PMS 1.9.0.4252
PlexWeb 3.20.5
Home Streaming option under “Quality” section is set to “Use recommended settings”
Server is detected as “nearby”
Selecting “convert automatically” during playback initiates a transcode to a higher bitrate than source. For example, original file is 5.5Mbps 1080p, ends up being converted to 8.3Mbps 1080p.
Please post the Plex XML info of this item.
But even without it, I can tell you that it is probably caused by your file format being incompatible with your web browser.
If you want to Direct Play for most file formats, I recommend you to download and install Plex Media Player additionally.
It is available free of charge from the DOWNLOADS link above (“3. Get an App”)
Hello,
The files do play directly if I select that option. It is the same for pretty much every item. I usually play back directly but was experimenting with this new feature - I would not have posted here otherwise.
XML attached.
This will not Direct Play in a web browser.
AC3 audio is not compatible with most web browsers.
And I see you have activated a subtitle as well. This may cause a transcode of the video as well, unless you make the right settings:
Settings - Web - Player - ‘Show Advanced’ - “Burn Subtitles” <-- Only Image Formats
My recommendation stands: use PMP instead
Hello,
Thanks for your feedback but I am not interested in switching player. I am trying to highlight a potential issue. I have happily “direct streamed” media using PlexWeb for years.
The “convert automatically” option seems to force a video transcode even if not needed.
Logs attached. You can see that I started playback, and it was streaming the video without transcoding, whilst other assets such as audio were transcoded. I then turned on “convert automatically” and video started being transcoded.
The “automatic conversion” pretty much requires transcoding. Otherwise it could not adapt the bitrate.
Sep 14, 2017 21:16:01.502 [0x2b675da02700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 9121
Sep 14, 2017 21:16:01.502 [0x2b675da02700] DEBUG - MDE: Being John Malkovich (1999): Direct Play is disabled
Sep 14, 2017 21:16:01.502 [0x2b675da02700] DEBUG - MDE: Being John Malkovich (1999): media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
Sep 14, 2017 21:16:01.502 [0x2b675da02700] DEBUG - MDE: Being John Malkovich (1999): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Sep 14, 2017 21:16:01.503 [0x2b675da02700] DEBUG - MDE: Being John Malkovich (1999): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/ac3
Sep 14, 2017 21:16:01.503 [0x2b675da02700] ERROR - get - invalid frameRate value: 23.976
So selecting “convert automatically” really means “force a conversion and adapt the bitrate dynamically” rather than “automatically detect if a conversion is needed to remain within bandwidth limitations, and adapt the bitrate dynamically”?
@mbrown956 said:
So selecting “convert automatically” really means “force a conversion and adapt the bitrate dynamically” rather than “automatically detect if a conversion is needed and adapt the bitrate dynamically”?
At this current time, yes.
I hope the devs will come up with something smarter. The checkbox is marked as (Beta) after all.
So if I tell users of my server to select “convert automatically” to remove the headache of figuring out the best setting for them, it will always transcode?
Obviously it is preferable to direct stream/play if possible, but with the new feature, this decision is only made when playback initiates?
I suppose this is still useful, as users now only have to pick a single transcode option rather than one of many. It would be nice if when select “convert automatically” it first checks if a transcode is required.
Thankyou for the clarification.
@mbrown956 said:
So if I tell users of my server to select “convert automatically” to remove the headache of figuring out the best setting for them, it will always transcode?Obviously it is preferable to direct stream/play if possible, but with the new feature, this decision is only made when playback initiates?
That is my understanding, yes.
I think it has to do with the fact that the browser cannot switch dynamically to a different streaming protocol.
Otherwise it could start playback in Direct Stream and when the bandwidth deteriorates switch to DASH.
