If the server administrator knows the server transcoding the media in its current state is a futile effort perhaps the server administrator should address the issue prior to placing the media in the library for general consumption.
âdisable transcoderâ feature can be debated forever.
Allow me to share my feelings about what Engineering will and wonât do.
Not gonna happen.
If itâs a low powered NAS or server the user will either get a NO TRANSCODE available message or TRANSCODE FAILURE message.
Essentially both the same to the end user. There is nothing the end user can do about it they are using a Roku3 for example trying to play back an MPEG2 recording you made.
However is said file was H.264 but had a sound codec your roku3 didnât support even a limited function NAS can usually still transcode the audio only while using the H.264 already present.
If the transcoder can run (even very slowly) itâs still better to have it ON then not as it can help with things you donât think of.
But as Chuck pointed out. FIX YOUR MEDIA and you donât have to worry about transcoding due to the files themselves in your home environment.
Remote users are a whole other can of worms. Best to not share if you canât transcode. You really canât have it both ways.
@ChuckPA said:
If the server administrator knows the server transcoding the media in its current state is a futile effort perhaps the server administrator should address the issue prior to placing the media in the library for general consumption.
THIS^^^^
Reminds me of:
Patient: Hey Doc, it hurts when I do this.
Doc: Quit doing that!
1 Like
@ChuckPA said:
âdisable transcoderâ feature can be debated forever.Allow me to share my feelings about what Engineering will and wonât do.
Not gonna happen.
Thanks for that clear statement, I appreciate that. It wasnât my intention to start a debate on principles and I wasnât aware that this is such a sensitive topic. I was merely trying to argue why such a setting would make sense in certain scenarios. Clearly, my argument has not been very conclusive and I now realize that it simply doesnât align with Plexâs design philosophy.
@cayars said:
If itâs a low powered NAS or server the user will either get a NO TRANSCODE available message [âŠ]
This is excactly how Iâd like the system to behave, maybe I missed some configuration option in the Plex Media Server.
@cayars said:
But as Chuck pointed out. FIX YOUR MEDIA and you donât have to worry about transcoding due to the files themselves in your home environment.
There is nothing wrong with my media as it plays perfectly on my own setup (regular desktop computer hooked up to TV), including everything up to 4K, Dolby Atmos and even PGS subtitles without any transcoding. Now, what I wanted was to allow my flatmates to access my media library with as little effort as possible on my part. I donât control their setup nor do I know the capabilities of all of their devices, itâs basically provided as is. However, they shouldnât be able to inadvertently drain the ressources of my NAS by accidentially triggering a transcode, hereby impeding other services currently running on my NAS.
If such a scenario is explicitly out of the question for Plex, fair enough. Maybe itâs a lot less common that I assumed. Additionally, I probably underestimated the effort to implement such a feature in the current architecture, so Iâll no longer dwell on that topic.
2 Likes
There you go. Now thatâs a legit argument you just made. 
Part of the problem is that the transcoder is used in a lot of different functions. From I believe chapter creation images to bif/indexes to pulling graphics, DVR Recording to just doing remuxes of data to clients. Not really transcodes but repacking of the data to stream using HLS or DASH protocols.
Can also be used for the built in optimizations and syncing (creating smaller mobile friendly versions).
So the transcoder is there being used a lot besides just on the fly transcoding. I suppose it is possible to allow many of these background processes but not the real-time to client transcoding. This would probably take a lot of dev time to do unless itâs already been done for some of the lower powered NAS/routers which is possible.
Carlo
I have two FireTVâs one is a first gen one is second gen being fed by a Raspberry Pi 3 Plex Server. A show plays fine on the gen 2 but fails on the gen 1âŠwell doesnât fail just struggles due to trasncoding. If I run the same file through Kodi it plays on both systems.
So this means that that Plex thinks that the client canât play the file when the truth is it can. Is there a file on the client that is getting sent to the server telling it what it can and canât play. I was wanting to copy what was on the gen2 over to the gen1 and see what results I get.
I find it quite frustrating that Plex is so fixated on transcoding. Personally, for me, plex isnât even a product with transcoding turned on. All my media can be played natively on all my devices and every time transcoding kicks in, the product essentially becomes useless. I donât want layered effects and I really donât want to have dedicated processing power on all the time to accomplish this processing. From my point of view, it is a lot of effort for little to no reward. I am so confused why this is such a hard concept for developers to understand and such a divisive issue. I get it, some people want these features and that is totally fine, but some people donât want these features, and that is also totally fine. Alienating these users seems like such a strange stance for a company to make. Iâd love to pay for Plex if I didnât have to worry about all this transcoding nonsense.
