Good to know that the fire stick 4k works, looks like I'll grab one of those instead!
EOC_Jason I'm not 100% certain...but I think the firestick can play almost any codec. I know my old firestick would play old .AVI XviD or DivX but Plex has to transcode them on Roku.. Same with AAC multi channel.... i'm not sure if you use the repeat function on your Roku, but keep in mind, from what I understand, that function doesn't work on any non-roku player. there's a LONG plex thread of people complaining for years. The repeat function is there but it doesn't work... the only autoplay you get is the countdown between episodes before it starts the next one then it times out after so long and you have to intervene to start it again.. The workaround is to create a playlist... This would bother the **bleep** out of me but some people may not be phased by it...
i contacted Roku support provided them all the evidence that it's the 4800s , i have older roku models ultra 4k that don't have this issue as well as even older 1080p based roku. i even bought off amazon a new 4802 same Fing issue !! i returned it to amazon.. i opened my ticket in Nov. with Roku and they told they were looking into it and i replied many times and still no replies, i've given up on Roku now , I have 5 rokus in my house, i'm just going to stick with LG and Samsung Tvs and use their built in Plex app as well as other apps, Roku is not needed anymore these days TVs have even process power to handle things. What a waste Roku, your going to lost many more customers because of situations like this.
and your other settings....
If it's more than 0.79 ms you did something wrong or....
I haven't been following the posts for a while but just managed to come across a setting in Plex that solved a lot of these issues for me personally and might help others in their situation. In Plex settings on my Roku, I went to Video and changed Local quality and Remote Quality to "Original" and also changed Direct Play to "Force". Now, I don't have to change each individual TV show or movie to force direct play. I had one particular TV show that was red tint on every episode and we would just change it for each one to force direct play and now we don't have to. I'm not saying this will help for everyone but it did for me and hoping this works for some. You may lose audio for some files and I'm sure I read about this in other posts. If this has already been mentioned in a previous post, I apologize. I haven't read through all of them.
I have the same issue. As a programmer, this seems pretty ridiculous that the issue has yet to be fixed. The fix seems pretty easy to me and straight forward. The simplest workaround (Windows) for me is to run this script from a bat file, which clears the 4 header fields for any mkv file that it finds in the same folder:
for %%i in (*.mkv) do (
mkvpropedit "%%i" --edit track:v1 -d colour-range -d colour-transfer-characteristics -d colour-primaries -d colour-matrix-coefficients
)
This assumes you have MKVToolNix installed and the System Environment variable Path has an entry similar to this: C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix
i saw this a while back but was hoping Roku would fix instead, also i'm a programming too 🙂 . I just tried it the cmd seemed to work fine. I took a copy of my video file before hand to have an original.
The file is being analyzed.
The changes are written to the file.
Done.
and tested in my Roku 4800x and still same red tint issue.
Also, something i found weird, so we now live in 2 different states, so in our home where the plex server is , that is where i have the issue of red tint on this video and some others, it's a Samsung QLED 4k HDR 85 inch TV with a Roku 4800X 4k Ultra... in the other state where we have a 2nd home i have an LG OLED 65 inch 4k HDR TV with same Roku 4800X 4k Ultra.. when i play this same video file on the LG and 4800 , remotely, guess what there is no red tint !!! 🙂 , my assumption is that plex is doing some re-transcoding or what not since I'm watching the video remotely , remember the plex server is at our home in another state.. but when ever i try and watch the video "locally" in my home on the Samsung TV and Roku 4800 it has the Red tint.. this is puzzling..
never the less this running the cmd to alter the mkv as you mentioned didn't help me, i'm up for any other ideas as this point 🙂 ? it's a PIA to have to spend time fixing mkv files but if i find something that can fix mine i will be willing to do it at this point.
ok so i finally broke down and tried using HandBrake and VLC Media Player, both allow you to convert mkv files to mp4 , which changes the HEVC-5 encoding back to HEVC-4.. that seemed to resolve my issue i just replied about. I'll just have to do that i guess :). what a PIA thanks Roku
Hi Thanosazlin,
Unfortunately, the conversion to MP4 container isn't foolproof either. The red will still come back if Plex remuxes for any reason. You can try this yourself by just turning off Direct Play in the player settings.
As I said earlier, the most common reason this happens is after transcoding AAC surround sound, which can't be played on Roku directly. Whenever Plex remuxes the stream, it will repackage in an MKV container, complete with the bug-triggering color info in the header.
The conversion to mp4 (if you used handbrake, you're RE-ENCODING) which is totally unnecessary... All you need to do is remux the mkv into an mp4 container...
This is really works great as long as it direct plays... and it will direct play as long as the settings in the Players are correct... In my cast, Roku Ultra (2 of them) and I have both settings the same and I have never ran into an issue where Plex remuxes it (but my setup isn't elaborate at all)
Here at my home - we only stream locally. 2 rooms. A roku ultra in each room and the server in a room on its own...No accessing outside local newtwork.
