Stream 4K to Samsung 4K TV via Plex Media Server

The Plex app is now available on 2016 and newer model year Samsung sets that are Tizen-based. For those people who own a Samsung 4K TV, you will then have the chance to stream 4K content videos or movies to enjoy your big screen 4K TV with the Plex app for Samsung TV. However, there are still some people fail to get 4K video played on Samsung 4K TV via Plex.

"I've got a movie in 4K and it won't play on my TV. It would need to direct play or direct stream, but the log says that it's not enabled (so something's wrong with the file I guess, even though it seems like it should support everything in the file based on the plex site and samsung's site for direct play). The TV is samsung UN50KU630DF."

What 4K formats can be played on Samsung 4K TV via Plex?

From Plex's official web page, we get the information that you can only direct play following 4K video on Samsung 4K TV via the PLex app:

4K (UHD) direct play video support:
- MKV container with H.264, hevc (H.265), mjpeg or vp9 video encoding
- MP4 container with H.264, hevc (H.265), mjpeg video encoding
- Resolution up to 4096x2160 are supported

Tips:
- Direct play of audio streams other than the default stream is supported
- Plex will attempt to remux streams for 4K (UHD) content where possible, but in some cases, the video may be transcoded to 1080p (full HD)

Transcode unsupported 4K for Samsung 4K TV Playback via Plex

From above listed information, we can see that you can only direct play very limited 4K file formats on Samsung 4K TV via Plex. However, if is well known that 4K video is can be wrapped in various container file formats such as 4K AVI/WMV/MP4/MKV/MOV/MXF/XAVC/XAVC S/TS or compression codec such as H.264, H.265, Prores, VP8, VP9, MJPEG, etc. If you try to playback those 4K content with unsupported container or encoding codec on Samsung 4K TV via Plex app, Plex app will automatically transcode that 4K content for you. However, it is well known that 4K content transcoding is a very intensive process and will require a powerful computer running Plex
Media Server. If you run a slow computer with lower processor power, then Plex will fail to transcode that 4K content for you.

Best tool to transcode 4K for Samsung TV Playing via Plex

Here, you can easily fix this issue with a third-party 4K Video Converter - Pavtube Video Converter, which has full loading support for all 4K video with all the container file formats of AVI, WMV, MP4, MOV, MKV, MXF, XAVC, XAVC S, TS and compression codec of H.264, H.265, Prores, etc. The program can helps to you directly convert unsupported 4K video to Samsung 4K TV plex app playable 4K H.264/H.265 MP4 or 4K H.264/H.265 MKV with fast conversion speed and perfect output file quality.

Tips: The program supports hard-ware accelerated encoding, you can get up to 30x H.265 codec encoding acceleration as long as you run the program on a computer with Graphic cards that supports Nvidia NVENC technology and 6x H.264 codec encoding acceleration if you run the program on a computer with Graphic cards that supports Nvidia CUDA or AMD App technology.

Adjust output profile parameters

For those tech savvy, you can achieve better output video and audio quality by flexibly adjust output profile parameters such as video codec, resolution, bit rate, frame rate, audio codec, bit rate, sample rate, channels, etc as you like in the program's "Profile Settings" windows.

Pavtube Video Converter is available on Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7, it is also accompanied by an up-to-date Mac version - Pavtube Video Converter for Mac for macOS Sierra. The program is quite simple to use, anyone can learn to use it in minutes. In addition, it is very stable during the conversion process, there is almost no sudden crashes.

Tips: H.264 and H.265 codec encoding acceleration is only available with Pavtube Video Converter on Windows PC.

How to Convert Unsupported 4K Video for Samsung 4K TV Playing via Plex App

Step 1: Load 4K video.

Download the free trial version of the program. Launch it on your computer. Click "File" menu and select "Add Video/Audio" or click the "Add Video" button on the top tool bar to import source 4K video files into the program.

Load source 4K video files

Step 2: Define the output format.

You can select Samsung 4K TV Plex app direct playback 4K H.264/H.265 MP4 or 4K H.264/H.265 MKV files. Here, we choose the output the 4K H.265 MP4, you can also choose other formats according to your own needs.

Output Samsung 4K TV Plex app native playback format

Step 3: Enable GPU Encode Acceleration.

Click "Tools" > "Options", in the opened "Options" window, click "Acceleration" menu, then check "Enable GPU Encode Acceleration" otpion so that the program will accelerate conversion speed when encoding video to H.265/H.264 codec.

Step 4: Start the final conversion process.

Go back to the main interface, tap right-bottom "Convert" button to start the conversion from unsupported 4K video to Vizio 4K TV direct playback 4K format conversion.

When the conversion is completed, add converted files to Plex for streaming to Vizio TV for direct playback with Plex app.

What's Next? Price: $35