Sorry for the rant.
2 Likes
If you media is all direct playable you wonât be here talking about the need to turn off transcoding as it will never be used. Thus for you to be here complaining about transcoding means your files are not direct playable.
Find out why your files need to transcode and fix it.
Due to these issues with Plex, I have researched and found other solutions. I use standalone streamer boxes and all of my content plays natively and I need next to no processing power on my server end. I never have to worry about my NAS being overloaded inadvertently and never have any issues accessing my media. I still hold out hope that Plex will be a viable product someday for my needs as there is much about it that I do like. Until then, posts like this are just plain counter productive. Each time I try Plex, I get stuck in a quagmire of trying to disable transcoding and I eventually give up. If this thread is any indication, it appears I am not the only one with this experience. Maybe that says something about my/our knowledge of how to configure Plex, maybe it says something about Plex, I donât know but until the solution is simple, I will stick with what I have.
Thanks for your input.
1 Like
All the arguments over the missing Disable Transcoding switch are Useless! As a user I should have the option to disable this! Also the plex app is so badly made without local HW decoding, like VLC does, to avoid useless transcoding.
And not to mention the Samsung TV profile in the media server is completely broken! I had to edit the xml file to fix things regarding some mkv file type vid.dlnaâŠand never managed to make the external subtitles work because Samsung Smart TVs require the mime type smi instead of text, no matter the container: srt, sub or whatever, so I had to fall back using Serviio.
1 Like
As a lifetime pass holder I donât understand the bullheaded refusal to implement something we the customers are asking for. .x265 is giving many of us issues with transcoding it when itâs not necessary to transcode. I want original content at all times, itâs that simple
4 Likes
@impact9 said:
As a lifetime pass holder I donât understand the bullheaded refusal to implement something we the customers are asking for. .x265 is giving many of us issues with transcoding it when itâs not necessary to transcode. I want original content at all times, itâs that simple
If H.265 media is giving trouble, why are you loading it on your system?
@ChuckPA said:
@impact9 said:
As a lifetime pass holder I donât understand the bullheaded refusal to implement something we the customers are asking for. .x265 is giving many of us issues with transcoding it when itâs not necessary to transcode. I want original content at all times, itâs that simpleIf H.265 media is giving trouble, why are you loading it on your system?
Guys, as users itâs our business what we want to play. The fact the you refuse to offer a switch to disable transcoding, is plain nonsense. All you are interrested in, as it seems, is to cash in the subscription. For months the issue where the movie starts over if paused has not been fixed, the Samsung TV profile is broken as Iâve mentioned above, your ios/android app has no ability to decode on the devicelike that plain VLC does, and this forced transcoding stuff you refuse to modifyâŠYou are simply ignoring customers. Congrats.
5 Likes
@impact9 - what are you trying to play H.265 on?
@mariusmuntensky said:
@ChuckPA said:
@impact9 said:
As a lifetime pass holder I donât understand the bullheaded refusal to implement something we the customers are asking for. .x265 is giving many of us issues with transcoding it when itâs not necessary to transcode. I want original content at all times, itâs that simpleIf H.265 media is giving trouble, why are you loading it on your system?
Guys, as users itâs our business what we want to play. The fact the you refuse to offer a switch to disable transcoding, is plain nonsense. All you are interrested in, as it seems, is to cash in the subscription. For months the issue where the movie starts over if paused has not been fixed, the Samsung TV profile is broken as Iâve mentioned above, your ios/android app has no ability to decode on the devicelike that plain VLC does, and this forced transcoding stuff you refuse to modifyâŠYou are simply ignoring customers. Congrats.
How do you think this is going to help you? If the content needs to be transcoded then it needs to be transcoded. If Plex were to offer a switch to turn off transcoding then you would get a message that says the file canât be played.
Is that really what you want? If you think turning off transcoding is going to magically make your files direct play then you need to rethink this, as that will not happen.