One thing about running batch files in windows - I would like idiot instructions (Like literally, idiot instructions) I have one batch rile I can run to put MKV audio in sync. Say, you have a series and the entire season is 200ms out of sync... I can batch file that... I've fixed so many sync issues this way over the years... I have the .bat file... what I do.. is I take the bat file, put it into the folder of season 1 of a show, copy the shortcut from mkvtoolnix program files folder called mkvmerge... but both that and the bath file in the folder and double click the bat file and it processes fine... (as long as the files are all mkv) but I've never been able to get any other batch file to work and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
I'm not sure how to run that batch file, I have MKVToolnix
I tried recompressor version 291 with:
Overwrite source checked
Keep original unchecked
profile Strip Colour Header checked with no ffmpeg options
takes 5 minutes to do one file and it's half the size when done.
I'm not 100% because I haven't done it in a while...but I think keep original needs to be unchecked and overwrite needs to be checked...
Know this - it should only take a nano-second to do each file...if not, some setting is wrong...
Maybe someone can read this and give someone the EXACT settings they need...
I remember I had this problem when I first started using the program... It would take forever to do each file... Once I changed a couple of settings...it worked great...
those are the settings I have set, doesn't really work for me.
Under settings make sure everything is unchecked except for strip color.... not just blank... if Any option is checked ffmpeg will run
yes, my setting exactly like this.
thank you. unfortunately, still get the red push playing the file after recompress.
One thing you want to know is that even if you successfull run recompressor and remove the color...if you play the file on your player, if plex for any reason is doing anything other than direct PLAYING the file (both audio and video) this will do NOTHING.... I suspect if you're still seeing red after doing this that you have audio or video that plex is direct streaming or transcoding (reintroducing the bug)..
I made sure all of my audio and video will direct play on my Roku's... You have to make sure you're settings in the roku player are direct play (auto) and allow direct stream...also uncheck the AAC stutter workaround...when you're on Plex and you see your avatar, that's where the roku player settings are...
I have direct play (auto) and allow direct stream, I figured it wouldn't work on the file with DTS-HD audio, but another file with AAC audio, same thing. AAC stutter is unchecked.
did you look at your server while the file is playing to see if both audio and video are direct playing?
It definitely won't direct play if it is AAC surround sound. Roku will only direct play AAC stereo.
As 1DayAfterAnothe says, you should check your server dashboard while playing to see if it is direct playing.
Also do it on the Roku while playing. Just pause, and click over to the right where the three vertical dots are. Select that, then click down to Stream Info. Right on top the Playback mode will be displayed. Look especially at your audio to see if it is direct streaming.
didn't know about 5.1 AAC, DTS-HD is playing direct, but still have the push.
HI uncletim ,
Yeah, neither of the examples you posted are Direct Playing, so you will still have the red for sure. When the server Direct Streams, it copies the tracks to a new MKV container, and restores the color info in the header. So the red comes back.
The AAC one is easy to understand. The AAC 3.0 track can't be directly played on the Roku. You need to transcode it to AC3 or downmix it to AAC 2.0 to get that one to play correctly. Remember that in MKV files it is perfectly permissible to have mutliple sound tracks, so you don't have to throw your AAC 3.0 away.
The DTS one is a little harder since both tracks are evidently compatible with your playback equipment, but the server has decided to Direct Stream anyway. You should double check to make sure Direct Play is enabled on your Roku. You might even try to force it to Direct Play. I would also try adding an AC3 track to see if that helps the server think it is OK to Direct play it.
I forced direct play and both play with no red push, both AAC 3.0 and DTS-HD 3.0 play only 2.0 PCM tho.
so my question is, what x265 files *will* play with color info removed. so far everything I have tried has not worked.
as far as the DTS-HD, Roku doesn't support natively, always transcodes to DTS. it does show direct play... Interesting.
The answer is that every X265 file will play fine as long as the color info is removed, and it is Direct Played. But if the original file contains only audio that is incompatible with either the Roku or your playback equipment, the Plex server will remultiplex the streams into a new MKV container, and add the color info back in! So the red comes back.
In order to fix this, you need to add AC3 audio (for surround sound) and/or AAC stereo (not 3.0) to your files. This will make it so they will Direct Play. As I said earlier, there is no need to delete your current audio tracks, just add the new ones.
If your are using Handbrake to compress your videos, it is easy to add the additional audio tracks in when you compress them. You can use a tool like ffmpeg to add the additional audio after the fact. I think Recompress also has an option to do it, although I haven't used it personally.
X Media recode is a really easy way to batch re-encode audio only while copying the videos (just make sure Sync audio/video is unchecked because it does the opposite for me... If that's checked,a perfectly synd'd audio file will be around 200ms - or + out of sync... Most of my files are either AAC or AC3 stereo now or AC3 multi channel (all direct plays).. I'm not an audiophile, but I did use a high bitrate since I'm re-encoding audio.. as anything re-encoded loses more quality... but with a higher bitrate it's not noticeable.
All my files pretty much work now and Roku ultra will not try to direct stream them as long as I have the correct settings in Roku..
If I do come across red files I know what to do now so I'll just fix them...
Maybe soon we will hear that Roku has fixed this bug but after this long I wouldn't hold my breath
Hi Roku Community users,
Thanks for posting in the Roku Community regarding the issue you are experiencing with playback issues while streaming with Plex.
We would be more than happy to look further into this issue, but we will need more detailed information. Can you please provide us the following information:
Once we have this information, we will be able to pass it along to the appropriate Roku team to investigate further. We look forward to hearing back from each of you in.
Thanks,
Danny
