Direct play broken in newest Plex for WebOS

Plex Players Smart TVs
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Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
Player Version#: 3.86.1

The newest 3.86.1 release for LG WebOS broke direct play functionality when using subtitles on 4K HEVC content. Previously direct play used to work for text based SRT subtitles, but with the newest release, direct play shuts off several times during playback, and turns on transcoding. This is means that the playback completely stops when the server can’t transcode 4K in realtime. Turning subtitles off and back on again re-enables direct play for everything from 5 to 30 minutes, but eventually it turns off again.

I’ve noticed that the direct play often shuts off around halfway through the movies, but that might be random or confirmation bias.

This bug was not present in the previous version.

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LG 49UH850V - webOS 3.3.4-3713
Plex Server Version - 1.14.1.5488 (Windows 10)
Player Version - 3.86.1

I have a similar problem with the latest LG WebOS player. When direct play is used the subtitles (either eternal .srt or internal) do not show although selected. When I force transcoding by changing the player quality option they appear. Sometimes when direct play starts they appear after a few minutes - I now guess that the server turns into transoding mode as @apoffys describes.

This bug was indeed in the previous version.

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Hi

I’m facing the same bug.
My movies are hosted on an aging NAS which cannot transcode anything (low specs CPU). PLEX LG client will not play the movie if I activate subtitles.
Is there any solution ?
Thanks
Ps: what kind of logs could help the team nail down the issue ?

Edit: according to this webpage https://support.plex.tv/articles/203810286-what-media-formats-are-supported/ , subtitles are not supported in direct play and require video transcoding … is this true ?? Sounds like a joke …

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It depends on the subtitles. If they are text based (SRT), it should work. If they are imaged based (PGS/vobsub), it will not. The issue with the player is that it intermittently selectes the first subtitle available while playing back the media, in a bug seemingly related to reconnecting to the server on connection loss. If that first subtitle is an image based subtitle, the server will start transcoding and the playback will stop.

If only there was a way to disable image based subtitles completely…

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This is still an issue with server version: 1.15.8.1198. Subtitle format is SRT and using DLNA, the movie plays fine so it is definitely an issue with the Plex client. Switching off subtitles does not result in any buffering, however when enable it tries to burn them in.

Logs attached!

PlexLogs

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