SOLVED: Direct Play 4K HDR Issues

[TheDreadPirate]

I am 99% positive that the Shield Pro cannot decode HEVC level 180 (6.0). Most streaming devices support to up level 153 (5.1) and I am pretty certain the Shield Pro is no different.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Effic...and_levels

[theguymadmax]

It likely does support it; it's just that the Shield doesn't report it.

Code:

 Decoder "OMX.Nvidia.h265.decode" supports
    profile/levels: [
          1/131072 (Main/High 5.1),
          2/131072 (Main10/High 5.1),
      4096/131072 (Main10HDR10/High 5.1)}

The Shield reports a maximum level of 5.1. The ATV client relies on these HEVC level checks and will transcode accordingly. As mentioned in that thread, there is no current workaround. There are several proposals, but none have been implemented.

[Daniel Brown]

So interesting development, by disabling transcoding support for HEVC 10bit it now direct plays..... odd.... i guess i will leave this since i only stream 4k locally and don't share that library with anyone, but would love to support if if i wanted to watch that file on something else. Works for now though.... odd!

[Daniel Brown]

For that specific file, the problem is most likely related to profile levels. Although the shield can play it, the checks are failing, causing Jellyfin on Android TV to assume your device can't handle it and triggering a transcode. You can find more details in this issue.

Just because i'm curious and am in way over my head in terms of the technical aspects of this. How does a proprietary player like plex get around this with the same files?

[theguymadmax]

This is specific to what Jellfin for ATV does. Since I can’t view their code, I can’t tell what they are doing. They might not even have a level check in place; they could simply verify HEVC support and allow playback for any level, or they could hardcode the capabilities for different devices. There could be numerous approaches to handling this.

Regarding your issue, I've tried the workaround, but it doesn't seem to be working. Are you certain it's not still transcoding? I don’t see how disabling HEVC 10 decoding would result in that outcome.