For those who recently picked up a 4K TV and can’t stand its built-in smart software, making the jump to Chromecast Ultra is an easy decision. Apart from using Chromecast Ultra to stream 4K video from YouTube, Netflix and other online services, you may also sometimes come the need to stream local 4K content such as iPhone 4K video to your 4K TV via the Chromecast Ultra with the Plex app. But you may fail to make that due to some format or codec incompatible issues just as the condition listed below:
“Until a couple of months ago, I was able to direct stream 4k videos recorded on my iPhone (iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 10.x) to my Chromecast Ultra using the attached profile. However, when I tried to stream some of the videos more recently, the videos were all being transcoded. For video it shows “Transcoding H264 to H264;” audio still direct streams fine. Unfortunately, the Mac that I am running my Plex server on isn’t beefy enough to transcode 4k so it ends up stuttering.
Why Plex app on Chromecast Ultra not direct play iPhone 7 Plus 4K video?
The iOS 11, which released on September 19, 2017, has added an option to compress video with a new more efficient encoding called HEVC or High Efficiency Video Codec. You can now record video with the new HEVC video codec on the following iOS devices use A10 newer processors:
– iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
– iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
– iPhone X
– iPad Pro (2017)
From above information, we can see that you can now not only record 4K H.264 video with iPhone 7 Plus, but also 4K H.265 video with iPhone 7 Plus. Chromecast Ultra can only play the 4K H.264 video recorded with iPhone but fail to handle the iPhone 4K H.265 video. So when you try to stream the unsupported iPhone 4K H.265 to Chromecast Ultra, Plex will try to transcode the file for you. However, it is well known that 4K content (especially for 4K H.265 codec) transcoding is very CPU-intensive, if your computer CPU is not powerful enough, it will end up with stuttering.
Related article: Chromecast Ultra Supported File Formats | Stream Netflix 4K to Chromecast Ultra | Mirror 4K Movies to TV via Chromecast 2
Stream iPhone 4K H.265 to Chromecast Ultra via Plex
To achieve a smooth iPhone 4K H.265 video Chromecast Ultra via Plex streaming experience, you can download a third-part video converter app to fix the codec incompatible issue for you. Here, a simple to use yet powerful 4K H.265 Converter – Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate is highly recommended to you. The program can assist you to encode the incompatible iPhone 4K H.265 video to Chromecast Ultra Plex app native playable 4K H.264 High Profile video format so that you can direct play without the Plex Media Server transcoding process.
The program supports batch conversion mode, so that you can load multiple iPhone 4K H.265 video into the application for conversion at one time to save your precious time. What’s more, it also offers hard-ware encoding acceleration feature, you can get up to 6x faster H.264 codec encoding speed as long as you run your computer on Graphic cards that supports Nvidia CUDA or AMD App technology.
The program is available on Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7. It is accompanied by an up-to-date Mac version Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac for macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, Mac OS X Yosemite and Mac OS X Mavericks, etc. (H.264 codec hard-ware encoding acceleration is not available on the Mac OS).
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Step by Step to Decode iPhone 4K H.265 for Chromecast Ultra Plex Streaming
Step 1: Load iPhone 4K H.265 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 iPhone 4K H.265 video into the program.
Step 2: Define the output format.
Clicking the Format bar, from its drop-down list, select Chromecast Ultra Plex app compatible 4K file formats “H.264 High Profile Video(*.mp4)” under “Common Video” main category.
Tips: Click “Settings” on the main interface to open “Profile Settings” window, here, you can flexibly choose or specify exactly the profile parameters including video codec, resolution, bit rate, frame rate, audio codec, bit rate, sample rate, channels, etc as you like to get better output video and audio quality.
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 H.265 4K to H.264 4K codec.
Step 4: Start the conversion process.
After all setting is completed, hit the “Convert” button at the right bottom of the main interface to begin the conversion process from iPhone 4K H.265 to Chromecast Ultra Plex app compatible 4K H.265 format.
When the conversion is finished, click “Open Output Folder” icon on the main interface to open the folder with generated files. Then feel free to add converted files to Plex Media Server for streaming via Chromecast Ultra to 4K TV with no buffering issue.
