4K Streaming and subtitle settings - DS218+ - Q90R - Apple TV 4K

[Chandler3000]

Hi,

First of all my setup:

NAS: DS218+ , latest DSM, DS Video Server

TV: Samsung Q90R, Tizen, DS Video App, Plex App

Multimedia Streamer: Apple TV 4K, DS Video App, Plex App

AVR: Denon X3500H



Question:

I want to play 4K video from my NAS and I found out that my TV DS Video App performs the best with this task.

It plays various formats without any stuttering and flickering.

For some kind of a reason ATV4K has problems with the 4K HDR and frame rate when playing 4K video through AVR. Something to do with not being able to match the frame rate. I have enabled the dynamic area and frame rate match from ATV but still I can see a short stop in the playback.

I would like to use my ATV for playing the 4K video but Q90R performs better.

So, Is there a way to change my settings so I could watch 4K video from my ATV?

Secondly, how can I change the size of subtitles when using DS Video. DS Video App on my TV has only Medium and Large options and they are huge. Can I change them to smaller size?

TIA

 

[HDFan]

Tried the DS Video App on my ATV 4K. Wouldn't play my 4k .mkv files, which work fine in Infuse.

A bit surprised that your TV app works better than your Apple TV. Most reports have said the opposite.

 

[cynics]

4k HDR? Right out of the gate it sounds like you are changing the hardware that is decoding to me.

Do you have anymore information on the 4k content you are playing? Profile? FPS? Transcode Speed (complexity)? Bitrate?

4k30 10bit h265 is going to be tough for your NAS to decode. You'd likely need to specially transcode a video to minimize its complexity for it to play smooth. 4k60 10bit h265 is likely going to be impossible for your NAS regardless of how you transcode it.

Your NAS (4k30fps max with no HDR 10-bit)

Your Samsung TV on the other hand has the hardware for 4kHDR decoding.

Your TV (4k@60fps max Main10 - HDR 10bit)


Try to play the video on both DS Video and the TV's app again this time watch your CPU usage in Synology's DSM. If you see a difference (one being very high they other being low/middle) its because on one the NAS is trying to decode the video, on the other the TV is doing it. You might see the CPU usage drop as the frames drop (not keeping up, dropping frames thus not doing the work for those frames).

DS Video isn't a good app especially if you are going to exceed the hardware capabilities of the NAS.

Try downloading Infuse (free one) and playing the same file directly from your NAS (put the file in a folder if you need too). I have a bunch of video players but Infuse can use the AppleTV 4k's hardware better than most players can.

 

[frogspawn504]

Buy infuse - I have been using it for years and it always works. I have the same setup up except with Sony 950

 

[priitv8]

4k30 10bit h265 is going to be tough for your NAS to decode.

That format shall play back (also) in Plex in passthru, without decoding/transcoding.
It is because the tvOS native player plays it back natively.

 

[HDFan]

4k30 10bit h265 is going to be tough for your NAS to decode.

Should work with hardware decoding.

From Plex:

Plex NAS Compatibility

Nas Models <a href="https://support.plex.tv/articles/categories/nas-devices/">See our NAS device support articles for more information.</a> NAS Device,Software Transcoding,Hardware – Accelerated Transcoding <a href="https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php">PassMark CPU Benchmarks</a>,(Plex Pas...

docs.google.com

From Synology:

• For online transcoding, only DS1019+, DS918+, DS718+, DS218+, DS418play, and 4K Group 3models support video format in 4K HEVC Main10 profile and 10-bit HDR; Hi10 profile is not supported in H.264.

Can my Synology NAS convert 4K videos for my device? - Synology Knowledge Center

Synology Knowledge Center offers comprehensive support, providing answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting steps, software tutorials, and all the technical documentation you may need.

www.synology.com

Try downloading Infuse

Plex and Infuse are generally better than the NAS vendors video servers.

 

[bumbo]

+1 on Infuse. Plex will mysteriously want to transcode files that my TV can play fine, then it freezes because my server (a Mac Mini) can't handle the transcoding.

Same file, same network with Infuse... file plays no issues. Reason: no transcoding. The TV can handle it so it just plays it.

Keep Plex as your media server and use Infuse as your player you won't regret it.

 

[cynics]

That format shall play back (also) in Plex in passthru, without decoding/transcoding.
It is because the tvOS native player plays it back natively.

