Dolby Vision and 1.15.3

[chiavere]

You need a Shield to get DV playback from an MKV.

Hi - I took this advice, and bought an Nvidia Shield, enabled DV on it, and played my DV extracted MKV using the shield Plex app, and am still only getting HDR playback - any ideas? The metadata for the MKV file has DV listed as “true.”

Ok, the issue in my case is the audio track - when I switch to the AC3 core audio for playback instead of TrueHD, DV is picked up 100% of the time by my LG CX, except when the Shield’s (or Plex’s?) DV decoder crashes (which is a known issue at the moment, apparently).

[Mr_Orange]

You need a Shield to get DV playback from an MKV.

Hi - I took this advice, and bought an Nvidia Shield, enabled DV on it, and played my DV extracted MKV using the shield Plex app, and am still only getting HDR playback - any ideas? The metadata for the MKV file has DV listed as “true.”

Ok, the issue in my case is the audio track - when I switch to the AC3 core audio for playback instead of TrueHD, DV is picked up 100% of the time by my LG CX, except when the Shield’s (or Plex’s?) DV decoder crashes (which is a known issue at the moment, apparently).

The DV decoder is part of the Shield Experience so is Nvidia's responsibility.

It crashing is a known issue and is still being looked into with input from Plex.

TrueHD sound tracks do seem to cause more issues than DTS ones for some people, including me.

[alarsen77]

So I am not sure if I am misunderstanding how to get DV with 1.15.3. I just ripped a copy of Ready Player One that is supposed to have DV and I don't get DV when playing back with Plex but others I have in DV do work but they were done with the older process of ripping in MakeMKV and then using tsmuxer to get DV. Do I still have to do that or should a rip with 1.15.3 produce DV?

[aboulfad]

So I am not sure if I am misunderstanding how to get DV with 1.15.3. I just ripped a copy of Ready Player One that is supposed to have DV and I don't get DV when playing back with Plex but others I have in DV do work but they were done with the older process of ripping in MakeMKV and then using tsmuxer to get DV. Do I still have to do that or should a rip with 1.15.3 produce DV?

hi, did you try 1.15.4? I just did my first rip of Black Panther and then created an mkv selecting the proper title/audio and here's an extract from mediainfo output:

Code: Select all

mediainfo MARVEL_BLACK_PANTHER_t00.mkv 
...
Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
[b]HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
[/b]Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC

[alarsen77]

So I am not sure if I am misunderstanding how to get DV with 1.15.3. I just ripped a copy of Ready Player One that is supposed to have DV and I don't get DV when playing back with Plex but others I have in DV do work but they were done with the older process of ripping in MakeMKV and then using tsmuxer to get DV. Do I still have to do that or should a rip with 1.15.3 produce DV?

hi, did you try 1.15.4? I just did my first rip of Black Panther and then created an mkv selecting the proper title/audio and here's an extract from mediainfo output:

Code: Select all

mediainfo MARVEL_BLACK_PANTHER_t00.mkv 
...
Video
ID                                       : 1
ID in the original source medium         : 4113 (0x1011)
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5.1@High
[b]HDR format                               : Dolby Vision, Version 1.0, dvhe.07.06, BL+EL+RPU, Blu-ray compatible / SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
[/b]Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC

So I figured out what my issue was I think. I had ripped the movie and both the atmos track and the DD 5.1 audio. I had to select DD 5.1 as my audio stream in plex and then DV worked.

[saf001]

Is there any recommended debugging steps or thoughts on why one disc/rip would work with Dolby Vision and another one would not? Both having support of Dolby Vision and makemkv 1.15.3 used? Plex / Nas server is on Ubuntu.

I have a Sony 950H. Yamaha av-677 receiver. Nvidia Shield Pro, Comcast Box X1, and PS4 plug into Yamaha which then routes its output to the Sony 950H HDMI eArc. Trying to get DV to work has been a challenge but so far I have redone the 20 or so movies I have with 1.15.3 and can only get the new LoTR movies to play with DV. Everything else fails thus my wondering what is different because my setup hasn't changed.

