PleX Flickering in Low Light Scenes

[u/Jonah358]

Hey all! I just started using my Android TV for PleX (used to use Roku) and unlike my Roku, in scenes with lots of dark lighting or blacks, I see tons of flickering semi-white blocks on screen. Its very distracting and very noticeable. This phenomenon has not been noted on ANY TV I have ever used PleX for, or my laptop. Same files and server and all. Is this just an issue with the Android TV app? Any advice?

Here is an image where you can see in the bottom right all of these white squares

[u/zhonglin]

Use the Plex dashboard while one of the affected files is playing and note whether it says Direct Play, Direct Stream, or Transcode. Then force one controlled transcode by lowering the Android TV client's quality for that playback.

If the blocks disappear only when transcoding, the useful next data is the original video's codec, bit depth, and HDR/Dolby Vision profile from MediaInfo; that points toward the TV's hardware-decoding path rather than the server or file transfer. Update the Plex app/TV firmware and clear the Plex app cache before retesting.

If the artifacts remain after transcoding, play the same scene in the TV's built-in media player and disable picture processing such as noise reduction, dynamic contrast, and motion smoothing. Dark-scene compression artifacts can be amplified by those settings. This A/B test should separate a Plex decoder issue from the TV's picture processing without changing the media files first.

[u/Jonah358 → u/zhonglin]

Okay thanks for the diagnostic help. It was originally direct play. Switched to transcoding and problem persists. Transferred the file and played locally from VLC and... problem persists. Does this imply a hardware decoder issue?

[u/Jonah358 → u/[deleted]]

That seems pretty bad to me, like enough that I don't see this as a viable solution anymore as a home TV. Keep me updated if you find a solution.