I'm not that familiar with Plex, I know Infuse can maximize the hardware of the AppleTV 4k better than most.

Regardless, a file encoded with h265 (or any compression standard) needs to be decoded to be a restored to a playable format. If the server can pass the h265 encode then the client will have to do it using hardware acceleration or software.

The AppleTV 4k has a specific hardware purpose built for decoding h265 profile 5 which is ~4k 30hz 10bit.

The video player decoding the data without hardware acceleration (aka software decoding) will need to manually instruction the CPU how to decode it with the h265 compression standards algorithm. This is massively CPU intensive and if the encode is too complex for the CPU it will cause poor playback, dropped frames, etc which is what the OP is experiencing.

 

[HDFan]

This is massively CPU intensive and if the encode is too complex for the CPU it will cause poor playback, dropped frames, etc which is what the OP is experiencing.

I wonder if hardware transcoding isn't being used on the DS218+.

 

[cynics]

I wonder if hardware transcoding isn't being used on the DS218+.

Not precisely sure what you mean. If you mean in context of this thread then I think yes, which is the problem. HDR's 10bit spec (OP video) exceeds the hardware decoding capability of the DS218+ thus causing poor performance.

 

[HDFan]

HDR's 10bit spec (OP video) exceeds the hardware decoding capability of the DS218+ thus causing poor performance.

The Plex matrix I posted above lists the DS218+ as being able to do hardware decoding of 2160 UHD. Isn't that 10 bit HDR?

 

[priitv8]

The Plex matrix I posted above lists the DS218+ as being able to do hardware decoding of 2160 UHD. Isn't that 10 bit HDR?

Not necessarily. UHD can also be in AVC or HEVC 8-bit Rec.709 (ie SDR).
UHD and HDR just tend to be marketed together lately.
HDR itself is also frame-size-agnostic. Just needs to be HEVC-encoded.

PS incidentally aTV 4 (the fullHD model), is cabable of decoding 8-bit HEVC 1080p (SDR) without problem since tvOS 12.

 

[ianrip]

I had an DS218+, and it couldn't handle any heavy transcoding, i used a Mac mini as a server, and that turned out to be a pain, I ended up buying a DS1019+, and its awesome, I use plex for everything, but i believe infuse is as good as Plex

So in summary, you’ll need a better NAS for long term Transcoding, get a beast NAS and then use the other devices as display devices only, let the NAS do the heavy work
PS regarding PLEX it has a setting that says"make my CPU hurt"

 

[priitv8]

So in summary, you’ll need a better NAS for long term Transcoding...

But why transcode? There are 2 main and useful codecs - AVC and HEVC - and both are natively supported by aTV. OK, occasionally you can see VC1 or VP9 but majority of FHD and UHD content is in first two and do not need to be transcoded.
PS DVDs are a different story,,,,

 

[ianrip]

But why transcode? There are 2 main and useful codecs - AVC and HEVC - and both are natively supported by aTV. OK, occasionally you can see VC1 or VP9 but majority of FHD and UHD content is in first two and do not need to be transcoded.
PS DVDs are a different story,,,,

I suppose its down to each use case, i have many different file formats, and I found the DS218 could'nt hack it, so i upgraded, and so far the DS1019+ is a beast, even from another country it streams great. but again each user case could be different. (1019+ had more storage also)

 

[cynics]

The Plex matrix I posted above lists the DS218+ as being able to do hardware decoding of 2160 UHD. Isn't that 10 bit HDR?

Technically yes, but technically anything can play 4k 10bit HDR if we leave out a variable or two.

If you hoover the mouse over HEVC UHD 2160p on your chart it defines the variables a bit.

Main 10 is the HEVC/h265 profile used which is a 10 bit color depth (rec2020 colorspace) w/ 4.2.0 chroma sampling profile. UHD resolution 3840 x 2160 with average bit rate of 60 Mbps. As long as those specs aren't exceeded the video will decode in real time.

So using bit rate for example, these are both HEVC UHD 2160p 10-bit videos.

A video like this might play perfectly fine since scenes below 60 Mbps will let the decoder get ahead to not effect playback when its goes above 60 Mbps.



While videos like this will freeze and stutter since the decoder won't be able to maintain a buffer.



Main 10 will also have a "level" that accompanies it. The profile and level would define the capability of the decoder to playback video. This allows content creators, devs, content streaming services, etc to know the capabilities of the decoding device without actually testing each one for compatibility.