The new 4k Lord of the Rings played with Dolby Vision. Configuration was the same as I noted above but had to change 2 things. First it would not play using the Plex client on the Nvidia Shield Pro. I checked settings and not able to select Dolby Vision or HDR. My guess is my Yamaha receiver is only supporting 1.4 HDMI or I don't have it set correctly for pass through - although I think I do. Next up I started the Sony plex client. It too failed. I checked info and noticed it has TrueHD 7.1 set so dropped it to 5.1 and Dolby Vision showed up. Reset audio to TrueHD and it failed. So in this case the Sony Plex client, audio set to 5.1, and Dolby Vision with LoTR worked amazingly well. One would think all I have to do is repeat it, right?

Tried to repeat this with Coming to America, Jaws, Back to the Future, and Godzilla. No luck. Didn't matter what audio track was played but the same success above didn't work. If I select the Sony info / input button to see what I can choose none have DV as an option. Only Lord of the Rings. Go figure.

Re-ran plex analyse. No luck. Media info shows DV. Sort of at a loss as to what could be different between the two or why plex plays one fine and the other it doesn't. Probably obvious and I'm just missing it. LoTR looks great though I have to say. Just wish the others would play properly. Thanks for any tips.

[Bitwize]

Reboot the app - kill the app process and then start the app again - fixed the problem for me. It seems that the Plex Android client app caches playback setting of files previously played (that is my guess). Renaming the mkv file name also works.

Thanks for this it's work for me

I have a 2019 Shield, LG C9 OLED, Pioneer Elite A/V receiver, and latest Plex client and server versions. For about a week I had very consistent MKV playback success with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Restarting the Plex app, force quitting it, and/or restarting the Shield would clear up any random playback issues. But as of this morning, it does not matter how many times I force quit the Plex app, clear the app cache, or restart the Shield. I just get crash after crash with Dolby Vision MKV files.

I have tested around 40 files that have Dolby Vision. I have not updated the Plex client or server apps, nor have I updated the Shield Experience. Hoping that Nvidia (or Plex?) eradicates whatever gremlin(s) are causing these issues. I've reverted to my Apple TV 4K with the Infuse app. No DV or TrueHD+Atmos support, but I have zero playback issues with the same files.

[magnetoeric]

I haven't experienced any such crashes on my setup (Lg CX and both shield and Plex on latest version). But I had Dolby vision logo popup multiple times when playing any DV title with truehd track. This Didn't happen for dts hd ma tracks. Although playback is smoother in both the cases.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[morbius]

I picked up a Shield a few days ago (the tube version) and found that Plex was very unhappy with my DV titles with TrueHD soundtracks, but I may have found a solution. One title Plex kept crashing on was Joker. I just remuxed Joker back though makemkv using the FLAC profile, creating an mkv with a 7.1 hi-res PCM in a FLAC container. Plex opened the file seamlessly and immediately triggered DV on the TV and my AVR. I will experiment with some other titles, but this might be a way of retaining hi-res audio in a way that is Plex-friendly. Appreciate this will not be ideal for those with height-channel speakers. I also need to see now if I can actually see a difference between the nominal DV playback from Plex vs the regular HDR10 from Kodi.

[morbius]

Follow-up to my previous post, I just tried the Plex app on the AppleTV for two versions of Spiderman Homecoming, one with TrueHD audio and one with the HD audio reencoded to FLAC. To my surprise, the version with the FLAC audio played with DV according to my AVR and my TV, the other version came up as HDR10. Same thing happened with Joker. Is this known behaviour of the ATV? In terms of actual DV capability, what might I be seeing? Could it be that apart from the DV logo, I'm not seeing an actual benefit?

Shame the Plex app on the ATV has such terrible lip-sync when framerate matching is enabled. Infuse Pro does not have this issue. So for now, Plex on the ATV for UHD mkv's isn't a viable option, but I thought the difference in how DV is flagged to the AVR/TV by switching to FLAC audio was intriguing. Unfortunately I find Plex on the Shield to be even worse, it's just so flaky in terms of its responsiveness I've had to give up.

