Local 4K HDR Playback in Plex App

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Local 4K HDR Playback in Plex App

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The Moog

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I have been playing around with my Aura for a week or so. I am reasonably happy with it as it seems to be working well, and although I have had many of the minor issues that others have mentioned here I am hopeful that they will get fixed as the sofware matures.

One thing I am trying to get working and can't seem to is local playback of 4K HDR material. The Plex app (which is noted in the Aura marketing materials) installs and finds my content library without issue, but then struggles to actually play anything. I have messed around with most of the settings to try to get this to work; with 'New Player' turned on nothing plays and I get stuck on the loading screen, with 'New Player' turned off some SD content plays and will play the sound but no picture, and none of my 1080P or 4K content plays. I have also played around with the Aura's various picture format settings to see if this is causing Plex to try to transcode.

I am keen to be able to play 4K HDR10 content from a NAS and be able to passthrough Atmos/DTS:X sound to an AVR as the Aura is advertised as being capable of this, but at the moment it won't reliably play SD content. Any thoughts on what I need to adjust to get this to work?

| Sun 22 Nov 2020 14:11:01 #1 |
grahamlthompson

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Have you access to a 4K firestick ? The plex app on there is the latest version with framerate matching.

| Sun 22 Nov 2020 14:14:27 #2 |
The Moog

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I have a few Roku Steaming Stick+ around the house. I use their Plex app to stream from my local NAS and this works fine with 4K HDR content from my Plex server, although they can't passthrough Atmos/DTS:X. I also use a Vero 4K+ to stream from the same library, this works great and can play 4K HDR content and passthrough Atmos/DTS:X to an AVR.

The Aura is a replacement for an FVP-4000T, and I was hoping that I could replace both the older Humax and the Vero 4K+ with a single box solution.

| Sun 22 Nov 2020 14:54:39 #3 |
The Moog

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After doing a reset and setting the Aura up again, the Plex app will now play 4K HDR files from my local server. Yay!

Variable frame rate (adjusting the output to match the native frame rate of the source) currently doesn't work, and attempting to play content with this set to 'on' just results in watching the loading screen forever. Variable resolution (adjusting the output to match the native resolution of the source) does seem to now work.

I still can't get the Aura to pass any HD audio to my AVR. Even though HDMI passthrough option is selected in the settings, all my AVR reports it is getting is Dolby Digital+.

| Tue 1 Dec 2020 8:43:50 #4 |
The Moog

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So having a bit of a play around with Plex and its 'variable frame rate' and 'variable resolution' options, unsurprisingly they make no difference to what is being output as the Aura is locked at 4K50. I could change this in the Auras resolution options, but then it would just be locked at a different resolution. As previously noted in another thread, the Aura needs a 'native' option to output content at its native resolution and framerate.

| Sat 5 Dec 2020 10:32:16 #5 |
grahamlthompson

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Look for framerate matching options. The version of plex installed looks the same as that on a 4K firestick which does framerate match if enabled.

| Sat 5 Dec 2020 17:02:19 #6 |
The Moog

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Yeah, I played with the manual settings and could pick 25/30/50/60Hz at 4K or 50/60Hz at 1080P (I couldn't see 24 or 48Hz options in either res?) and match this to content, but it would be great for this switching to be automatic. I am just going to leave it set to auto for now and hope that we get a native option, as it's too much hassle to change each time (and I don't know the native format of all of my library of the top of my head).

| Sat 5 Dec 2020 17:31:15 #7 |
MickO

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Jellyfin has the same problem as well.
I would suggest there are major resolution and HDMI problems.
Why is resolution setting in the Freeview section?
I would have thought it would be in device preferences.

| Sun 6 Dec 2020 14:49:13 #8 |
The Moog

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Yup, it doesn't matter what resolution or framerate settings you set on Plex when the Aura is locked to a selectable but fixed resolution and framerate. Plex can definately do this on Android TV as it works great on the Nvidia Shield, and so I am hopeful that the next Aura update will have a 'native' output option where it matches (and allows Plex to match) the native resolution and framerate of the content. And passthrough Atmos/DTS:X over HDMI.

| Sun 6 Dec 2020 16:09:33 #9 |
grahamlthompson

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The Moog - 1 hour ago »
Yup, it doesn't matter what resolution or framerate settings you set on Plex when the Aura is locked to a selectable but fixed resolution and framerate. Plex can definately do this on Android TV as it works great on the Nvidia Shield, and so I am hopeful that the next Aura update will have a 'native' output option where it matches (and allows Plex to match) the native resolution and framerate of the content. And passthrough Atmos/DTS:X over HDMI.

I agree.

A 4K firestick has the same option and is way cheaper than the Shield.

With my AVR it has an additional benefit. I can share the output to a remote TV that only does stereo PCM and retain DTS neural surround in the main room.

Using any other source forces the audio to PCM stereo. Probably asking too much for the aura to do the same.

I reckon you need source settings for Video and Audio.

| Sun 6 Dec 2020 17:37:31 #10 |