Streaming 4K MKV/H.265 to Apple TV 4K not working

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Streaming 4K MKV/H.265 to Apple TV 4K not working

Why is streaming of a 4K MKV/H.265 media to the Apple TV 4K not working?

My setup:

Plex server and 4K MKV/H.265 movies on a 1815+ Synology;
Plex client on an Apple TV 4K.

When streaming the movie, the Plex server performs transcoding. I use PlexPy while the MKV video format is being streamed to the ATV 4K to determine whether or not transcoding is taking place.

My 1815+ Synology being obviously not powerful enough for 4K transcoding, I have a non functional setup (Synology+ATV 5+LG OLED) 4K setup, this is frustrating.

However, I can perfectly stream 4K MKV/H.265 media from my Synology to the Apple TV 4K by using Infusion 5 on the Apple TV 4K.

So, bye bye Plex and hello Infuse...

Can anyone explain me the technical reason 4K streaming to ATV 5 does not work with Plex but it works with Infuse?

Apple TV 4K, null

Posted on Oct 1, 2017 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 31, 2017 2:22 AM in response to Delphi8000

Whether Plex Media Server will perform a codec transcoding depends on the codec supported by your Plex client. Of course, there are many other factors to consider as well: resolution, bit rate, frame rate, encoding level, network bandwidth, etc. You media will either direct play, direct stream or transcode.

Although Apple TV 4K now can handle 4K H.265 video, however, if other profile parameters of the 4K H.265 is not compatible with the Apple TV 4K Plex app, the Plex Media Server will still try to initiate a transcoding process.

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