[Mr_Orange]

Follow-up to my previous post, I just tried the Plex app on the AppleTV for two versions of Spiderman Homecoming, one with TrueHD audio and one with the HD audio reencoded to FLAC. To my surprise, the version with the FLAC audio played with DV according to my AVR and my TV, the other version came up as HDR10. Same thing happened with Joker. Is this known behaviour of the ATV? In terms of actual DV capability, what might I be seeing? Could it be that apart from the DV logo, I'm not seeing an actual benefit?

Shame the Plex app on the ATV has such terrible lip-sync when framerate matching is enabled. Infuse Pro does not have this issue. So for now, Plex on the ATV for UHD mkv's isn't a viable option, but I thought the difference in how DV is flagged to the AVR/TV by switching to FLAC audio was intriguing. Unfortunately I find Plex on the Shield to be even worse, it's just so flaky in terms of its responsiveness I've had to give up.

ATV does not support DV Profile 7 which is what is inside the MKVs and on the UHDs that you rip.

[timason]

Probably a stupid question but is there any way to play DV mkvs on C8 without external player? I bought a Shield a couple weeks ago but returned because colors weren't as vivid and image overall quite softer on 4k and SDR content. I know I can remux myself from ISOs to MP4s but MKVs are easily accessible nowadays so I thought I'd ask.

[shawnc22]

Probably a stupid question but is there any way to play DV mkvs on C8 without external player? I bought a Shield a couple weeks ago but returned because colors weren't as vivid and image overall quite softer on 4k and SDR content. I know I can remux myself from ISOs to MP4s but MKVs are easily accessible nowadays so I thought I'd ask.

no, not atm

[superfans124]

Hello everyone, newbie here.

When I play the new DV MKVs by 1.15.3 with the Shield, there's inconsistency. Sometimes it is direct playing DV and lossless Atmos / DTS:X fine, sometimes it is transcoding. And it gets worse -- when I play a DV file then switch to an HDR one then back to a DV file, it will more often transcode.

What I tried:
1.) Changing refresh rate on Shield settings - tried 59.94hz, 29.97hz, 60hz - all have problems
2.) Set Shield performance to Max - no effect
3.) Exit the playback and replay the movie - sometimes it works, sometimes does not and restarting and Shield is the only fix, but then after switching files, problem comes up again

On other non-DV MKVs, the Shield plays it just fine.

My setup:
Shield > Plex Beta 8.8.0.21074 > LG C9 (ULTRA HD DEEP COLOR ON, Passthrough, Bitstream) > eARC > Samsung HW-Q90R soundbar

Is this normal? I tried different 2.1 HDMI cables but the problem remains. Tried on different servers (NAS and Desktop PC). What might be the problem in my case?

Reboot the app - kill the app process and then start the app again - fixed the problem for me. It seems that the Plex Android client app caches playback setting of files previously played (that is my guess). Renaming the mkv file name also works.

Thanks for this it's work for me

thanks, worked for me too. however, how to kill a running app easily? I googled and couldn't find an answer so I resorted to rebooting shield...

btw, with my setup: Shield > Plex > Denon receiver > C6. Plex often still transcode DV MKV to HDR (from my lan unraid plex server) even on reboot, but it's solved when I manually switched to another audio track (and back), then out of a sudden DV kicks in and Plex is "Direct Play". there are still some quirks need to be ironed out.

[morbius]

btw, with my setup: Shield > Plex > Denon receiver > C6. Plex often still transcode DV MKV to HDR (from my lan unraid plex server) even on reboot, but it's solved when I manually switched to another audio track (and back), then out of a sudden DV kicks in and Plex is "Direct Play". there are still some quirks need to be ironed out.

I am new to Plex and have found it to be very erratic in general, and certainly with DV mkv's. My chain is Shield -> Marantz DV AVR -> Panny DV OLED TV. Plex is more stable with DV when the TV is set to TV-led DV, Plex will often play DV mkv's with passthrough TrueHD audio / DTS:X etc. However, at first it decided that direct play for audio was not supported, now for some reason it has decided that audio direct play can be used. Go figure.

But even at the individual file level, Plex is not consistent. Sometimes it might open a DV file quite smoothly, other times with the same file it might struggle and drop to HDR10. Sometimes the in-play responsiveness to pull up playback controls is good, sometimes it's terrible. I can't wait for the Kodi DV update for the Shield so that I can ditch Plex, but it has been useful for testing.