Starting maybe 1-2 weeks ago, my PMS has started transcoding all video playback to my Roku Stick/Win10 app/Chromebook. This is starting to cause issues with other remote devices that want to watch a video as well(my “server” will be rebuilt this year to handle more streams). I can’t seem to figure out what is causing that. Here is some info
OS: Win7
PMS: Latest version(issue started before I updated)
Router: Asus/Google OnHub. PMS has static IP and router DNS is set to 8.8.8.8
Video files were Direct Streaming/Playing perfectly 1-2 weeks ago.
Tried optimizing a video to make sure all codecs were compatible. Still transcodes.
Example of the playback settings in the Roku Stick
Playback: Transcode
Format: MKV
Video: copy(h264)
Audio: convert(AAC Stereo) <-I feel this is the reason for the transcode.
Speed: 7.8
I’m not quite sure where to go from here. Can anyone help me find the cause? What other info do you need from me?
But ever since I installed PMS 1.4.3 Transcoding and Streaming behavior seems to have changed somewhat.
I don’t think It’s my imagination. But the experts seem to think I am on drugs.
I have been getting transcoding and buffering on media that should direct play.
I had posted a suspected issue with the MDE in the latest versions. But all the wizards tell me there is no problem.
Don’t know what to tell you and unless Plex decides to at least investigate what I previously detected, we are prolly going to have to live with this change in behavior / performance.
What version of PMS you running.
Is this issue in Plex Web? If so what version and what browser?
Does the issue occur on any streaming box or embedded app?
Edit: Ooopps, Your post does indicate the issue is on streaming devices.
Try changing the quality settings on the Plex Client app to a higher value and see if that changes things…
That would be a VERY interesting test…
Video copy Audio convert is a pretty lightweight operation, but as previously mentioned many things that were working fine aren’t now.
The reason for that Direct Stream (not really a full-blown transcode) is likely that the current audio track isn’t now (or ever was) supported - for whatever reason.
Troubleshooting would begin with revealing the makeup of that audio track:
Post the XML data - copy and paste to a message window.
Next, we’ll need to know which client you’re trying to play these items on: Roku, AFTV, Plexweb, PMP, etc. The ‘Client’ ultimately decides if it needs Plex to transcode something for it. Plex asks the ‘Client’ what it needs, the ‘Client’ responds, Plex does what it is asked to do. This could be happening in error, but we won’t know until we find out a few things - mentioned above.
You’ve got DTS in an MKV container (for this particular file) so that opens up three possibilities for failure:
DTS isn’t supported on your clients (Browsers don’t support DTS).
DTS won’t work inside an MP4 file (in case you have any of those) - I’m told this is the case. I use MP4 files, but they all have AAC 2.0 audio. Someone will have to check me on that one. It should work for devices that support it inside an MKV file.
Audio tracks with bitrates higher than some limit - unknown at this time - have been reported as buggy. 768Kbps could be beyond that unknown limit - Unknown at this time.
Try playing one of those troublesome items on PMP: Top of forum/downloads/get an app/
PMP is much more capable of playing just about anything you throw at it than just about anything else.
The other options include, but are not limited to:
just let Plex transcode the audio for the device that can’t deal with it
or
create a new ‘compatible’ track with Xmedia Recode: http://www.xmedia-recode.de/en/download.html
It’ll only take a few minutes to Copy the Video Track while Converting the Audio Track to AAC 2.0 or AC3 5.1 (if your devices support that format). You can even make a backup track of the DTS in slot two - so you can select it for playback on devices that support it.
As for the reason ‘it used to work and doesn’t now’ - I have no earthly idea.
Your guess is as good as mine.
I would closely inspect the server settings and client app settings because when Plex updates everything they have a bad habit of resetting everything to the default. It’s possible a setting has gone haywire requiring you to ‘reset’ it.
@JuiceWSA said:
2) DTS won’t work inside an MP4 file - I’m told this is the case. I use MP4 files, but they all have AAC 2.0 audio. Someone will have to check me on that one.
Apparently, the specification of the mp4 format was extended to include support for DTS.
So it is no longer against the mp4 specification to include DTS audio im a mp4 container.
Whether your particular device already knows about this change and supports it, is a different question…
Many (if not all) of your clients do not support DTS audio, so the decision to transcode the audio track is the right one. Otherwise you won’t hear anything.
I see you created an ‘optimized version’ of this movie. But it was probably made with the ‘TV’ profile, because the audio is still in 5.1, albeit in AAC codec.
So try to explicitly pick this optimized version for playback. Maybe it changes something for the better.
Or create another optimized version with the ‘mobile’ profile. This should play on every of your clients.
Just an FYI
What @JuiceWSA is exactly correct.
Do check the bit rate / quality settings in your client
Ever since 1.4.x the MDE has seemed to be making incorrect decisions regarding transcoding all over the place and the best I have been able to figure, doing trial and error testing, is changing bitrate cause a much more dramatic effect than in other versions of PMS.
