HEVC for Plex on Amazon FireTv Gen 2

[dvd_maniac]

I want to start encoding my 1080p videos to HEVC for playback on my Amazon Fire Tv using Plex.

When I use the Nvidia HEVC encoding in Staxrip using default Encoder Options I get a file that plays back perfectly.
When I use H.265 with default Encoder Options I get a file that cannot be fast forward or rewinded without it taking many "minutes" to seek and start playing.
The further along in the video it is the longer it takes to start playing again.
I would like to use the software encoding option for better quality/size ratio. :(
Can someone tell me what H.265 setting is causing this and how I can fix it?

[RanmaCanada]

In my experience Plex sucks when it comes to HEVC implementation. It doesn't stream HEVC, it transcodes everything to H264. It's why I switched to Emby almost 2 years ago. At least with Emby I can use external players like SPMC which allow streaming of codecs that the internal player does not support. Plex is a one size fits all devices. When you are playing your HEVC material see if it is actually streaming it or if it is transcoding it to H264. If it's transcoding it, that is your problem. I'd make the switch to Emby, and then you can use SPMC which will allow you to use the full potential of your box. Only problem is Emby is not free like Plex is :/.

Note. I haven't used Plex for quite some time, so maybe they've finally fixed their stupid issues with HEVC and cookie cutter playback.

[dvd_maniac]

It does not transcode my HEVC encodes at all.
That used to be the case a while ago but I have been pretty happy with what it plays directly without transcoding.
The only problem I am having is when I use H265 instead of he NVidia H.265 and try to RW or FF the video it takes forever for it to seek to the play point and start playing. The further along into the video, the longer it takes.

Any setting recommendations for playback on the Fire TV without this issue would be awesome...

[benwaggoner]

It does not transcode my HEVC encodes at all.
That used to be the case a while ago but I have been pretty happy with what it plays directly without transcoding.
The only problem I am having is when I use H265 instead of he NVidia H.265 and try to RW or FF the video it takes forever for it to seek to the play point and start playing. The further along into the video, the longer it takes.

Any setting recommendations for playback on the Fire TV without this issue would be awesome...
FireTV Gen 2 has a pretty standard HEVC Main 10 Level 5.0 decoder, so 1080p60 Level 4.2 should work just fine, with any Main/Main10 features enabled.

The seeking problem is odd. What container format are you using? That sounds like a muxing problem. Standard .mp4 would be good, I think. Sometimes forcing Closed GOP can help with that kind of issue, but that the seek time is proportional to content length makes it sound like an indexing problem. You aren't using .ts or something, are you?

[Spades45]

FireTV Gen 2 has a pretty standard HEVC Main 10 Level 5.0 decoder, so 1080p60 Level 4.2 should work just fine, with any Main/Main10 features enabled.

The seeking problem is odd. What container format are you using? That sounds like a muxing problem. Standard .mp4 would be good, I think. Sometimes forcing Closed GOP can help with that kind of issue, but that the seek time is proportional to content length makes it sound like an indexing problem. You aren't using .ts or something, are you?

FireOS is slow in general, and it gets slower with every update

wouldn't be surprised if OP's problem is just too much bloatware pushed by Amazon. they basically killed the 1st gen devices with updates.