Server Version#: 4.51.3
Player Version#: 8.13.2.23227 (Android App on Sony TV)
Hello, I have Plex running off a small windows PC (i3-8100 w/16GB RAM) which uses the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 630 on the chip which does support QuickSync.
However, when I’m using Plex on my TV (Sony Bravia running Android) I can’t seem to watch any 4k streams (anything below that streams fine). Hardware transcoding is enabled on my plex server but is it a case of the integrated GPU just not being good enough to transcode the 4k on the fly and would it help if I add a discreet GPU to the system? (have space and a spare PCI-e slot to accommodate most cards)
Another oddity is when I do try and stream a 4k video to the TV, nine out of ten times it will actually crash plex server on the system and I have to log in and restart it.
This doesn’t happen on my desktop computer when streaming video through the browser, these playback just fine, but my desktop is 4k and rather powerful so presume there’s no transcode going on here and it’s just streaming the data, whereas the TV is 1080P and presumably the android components are fairly weak (especially given its age ~ 5years) so can’t keep up?
do you have subtitles and/or tone mapping enabled? if so, its possible that its going through the cpu.
tone mapping is currently cpu on windows, subtitles, and audio are all cpu single core processes.
disabling subtitles and/or tone mapping will help identify what is causing the problem(s).
other than, I think, safari, web browsers do not direct play hevc/265 in plex. so it is unlikely that your pc was direct playing.
what does the plex dashboard show you, it should indicate when (hw) ie gpu is being used for video decoding and encoding.
if the server is crashing, it sounds like either a driver or hardware issue (possibly overheating).
otherwise, without logs, its impossible to do anything other than guess.
to be honest, if you don’t have a 4k/hdr tv, there is not really much point to collecting 4k, you simply make it more difficult on yourself for doing so.
Thanks @TeknoJunky, I’ve disabled tone mapping and didn’t have subtitles on.
Playing through the browser does indeed show the hardware transcoding, interestingly even though the browser is set to “Convert to 2160p 4k (Maximum) 2.7Mbps” the dashboard looks like it’s converting it to 1080P
It shouldn’t be an over heating issue, the system is rather overspec’d for cooling and monitoring in AIDA64 whilst playing back is showing the hottest part of the die still under 60c (which is amazing for the Australian heat and the ambient room temperature being 29c with a 58% humidity).
In terms of drivers I’m up to date and have had this issue for some time over a handful of drivers, so, appreciate that doesn’t rule them out but I think makes them unlikely.
Ran through some testing just now (browser, TV, browser) and it didn’t crash this time, just when trying to play the 4k file the TV said there was an error and check my network, which I’ve not got before.
I’ve started getting 4k as I’ve purchased a 4k projector so when I get around to setting it up I’m hoping to make full use of it. It has google tv as an OS so will run the android plex app similar to the TV.
