Server Version#: 1.32.7.7621
Player Version#: [Plex Web 4.118.0] [Android Mobile 10.3.0.4685] [Fire TV 10.3.0.4685]
Hi,
I’ve got a video file that plays fine on the server using VLC media player, and plays fine on a remote PC using Plex Web. But when I use either the Fire TV or my mobile phone, the video is unwatchable - glitchy and stuttery.
In each case, i checked the server and it said that the video was being passed through - not transcoding.
If I change the video to be transcoded down to 1080p then it plays fine on any device.
Any ideas? I am able to play over video files with similar properties just fine on the same devices.
(ok i know that sounds the same as the other one but they’re different TVs).
I have noticed that if I change the audio stream then everything plays fine. https://i.postimg.cc/MZbyCGqQ/image.png
This is the same file playing on the same mobile phone, but i’ve selected the alternate audio stream (English (AC3 5.1) instead of English (TRUEHD 7.1)) and that seems to make everything fine.
Why is this happening and can it be fixed? If not how can I work around it?
The FireTV that doesn’t play is likely because it is transcoding the video at 83Mbps and it could be struggling to play over the network, are you using WiFi? As it is not very stable for high bitrate content.
The reason it works when changing audio formats is because the devices support AC3 but not TrueHD so it is transcoding when playing TrueHD and direct playing when using AC3 so your server may also be struggling to transcode
Thanks for replying so quickly, and I get what you’re saying although I find it hard to understand that the audio can’t be transcode fast enough.
In fact, the behaviour is slightly different on different devices. On the fire TV that doesn’t work, the file streams with buffering, so I guess that you’re right, the server is not able to either send or transcode the data fast enough. Fine, but how do I set up the Plex player so that it doesn’t do this?
On the mobile phone, the video plays at full speed but it’s completely glitchy. Torn frames, artefacts all over. I didn’t expect the audio could have that effect on the video feed. Again, I’d expect either the player or the server to realise an issue or capability limitation and switch audio feed automatically. Is there a way to do this?
