Server Version#: 1.23.3.4707
Player Version#: 5.18.1 (LG WebOS)
Platform Version: 3.9.0
When playing movie “Jojo Rabbit”, movie can direct play when hitting “Play from Start”, but if I press “Resume”, it turns into Direct Stream or Transcode instead. In addition, seeking to any part of the video also causes Direct Play to turn into Direct Stream/Transcode. This is a problem for me because I always disable video stream transcoding in server settings, and this causes the video to show “Playback Error” - An unexpected playback problem occurred.
The video format in this case is HEVC 10 Bit HDR 4K, and the audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1, both of which are supported by my client (LG TV). I have played many other sources with the same audio and video and they Direct Play with no problems, using external SRT subs.
In this particular case, I turned the subtitles turned off completely but it still shows as transcoding/direct stream, which should not be the case since my TV is capable of direct playing both the audio and video formats. So I think it has nothing to do with subs. I might add that this problem only occurred with this video file, is it possible that this is a source problem?
Why is the behaviour when playing from start and resuming different?
I’m having a similar issue. Plex is trying to burn in subtitles.
Setting “Burn Subtitles = only image formats” doesn’t help.
But what’s interesting it’s only happening if it needs to transcode DTS audio for my TV.
If I select another audio track in AC3 format, everything is fine.
So possible solutions to not transcode video:
Disable subtitles (plays DTS + HDR, no subtitles)
Use AC3 audio (plays AC3 + HDR + subtitles!)
Looks like there is a bug in Plex somewhere.
By the way, my LG TV (Oled 65 B1) doesn’t support DTS format, it has to be transcoded.
P.S.
I confirm there is not enough CPU to transcode HDR video on the fly. My CPU Ryzen 4570g is at 100% usage and the output is not HDR when Plex is trying to transcode.
