Direct play option

Feature Suggestions
1

Hello!
After a few months of use of Plex, transcode is the best feature. But when we play local movies, it can be annoying because it’s slower than direct play.
For Android TV, the idea is to have an option to direct play all the videos, like VLC or Plex for Kodi with no need to transcode.

Or the ability to use third party players (VLC, mxplayer…) instead of Plex player which often need transcode from the server.

2

If that were a possibility, Plex would direct play already. It is not like this was a personal whim of the developers. When there is transcoding, it is because of a technical reason.

3

Amending Otto’s post:
This standard behavior will only be overridden if you actively change the client settings. On Android TV you can e.g. set a preferred video quality… if you select a value different from original / maximum quality, Plex will transcode to meet that restriction.

Options that can impact the playback behavior are e.g.

  • Settings > Video Quality > [all options]
  • Settings > Video > Burn Subtitles – e.g. if set to Always
  • Settings > Advanced > H264 Maximum Level – e.g. if deviating from the recommended value
1 Like
4

I understand this is not a whim. It’s because ffmpeg libs are on server side and not on the client.
But sometimes, it will be smoother if the player did the decoding.
For the same movie with Dolby Atmos:

  • Plex player (Shield pro) : transcode is needed and I have to wait 20/30s for the beginning of transcode (and for an obscur reason, video is transcoded too)
  • Plex addon on Kodi : direct play, no transcode -> a better experience
  • VLC same behaviour as Kodi

For smartphones, remote… I understand the transcode option but in local I don’t think it’s the best way…