 / vbv-init=0.9 / crf-max=0.0 / crf-min=0.0 / ipratio=1.40 / pbratio=1.30 / aq-mode=1 / aq-strength=1.00 / cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=0 / colorprim=9 / transfer=16 / colormatrix=9 / chromaloc=1 / chromaloc-top=2 / chromaloc-bottom=2 / display-window=0 / master-display=G(8500,39850)B(6550,2300)R(35400,14600)WP(15635,16450)L(100000000,1) / max-cll=10000,180 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=1023 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / opt-qp-pps / opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.05 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / hdr / no-hdr-optrefine-level=5
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : SMPTE ST 2084
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : R: x=0.708000 y=0.292000, G: x=0.170000 y=0.797000, B: x=0.131000 y=0.046000, White point: x=0.312700 y=0.329000
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 10000.0000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level : 10000 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level : 180 cd/m2

Audio #1
ID : 2
Format : TrueHD
Format profile : TrueHD+Atmos / TrueHD
Codec ID : A_TRUEHD
Duration : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 204 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 6 144 kb/s
Channel(s) : Object Based / 8 channels
Channel positions : Object Based / Front: L C R, Side: L R, Back: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : / 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 1 200.000 FPS (40 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossless
Stream size : 3.68 GiB (24%)
Title : Dolby Atmos TrueHD 7.1 @ 5205 kbps
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio #2
ID : 3
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format settings, Endianness : Big
Codec ID : A_AC3
Duration : 1 h 41 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : 1 s 954 ms
Stream size : 463 MiB (3%)
Title : Spanish
Language : Spanish
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : No
Forced : No

2

I’m no expert, and which I could find something that would convert right without taking 48 hours. But, for sure remove the atmos channel, and just use AC3. Video codec needs to be mp4 or h.265 8 or 10 bit. Like I said, my conversion rate is less than successful, but those are my 2 cents.

3

Your problem is the Audio. Currently the Xbox One app cannot direct play HD audio so it has to convert the audio.

HEVC cannot be used in HLS streaming as it is currently not a part of the standard, so the video needs to be converted to H264.

The Xbox One H264 decoder cannot handle 4K material (a problem that needs a fix from Microsoft) so the app needs to transcode the HEVC 4K to H264 1080p.

4

But wait, can’t you just pass-thru the audio? With the latest updates I thought the One S could pass the audio directly. And it seems to, my receiver says it’s getting Atmos.

5

@TimBaeten said:
But wait, can’t you just pass-thru the audio? With the latest updates I thought the One S could pass the audio directly. And it seems to, my receiver says it’s getting Atmos.

No, the developers can’t simply passthrough the audio. Because of the current implementation there isn’t a way for the app to differentiate between a user who has their system audio settings set to passthrough and those who don’t or even what the capabilities of the receiver being passed through are. What this means is that in the current iteration if they enable the Atmos audio then every user who has an Atmos file, no passthrough or atmos enabled receiver could have their video play with no indication of why they have no audio (As the player/app will think everything is working as it should since it is forwarding the audio on like it should be)

6

Then, cant he modify the media profiles files to add support on his server for XBox One S ?

7

@Altheran said:
Then, cant he modify the media profiles files to add support on his server for XBox One S ?

No, the Media Decision Engine runs on the server so by the time the server is involved the decision to transcode or not has already been made.

8

I have other 4k HVEC files with Atmos that pass through just fine, so it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the audio at all, the XBox One S has full Atmos support along with native 8 and 10 bit HVEC decoding so there’s no reason at all that the Plex Server should be jumping in.

In the end I picked up an Nvidia Shield and have moved to Kodi on the Shield playing from a Network share, it plays everything perfectly and cuts the Plex server out of the equation all together. With the advent of 4k, HDR, 10/12 bit color and Object Based sound Plex is really starting to flounder and fail, too many things to go wrong and poor support for what are already industry standards in UHD media.

I’ve been a Plex user for many years, but it’s starting to show it’s age and the devs focus seem to be wandering away from the core product which should be a solid reliable media player first and foremost.

9

@griffindodd said:
I have other 4k HVEC files with Atmos that pass through just fine, so it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the audio at all, the XBox One S has full Atmos support along with native 8 and 10 bit HVEC decoding so there’s no reason at all that the Plex Server should be jumping in.
The app does not have access to that full atmos pass through support. The developers currently cannot modify the audio settings and cannot detect what your current settings are. This prevents the app from white listing additional codecs on the fly to match what capabilities your specific setup has. This results in the developers having to keep the settings at the current base operating system level which means if there isn’t a decoder available for third party apps to use the server will need to step in and convert it into something the player can pass through the API to decode.

In the end I picked up an Nvidia Shield and have moved to Kodi on the Shield playing from a Network share, it plays everything perfectly and cuts the Plex server out of the equation all together. With the advent of 4k, HDR, 10/12 bit color and Object Based sound Plex is really starting to flounder and fail, too many things to go wrong and poor support for what are already industry standards in UHD media.
They may be industry standards now, but they were not when the device you are playing them on were released. So the manufacturers need to update their players and API’s to the newest versions before Plex players can hook into them. Just like when Microsoft first released the Xbox One there was no MKV support or any HEVC support once they were made available the app took advantage of them. As the API’s for the Xbox One appear (and work correctly) the developers are more than happy to take advantage of them to use.

10

XBox One S most certainly has support for Atmos, as well as many other audio formats. If the file info says the audio track is Atmos, and Plex is transcoding, it’s Plex’s fault.