720p (HEVC Main 10) to 720p (H264) Transcode for Android/4KFireTV Clients (with Play Original Quality)

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Server Version#: 1.22.2.4282-a97b03fad
Player Version#: 8.15.2.24006 Android

Hi all,

When playing files locally over WiFi (866Mbps) with “Play Original Quality” selected on Android client, the Plex server decides to transcode video from “720p (HEVC Main 10)” to “720P (H264)”.
The audio is “Direct Stream”, no transcoding.
The subtitles are English (ASS).

The same issue occurs when playing from Amazon Fire Stick 4K client.

The bandwidth used is 3Mbps average with bursts up to 8Mbps, but kills the CPU usage up to 90%, rendering nothing more allowed

As a reference, other files Video/Audio Direct Play just fine at 1080p (H.264) to Android client, subtitles SRT, bandwidth 11Mbps with 2% CPU usage.

Why doesn’t the the video Direct Play/Stream without transcoding?

Is this limited to HEVC transcoded files?

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks.
Sunny

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Are you trying to do this over the internet or your home network? If you are passing this up an uplink there’s a setting in plex under settings-quality: video quality.
Go to DSLreports and find your uplink speed. Set the video quality to something less.
There’s also a setting under transcoder: transcoder quality, I set mine to ‘make my cpu hurt’
When you are playing a movie, hit the button that looks like an equalizer on the lower right. In there you’ll see video settings. Plex is going to try to play at something it can handle, but you can override.

Bottom line here is if you are transcoding on your home network and the server can’t do it, you need to accept lower quality or upgrade your hardware.

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Hi MonsterMaxx,

Trying to do this locally on home network over WiFi.

Sure, I have already overridden the transcoder setting to “prefer higher speed encoding”.

And in the android or firetv client I am selecting “play original quality” to force direct play. This approach works with most H264 files that Direct Play, except HEVC Main 10 files, which do not some reason?

The key point is I don’t want to transcode as I am on the local home network WiFi, and bandwidth should be more then capable of direct play.

Any other thoughts?

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during playback the playback info it should have a “transcode reason”

I’m guessing your ASS subtitles have formatting so they will be burned into the video, which is transcoding. In settings>Advanced>subtitles enable override included subtitle styling and I personally would change Burn Subtitles to only image formats

as a side note “play original quality” does not mean play original file/direct play. It only means try to keep the same quality resolution/bitrate

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I never had a lot of luck playing HD over wifi. It’s run fine for a bit, but then skips, stops and failure to play.

I have Cat5 run to all my devices and there’s no real issues for me.

My old server’s metal (an I7-3770k) was pretty old and transcoding stressed it pretty hard.

I’m on much faster hardware (about a month now), maybe I’ll give it another try to see how it does.

I know I can stream to my phone both over wifi and when I’m out in the world via the internet.

I’d suggest running some cat5 to your device and see if that fixes your problem.

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BigWheel, yes you are correct, it was the ASS subtitles, so plex needed to transcode. I don’t see a transcode reason on my server within playback info. I have now selected SRT, then it switched to DirectPlay.

Also, I cannot find the Settings>Advanced (no advanced option available on server), any thoughts?

Secondly, Is there anyway to disable transcoding over the local network?

MonsterMaxx, I do not have any issues with DirectPlay of videos over WiFi, it has more than enough bandwidth (866 Mbps), but my laptop hardware which hosts the Plex Server isn’t powerful, early I7 L640, so want to keep trabscoding to a minimum or disable for local network streams.
To note, all my clients cannot be connected via Ethernet, only my TV, all others Android Phone or Fire TV stick rely on WiFi.

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it is in the client.

it’s in the android client.

You can disable all video transcoding. not based on network

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@BigWheel
Thanks for the clarification. Spot on with all feedback.

Just a quick query, would you consider adding a feature for no transcoding for local networks?

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