Server Version#: 4.100.1
Player Version#: 9.21.1.1169
I noticed that some movies that are HEVC with an mp4 container play really choppy and seem to have low framerate issues. This is fixed if I convert the movie to using an MKV container without changing anything else. The Codec ID of the problem movies is “hev1” if that matters.
Would really prefer if this could be fixed rather than having to convert all my HEVC mp4 movies.
Thanks!
Then try this tool mp4optimize(3): Optimize layout of mp4 file - Linux man page
That probably works as a workaround (I can’t use it as I’m on windows) but it’s not really fixing the underlying bug. There’s nothing wrong with the video itself, it plays fine when I play it on my computer.
A desktop player can jump quickly inside the file, because all the seeking inside the file is done by the operating system and is smoothed out by the rather gigantic file buffer you usually have available on desktop machines.
Plex is a streaming server. Streaming works fundamentally different than a regular video file player on your desktop.
Your files should be prepared/optimized for streaming, if you don’t want the Plex Transcoder to be active all the time.
So proper interleaving of video files is a must. Otherwise the player has to jump back and forth in the file all the time, which can not work fluently if the file is streamed.
So the difference between a file being .mkv and .mp4 really causes Plex that much issue? Also I should note that no transcoding is happening when this issue occurs, it’s still direct play.
No. Just that your version of the mp4 is not properly prepared for streaming.
If you had a software which could properly remux the file into mp4, with interleaving applied, you could equally use the mp4 format.
It was just that your earlier attempt at remuxing it into the mkv container did also cause it to gain the necessary interleaving. Which is standard in MKV but merely optional in mp4.
That’s only logical. It it were transcoding, you likely wouldn’t see the issue because the transcoder is dealing with the missing interleaving (instead of your Plex client). Since the transcoder is running on a computer with direct access to the media file, it can easier jump between the various parts of the file where audio and video are stored. Just like your desktop video player does.
Plex has no good way to identify files which are poorly prepared. All you can do is to watch out for the property “optimized for streaming” which appears in the Plex media info of mp4 files.
Now “optimized for streaming” says also “No” on files which are already interleaved, but it will always say “No” on files without interleaving.
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