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
Does OS 12 do anything for this?
This issue started for me with Roku OS 11.5 and is finally fixed.
I recently upgraded my Plex Server from Windows to Ubuntu and updated my Roku Ultra 2020 to Roku OS 12.
I don't know which of the above fixed the severe contrast issue but it's now gone.
I had the issue for a while, but with the Roku OS 12 upgrade, it seems to have been resolved as well
Good news, can't seem to get OS 12 on my 4802, did a factory reset and still 11.5
I'll pickup a 4k stick to bring with me on extended international trip. I assume the 4k stick had this issue also.
I have three Roku 4800 device, and one of them received the update to version 12, but the other two are still running 11.5. I think Roku rolls out updates gradually to reduce the impact of any bugs introduced by software updates, and the exact same model device will receive updates at different times. I have been manually checking for updates daily, hoping the other two devices will update soon.
Good to see that maybe they finally fixed the issue after all these years. I returned my roku back in November and never looked back.
I ended up getting one of walmart's "new model" Onn 4k streaming boxes (less than $20) and have been enjoying it daily. The Plex player works great with all my x265 media, direct plays everything that Roku wanted to transcode. It's android based so basically the google play store is your playground. There's no advertising like streaming boxes, just a clean and simple interface.
I picked up an onn box and didn't have good luck, my x265 files on Plex were choppy and the audio just says multi-channel in on my AVR. I did enable audio passthrough. Roku is useless, mine still on 11.5.
I haven't been watching this thread for awhile but just went to play a file, got the red hues, and went to see what the latest solution was.
I wanted to post here to mention that my 4802 Roku Ultra is running 12.0.0 build 4184-C2 and it DOES show the red hues. So OS 12 does not solve the problem for me.
