I’ve noticed that I simply cannot direct play any video in my TV, they all get converted.
My 4K TV is fairly new, compatible with most audio and video codecs. I am currently playing it remotely, as my server is located in another city.
I am trying to direct play my content remotely, but so far have not been able to find a way to do it.
I am attaching 4 pictures:
1 - It shows that I do not have any restrictions on upload speed or bitrate
2 - It shows that the Plex Media Player settings in my TV allows for media to play at original quality and that it allows for direct play
3 - It shows that my TV is currently transcoding from 1080p to 1080P. Is there a difference in the letter p being lowercase or uppercase?
4 - While playing the movie, when I click on playback settings, these are all the options I get. It does not give me the option to direct play, or play at original quality. They are all CONVERT.
Take a look at your logs on the server. Troubleshooting → Download logs. Look for entries that start with MDE:
It will then give you a hit as to why its transcoding - for example
[Transcode] Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 29650kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 20000kbps
Once you have that; you’ll know more or less on why its transcoding.
What happens if you play the video without subtitles?
Enabling subtitles in the Plex LG app can result in a video transcode.
Playing the movie w/o subtitles will help diagnose the situation.
Configure your Plex Media Server for debug level logging.
Do not enable verbose logging.
Settings → Server_Name → General (Show Advanced)
See Reporting issues with Plex Media Server
Configure the TV to log to server at the debug level.
Play the movie without subtitles for ~30 seconds. Stop playback.
Wait 1 minute. Pull the server logs and attach to the thread.
Attach the XML information for the movie.
Save the information as a txt file or zip it. The forum does not support .xml attachments.
See Investigate Media Information and Formats for details.
Thanks both @PriapusZA and @FordGuy61 for your inputs. They were very helpful and I think now I understand what’s going on.
I noticed a few things:
1 - The first pic is the same one I had posted before. It is an MKV video, with external SRT subtitles. The video is transcoding and the audio is direct streaming. Same as before
2 - The second pic is the same MKV video, with external SRT subtitles turned off. Now I can see that it does not transcode. They are both direct streaming.
3 - The third pic is another video, an MP4 file, with external SRT subtitles turned off. It direct plays everything. Perfect.
4 - The fourth pic is the same MP4 file with the external SRT subtitles turned on. It directly plays everything. Perfect.
Conclusions:
1 - My TV is fully compatible with any MP4 video with or without subtitles.
2 - My TV is not compatible with any MKV video because it needed to direct stream.
3 - The external SRT subtitle with the MKV file caused the video stream to be transcoded.
I have not been able to test everything yet as I needed to go back my hometown and my LG TV is located elsewhere. Next time I come by again I will continue my inspection. Hopefully by the end of the month.
For next time:
1 - I will dig deeper into the log files as you both mentioned and see if I can learn more about it. I bet I will!
2 - I will redo all the previous steps, but now with embedded subtitles rather than SRT subtitles to see if there’s any difference.
3 - I will redo all the previous steps with different audio codecs.
You need to find out why the MKV container is transcoding. You will have to look into the client and server log files for this information.
You are on the right path regarding subtitles and transcoding. However, it is due to the direct streaming, not the MKV container. The same thing would happen with a MP4 container and direct streaming. Also, it does not matter if the subtitle is external or embedded.
Some additional information:
Subtitles:
This is how the Plex LG app handles subtitles:
Enabling image based subtitles (PGS & VOBSUB) results in a video transcode.
If the audio is transcoding, enabling any subtitle format results in a video transcode (1).
If the audio is direct playing, text based subtitles (SRT, VTT) direct play.
SSA/ASS subtitles:
If Burn Subtitles = Automatic, enabling SSA/ASS subtitles results in a video transcode.
If Burn Subtitles = Image Format Only, SSA/ASS subtitles direct play, but formatting information is lost (color, location, etc).
(1) This is due to a limitation in the streaming protocol between the server and the TV. When direct streaming, Plex has to burn the subtitles into the video stream in order to keep the video, audio, and subtitles in sync with each other. If either the audio or the video is transcoding, then Plex, by definition, is direct streaming (remuxing) media.
TrueHD Audio: The TV does not support TrueHD audio. Therefore, if you play a file with TrueHD audio, it will be transcoded by Plex Media Server to a supported format.
Useful Documentation
webOS TV Developer site: AV Format on webOS TV 2.0 (same as linked above). Provides information on supported audio/video formats.
I am playing the movie The Boy Behind The Door (2020), with an .SRT external subtitle, the video is transcoding and the audio is direct streaming.
I looked through the logs and this is what I found, all around the timestamp Sep 05, 2021 14:02:23.517:
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mpegts
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 187223
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: The Boy Behind the Door (2020): Direct Play is disabled
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: The Boy Behind the Door (2020): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: The Boy Behind the Door (2020): selected subtitle cannot be converted to a compatible format, burning into video stream
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: The Boy Behind the Door (2020): avoiding video remux due to burned subtitle stream
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: The Boy Behind the Door (2020): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
I am attaching the full logs to this message
I still don’t understand why it is being transcoded. These are the things I still don’t get:
1 - “Direct play disabled”. In the second picture from my first post in this thread it shows as enabled
2 - “Media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol”. Is this always the case?
3 - “selected subtitle cannot be converted to a compatible format”. The subtitle is .srt. Why is it not compatible? It’s probably the most common subtitle format
What do I need to change in order to have it be direct played rather than transcoded?
Tried one more time with a different movie and subtitle, I got the exact same thing:
Selected protocol hls; container: mpegts
analyzing media item 186893
Escape Room (2017): Direct Play is disabled
Escape Room (2017): media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Escape Room (2017): selected subtitle cannot be converted to a compatible format, burning into video stream
Escape Room (2017): avoiding video remux due to burned subtitle stream
Escape Room (2017): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
The Boy Behind The Door is direct streaming when subtitles are disabled (shown on your second post). Because of the direct streaming, the video will transcode when subtitles are enabled (mentioned in my earlier post).
There could be several reasons why the movie is direct streaming instead of direct playing.
What is the setting for Limit remote stream bitrate?
Configure your Plex Media Server for debug level logging.
Do not enable verbose logging.
Settings → Server_Name → General (Show Advanced)
See Reporting issues with Plex Media Server
Configure the TV to log to server at the debug level. As mentioned when configuring, the setting reverts to no logging after a certain amount of hours (eight?). You may need to again configure logging capability
Play The Boy Behind the Door without subtitles for ~30 seconds. Stop playback.
Wait 1 minute. Pull the server logs and attach the entire ZIP file to the thread. Settings → Server_Name → Troubleshooting → Download Logs
Attach the XML information for the movie.
Save the information as a txt file or zip it. The forum does not support .xml attachments.
See Investigate Media Information and Formats for details.
Awesome, here’s what I got.
1 - First one is left blank. Second one is set to Original (no limit)
2 - Done.
3 - Done. I noticed that the logging is set to disabled upon every server restart
4 - Done. Before I started the playback I manually disabled the subtitles, but still the movie started out playing with subtitles on (don’t know why) and the video stream was set to TRANSCODE. Then during the playback I manually disabled the subtitles again and I got both video and audio as DIRECT STREAMING. Weird, but I believe I got the info you needed.
5 - Done.
6 - Done.
