Direct play roku and PC, but Direct stream in web app / android app?

General Discussions
1

I get direct play in roku and pc plex player, but direct stream in web app and android app.

If I turn off allow direct stream it transcodes from x264 to x264, and aac stereo to aac stereo.

Is this The MKV that is making this issue or is this just how it works for those platforms?

2

Direct Stream is not an issue at all.
It merely indicates that the container may get changed from e.g. MKV to mp4 or TS.
Sometimes the audio format gets changed (but video is copied unchanged), simply because there are almost no web browsers with support for DTS or AC3.

Direct Stream versus Transcoding may be an issue under some circumstances.

More detailinformation can be given if you supply the Plex XML info of a video which exhibits this behaviour.

3

Yea i got what it does. i was trying to get my ducks in a row before i pull the trigger on encoding.

I was wondering if you could get direct play across the board. It seems I have found a solution that works as direct steams do not hit cpu much at all. Its a ocd thing I think. :slight_smile:
thanks for the help.

4

would not let me upload, hope this does not flood the place.

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="5" librarySectionTitle="TV Show full" librarySectionUUID="ccd763ba-637a-4260-8def-fe5a3c4936df" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/"mediaTagVersion="1525426366">

<Video ratingKey="860" key="/library/metadata/860" parentRatingKey="859" grandparentRatingKey="858"guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://72879/1/1?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="TV Show full" librarySectionID="5"librarySectionKey="/library/sections/5" type="episode" title="De-Zanitized" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/858"parentKey="/library/metadata/859" grandparentTitle="Animaniacs" parentTitle="Season 1" contentRating="TV-G" summary="Dr. Scratchansniff relates the story of how he once tried to make the Warners less zany with psychoanalysis." index="1"parentIndex="1" rating="8.2" userRating="2.0" viewCount="4" lastViewedAt="1535368397" year="1993"thumb="/library/metadata/860/thumb/1535362836" art="/library/metadata/858/art/1535268028"parentThumb="/library/metadata/859/thumb/1535268028" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/858/thumb/1535268028"grandparentArt="/library/metadata/858/art/1535268028" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/858/theme/1535268028"duration="1276031" originallyAvailableAt="1993-09-13" addedAt="1535268000" updatedAt="1535362836" chapterSource="media">

<Media videoResolution="480" id="1122" duration="1276031" bitrate="1995" width="710" height="480" aspectRatio="1.33"audioChannels="6" audioCodec="ac3" videoCodec="h264" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="NTSC" videoProfile="high">

<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="1123" key="/library/parts/1123/1535362505/file.mkv" duration="1276031" file="H:\Plex\TV Shows\Animaniacs\Season 01\s01e01.mkv" size="318170608" container="mkv" deepAnalysisVersion="2"requiredBandwidths="3237,2867,2867,2867,2867,2867,2867,2867" videoProfile="high">

<Stream id="2602" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="1547" anamorphic="1" bitDepth="8"chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorPrimaries="smpte170m" colorRange="tv" colorSpace="smpte170m"colorTrc="bt709" frameRate="29.970" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="480" level="40" pixelAspectRatio="8:9" profile="high"refFrames="10" requiredBandwidths="2436,2096,2096,2096,2096,2096,2096,2096" scanType="progressive" width="710"/>

<Stream id="2603" streamType="2" default="1" codec="ac3" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="448" language="English"languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" requiredBandwidths="447,447,447,447,447,447,447,447" samplingRate="48000"title="Surround"/>

<Stream id="2656" streamType="2" selected="1" codec="aac" index="2" channels="2" language="English" languageCode="eng"audioChannelLayout="stereo" profile="lc" requiredBandwidths="192,192,192,192,192,192,192,192" samplingRate="48000"title="Stereo"/>

</Part>

</Media>

<Director id="5970" filter="director=5970" tag="Rusty Mills"/>

<Director id="5971" filter="director=5971" tag="Dave Marshall"/>

<Writer id="5969" filter="writer=5969" tag="Paul Rugg"/>

<Extras size="0"> </Extras>

</Video>

</MediaContainer>
5

If you selected the second audio stream before starting playback, it may have simply direct streamed. Which is totally OK, even on weak server hardware.

The video stream is already compatible with web browsers.
It may not be compatible with old Roku models, which have a restriction to 5 reference frames in H.264 encoded video streams. Your stream has 10 reference frames.

6

my play back players will only get newer, so it seems I have the settings i need on lock down. :slight_smile: now to just get every thing ready and figure if I am going plex pass, lifetime or buying phone apps.

Thanks for all the help.

7

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