If I may be of assistance?
The MDE: (Media Decision Engine) shown states:
- The video encoding level (52) is greater than the device is rated for. This means the video file is asserting, in this case, a decode requirement > than what the device claims it can provide as measured in macroblocks to render. (level 52 is the integer representation used for level ‘5.2’)
4 245,760 8,192 20,000
1,280×720@68.3 (9)
1,920×1,080@30.1 (4)
2,048×1,024@30.0 (4)
5.1 983,040 36,864 240,000
1,920×1,080@120.5 (16)
2,560×1,920@51.2 (9)
3,840×2,160@31.7 (5)
4,096×2,048@30.0 (5)
4,096×2,160@28.5 (5)
4,096×2,304@26.7 (5)
5.2 2,073,600 36,864 240,000
1,920×1,080@172.0 (16)
2,560×1,920@108.0 (9)
3,840×2,160@66.8 (5)
4,096×2,048@63.3 (5)
4,096×2,160@60.0 (5)
4,096×2,304@56.3 (5)
Plex is seeing the limit the device advertises as not fast enough to handle that which the video claims it will need. In the case of 5.1 vs 5.2, both have a max bit rate of some 240 Mbps but 5.2 demands 3x faster decoding of each block (presumably to handle extremely fine detail in the image – such as CGI animation in movies)
Players like Kodi and VLC read the raw file then decode and render in memory or directly in the video glass buffer (draw directly on the screen).
Plex works differently in that it makes certain the video can be displayed as presented. When it can’t, it makes it compatible before sending the file to the device. Kodi and VLC just ‘grab and hope for the best’. When on your LAN , that’ll probably work but not a guarantee. Have you ever seen VLC ‘tear’ an image because it’s too complex? It doesn’t recover well. It needs to wait until the next full reference frame is found in the video (several seconds).
Netflix, Apple, Disney, etc, all do the same with a similar twist. They’ve already prepared different streams based on what your internet and player can handle then send you the appropriately pre-processed stream.
Plex is doing this all on-demand.
What’s happening here:
- The android app (the player) knows the device’s limits (video encoding level 5.1)
- The video is encoded (incorrectly) to be 5.2.
- In spite of it’s extremely low bit rate of 16.1 Mbps, it’s demanding 5.2 when it should be 4.0 (max of 20 Mbps)
- Transcoding is triggered because limits were exceeded (albeit incorrectly)
- The transcoding parameters are set and it starts.
- It will convert HEVC 8 bit to MPEG2
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 398572
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - MDE: בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 (2020): Direct Play is disabled
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - MDE: בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 (2020): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 - video.level limitation applies: 52 > 51
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 - video.level limitation applies: 52 > 51
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - MDE: בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 (2020): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 - video.level limitation applies: 52 > 51
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Codecs: testing h264 (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.801 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.802 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x32315659 -> yuv420p.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.802 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x30323449 -> yuv420p.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.802 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x3231564e -> nv12.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.802 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x32595559 -> yuyv422.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.802 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x59565955 -> uyvy422.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.802 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x48323234 -> yuv422p.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x58424752 -> rgb0.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x58524742 -> bgr0.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x30313050 -> p010le.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Codecs: Testing with profile 'Main'
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 16113Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - MDE: בולגריה חלק 1 - 2018 (2020): selected media 0 / 398572
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Adding session 0x7f2194637020:f492f055a4fc08ec-com-plexapp-android which is using transcoder slot. Used slots is now 1
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x7f2194637020:f492f055a4fc08ec-com-plexapp-android
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.803 [0x7f21a3a23700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=397760 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=398572 part=(id=399780 decision=transcode container=mpegts protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=33514 decision=transcode bitrate=16113 encoder=h264_vaapi width=3840 height=2160) Audio=(id=33515 decision=copy channels=2 rate=48000))))
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:11.804 [0x7f21caa0f700] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.116:51940] 200 GET /video/:/transcode/universal/decision?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=1&directPlay=0&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&hasMDE=1&location=lan&maxVideoBitrate=200000&mediaBufferSize=91712&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F397760&protocol=*&session=f492f055a4fc08ec-com-plexapp-android&subtitleSize=100&videoBitrate=200000&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=3840x2160 (10 live) TLS GZIP 845ms 1395 bytes (pipelined: 5)
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:25.552 [0x7f21c9e08700] DEBUG - BPQ: onConsiderProcessing: Idle (true)
Sep 12, 2020 10:45:25.552 [0x7f21c9e08700] DEBUG - BPQ: [Idle] -> [Processing]
I am sorry but this isn’t a Plex problem. It’s an encoding & curating problem.
I can only suggest you obtain a different copy.
