Different H.264 Profile Levels Between Plex and ffprobe

General Discussions
1

Hello. I have several mp4 files for which Plex lists as H.264 High Level 5.0, but ffprobe (both 3.0 and 2.7.2) lists as H.264 High Level 4.1. Any idea why this might be happening and how to fix? This is happening on both my Windows and NAS servers. I am running PMS 0.9.16.2. Thanks.

2

ffprobe probably only reads the headers of the video stream. Which may be wrong, if the person who did the encode did not know what he was doing.

Plex looks more carefully. It checks whether the codec parameters are actually valid for the claimed level. If they don’t, it determines the correct compatibility level instead.

To get a definitve answer, please post the mediainfo XML of your files and I can probably tell you which encoding parameter is the culprit.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

3

Ah. Did not realize that. Thank you so much! Here is the output from the MediaInfo app:

General
Complete name : /Volumes/Test/test1.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 423 MiB
Duration : 9mn 5s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 516 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 2016-03-21 19:18:44
Rating : None

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 9mn 5s
Bit rate : 6 000 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.097
Stream size : 393 MiB (93%)
Writing library : x264 core 120 r2146 bcd41db
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=36 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=60 / keyint_min=6 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=abr / mbtree=1 / bitrate=6000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 2012-05-09 17:22:40

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 9mn 5s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 195 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate : 46.875 fps (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 12.5 MiB (3%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1
Encoded date : UTC 1904-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 2012-05-09 17:22:40

Other #1
ID : 65536
Type : Hint
Format : RTP
Codec ID : rtp
Duration : 9mn 5s
Encoded date : UTC 2012-05-09 17:22:39
Tagged date : UTC 2012-05-09 17:22:40

Other #2
ID : 65537
Type : Hint
Format : RTP
Codec ID : rtp
Duration : 9mn 5s
Encoded date : UTC 2012-05-09 17:22:40
Tagged date : UTC 2012-05-09 17:22:40
Bit rate mode : VBR

4

@scotplex said:
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Bit rate : 6 000 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Bit depth : 8 bits

The file has 1 Reference Frame too much.
If you have a fullHD 1920x1080 px video, the number of ReFrames in Level 4.1 must be 4 or lower.
See the Wikipedia link above.