Plex experts pretty much have dismissed my observations or suggested I am imagining the issue or have done something wrong. Well LOL Maybe so… I just do not know. But I did fix the issue just by upping the quality bitrate. Which was not a logical and or correct solution. I offered to do any testing they might have wanted me to do. They declined my offer and had no interest in pursuing the issue any further. (A mistake I think that might come back around and bite them!)
Wish I could share the thread but it is quite long and in the Plex Pass Forum.
Your issue might not be related to mine… But worth a try???
So it does seem it’s the DTS. I tried a TV show that had 2.0 AAC audio and it direct played no problem. Bizarre how the Plex transcoder process never spawned on my movies until a couple weeks ago. I’ll try the Xmedia recode option.
@chubbycheese said in his initial post he had a 'Video Copy Audio Convert (to AAC) condition. That’s a pretty lightweight operation easily done by just about any server so worst case is that is just allowed to happen for devices that don’t support DTS.
If Chubby is like me - goes into a tailspin with ANY alterations to the source content - he’ll want to create by other means an acceptable source file across his devices, or, as Otto Suggests let Plex Optimize a compatible version - two means by which to reach the same result.
@chubbycheese – just curious, is the video portion actually transcoding (that is, the CPU activity goes way up for long periods of time) or are you going by what is reported in the “Now Playing” window of Plex Web?
Recently, it seems to report transcoding video when it is actually copying the video. I know one of the people I share with was watching something the other night, and Now Playing claimed everything was being transcoded, but my server indicated only short spikes in CPU activity suggesting only the audio was being changed - surround to stereo
OIC
Mis-read him. I thought he said all video playback in the OP.
Exactly Audio Transcode / Copy video should be minimal CPU hit…
Is that bogging down his PMS or is he just upset about the change in behavior??
I am confused on that.
All I know is that since 1.4.1 SOMETHING has changed for the worse unless it’s the drugs taking longer to have an effect… LOL
Basically ever since DVR was rolled into the mainstream release strange problems / behavior and reliability issues have surfaced.
I agree, i have definitely seen a behavior change with PMS. I have a 2 friends who have access to my Plex library and all of a sudden i have noticed that content that used to Direct Play/Direct Stream is now transcoding. I’ve had them check client settings etc but nothing looks out of the norm,…one has a ROKU client and the other Samsung TV.
@jiggy599
Exactly.
Here is the thread I posted where most the experts say nothing is wrong, I am imagining it, and or some other non PMS software is broken.
Good to know I am not the only one who notices PMS reliability and performance having been degraded ever since 1.4.x became the mainstream release.
Heck even the Beta only version of DVR (Before being migrated to the main release) was MUCH more reliable… LOL
I am Soooo surprised that Plex is not even interested in exploring the issue and are just discounting it.
I am afraid this is gonna come around and bite them in the behind some time soon.
@jjrjr1 said: @jiggy599
Exactly.
Here is the thread I posted where most the experts say nothing is wrong, I am imagining it, and or some other non PMS software is broken.
I am Soooo surprised that Plex is not even interested in exploring the issue and are just discounting it.
Hold on. I thought your issue was fixed after changing the settings client side? We did not discount your thread, but since you said it was fixed, I stopped investigating. Your logs indicated PMS was working as expected.
If you, or anybody else, thinks there is a change between the different versions of PMS, please provide the PMS and client logs showing playback of the same file using both versions of PMS. I’d love to investigate and help but so far we haven’t received any information showing different behaviors and I’m not able to reproduce in my earlier tests.
@“MovieFan.Plex”
Yes I said the issue was fixed after making changes to Edge settings.
It stopped the problem.
But it should NOT have.
Also in Chrome the file format types were incorrect according to the transcoding info.
I said it was fixed because making that change fixed performance issue for me.
It Definitely did not make sense nor do I believe that the underlying cause has been addressed.
In that thread, it was no point to continue explaining what I saw as nobody wanted me to run any further meaningful tests to discover the cause of the inconsistencies (I did volunteer to do that). If I had continued to disagree with the answers given and strange and incorrect explanations, it would have appeared as though I was arguing with every one.
Since that thread, I have seen several threads mentioning similarly NEW and strange behavior in this area since rollout of PMS 1.4.x… particularly 1.4.3.
Just been trying to pull all them together. Since so many similar threads written by different people, it can be helpful. Otherwise you guys are hopping from one post to another treating them as different.
Dunno. Thought that made sense to look at this thing as one big issue rather than a dozen separate discrete problems.
I could be wrong.
As before, on this issue and a few others that seem to be major problems, I am willing to set up scenarios and test if needed.
John
BTW I did provide PMS Logs and XML data in that other post. The issues with the XML pointed out have no bearing on this issue as those media played fine up until 1.4.3. which was the basis of that thread.
My issue WAS discounted and nothing but finger pointing went on in that thread. I do not even know is anyone looked at the logs to determine if the PlexPY inaccuracy was the case or not… LOL.
Everyone just heard what they wanted to hear.
