I have a mix of .mkv video files that are 1080p and 480p. I can play the 1080p versions just fine but when I try to play any of the 480p versions I get an error message, ‘The server is not powerful enough to convert video.’ I can play these just fine using VLC from my Drobo 5N. I don’t understand why this lower resolution DVD version will not play whereas the Blu-ray versions will play just fine. Any help in solving this is appreciated.
Unfortunately, there is a lot more to whether or not a file can play then just the resolution of the file. The first thing we would need to see is the media info from a problem file and the Plex Media Server.log file from when you try and play back one of these files.
The error you are getting is indicating that your 1080p video files are direct playing or only converting the audio while your 480p files are needing a video transcode which the server can’t handle. But without the logs/media info all we can do is throw out guesses on what is triggering the transcode (IE subtitles, incompatible video codec, etc)
