"Direct play was attempted but failed, fallen back to transcoding."

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
20

Speaking to the point of where to run the Plex player app ???

My philosophy is pretty simple based on observation of TVs produced over the past several years.

  1. TVs are “smart” the day you take them out of the box.
  2. They remain “smart” until the manufacturer ‘moves on’ to the newer models.
  3. They remain ‘mildly smart’ as long as the manufacturer minimally updates the SSL certificates . (Reference: Important information about Plex for smart TVs after September 30, 2021 )

It is my opinion,

  1. purchase a good television in the size and picture quality you want.
  2. Ensure it has enough HDMI device connectivity to support all devices you can foresee yourself using
  3. Purchase the player device and connect it to the TV over HDMI
  4. Run the Plex player app on the device

Why do I say this?

  1. Devices like Nvidia Shield, Roku, Chromecast are supported much more aggressively and LONGER than the TVs are.
  2. Firmware updates are much more frequent.
  3. The devices themselves are more capable (faster processors and more memory) to run the plex app.
    (Better capability in the player device means less workload on your PMS server)

Prime example:

  1. I have the 2021 LG C1 48"
  2. I purchased it in January 2022
  3. EARC worked when I first got it.
  4. An update came which broke EARC output to my Onkyo
  5. It’s been 6 months now without a fix.

How “smart” is my TV? IMHO, not very.

Fortunately, I have the Nvidia Shield Pro 2019.
I run the Plex player app there. It connects to the AVR which connects to the TV.

I get great audio from the receiver and the beautiful picture I expect from the TV.

Nvidia is a company who’s been around for a long time with a history of supporting their devices. I can’t say that about the TV manufacturers, sorry.

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