You seem to state Plex is being bullheaded and donât think the transcode is needed while Plex software thinks it does need to be transcoded. If you walk through your setup and allow us to ask you a few questions then we can tell you why the files are being transcoded (so will your log file) and then you can fix it.
But in general, subtitles, wrong audio format, bitrate limits set on your system, wrong level in file that isnât supported in your device, content format not supported by your hardware as well as not the right protocol for the device without transcoding are common reasons.
@mariusmuntensky said:
@ChuckPA said:
@impact9 said:
As a lifetime pass holder I donât understand the bullheaded refusal to implement something we the customers are asking for. .x265 is giving many of us issues with transcoding it when itâs not necessary to transcode. I want original content at all times, itâs that simpleIf H.265 media is giving trouble, why are you loading it on your system?
Guys, as users itâs our business what we want to play. The fact the you refuse to offer a switch to disable transcoding, is plain nonsense. All you are interrested in, as it seems, is to cash in the subscription. For months the issue where the movie starts over if paused has not been fixed, the Samsung TV profile is broken as Iâve mentioned above, your ios/android app has no ability to decode on the devicelike that plain VLC does, and this forced transcoding stuff you refuse to modifyâŠYou are simply ignoring customers. Congrats.
Ok, try this scenario:
- Transcoder turned off.
- H.265 or other incompatible media to be played on a device which cannot accept it
- Error is displayed when playback attempted.
- User forgets having turned off transcoding.
- User complains in forum that Plex doesnât work.
- After a few exchanges with customer support, the user is shown where the transcoder was turned off
- User replies âI never turned it off. Dumb softwareâ
Anyone thinking this type exchange doesnât happen should probably take a few steps back, look around the forum at those who admit their mistake and laugh as well as those who donât, look at other places this scenario happens (cars? tv? )
Lastly, and after all this time, itâs not that we in CS are resisting.
âChange what I cannot accept. Accept what I cannot change. Be wise enough to know the difference.â
Personally, I always make sure my media will play. I donât just throw stuff at Plex and hope it will play only to complain if it doesnât
Chuck I think your missing the point.
The issue here is one of control. The server should have full control over all clients.
The client makes a request to the server in which the server administrator does not want to fulfill as the resource cost is too high.
Now what I am struggling to understand is why the team saw the need to limit the total number of transcodes but required the server to support at least one. By adding this feature you have already agreed that the server should be allowed the manage itâs own resources.
Transcoding uses resources,please let us set the transcode limit to 0.
Your customer service example is a poor excuse. You are saying that all of your customers should suffer because a few may make the mistake of forgetting a setting they changed.
Let me remind you that customer service support is typically used by those who are unable or unwilling to figure out their issues on their own. This is a paid service, stop complaining about a service you provide in which you charge for and definitely donât hide behind that to justify why you refuse to fully support a feature that already exists.
3 Likes
I understand your point quite well.
I personally like the UI (all the metadata). I mostly like that I donât need 3 different versions of a file based on what device Iâm playing on. In what world does 3 copies of a movie make sense?
If my customer service example is a poor excuse in your eyes, how about this fact?
The number of users wanting to turn off a core capability of PMS are a tiny niche. As a business decision, being a âcustomers served vs manhours expendedâ question, the cost isnât justified.
Playing oneâs own movies at home is a niche market to begin with. Now, a niche within that niche market wants special treatment.
I know itâs a âpay to playâ game (serving up my media at home) and opened up my wallet, reluctantly, to get it done.
As Iâve always said, âItâs not gonna happenâ.
Maybe the problem is in the setup of your media? You really havenât given your use case so no way to tell. But for example Iâll share my basic setup.
I remux or convert all my normal media to mp4 using H.264. It if doesnât have a default AAC audio track I create it and make it the default. This allows this file to direct play on every Plex device including a web browser as long as there are no bitrate filters in place. If transcoding does need to take place itâs doing it from H.264 to H.264 which is very easy on the CPU in my server so itâs not a problem (for me).
I mentioned âbasicâ above which you could translate to normal files which are my sports, education, home movies, tv shows, movies.
I also have MVC files which get their own library. I have half frame 3D files (SBS,etc) in their own Library and then have a 4K library. In my 4K library they could be MKV or MP4 but are mostly all H.265 based files again with AAC audio added if needed and any other audio tracks.
Now I simply do not share the MVC, 3D or 4K libraries with anyone who canât use them or direct play them. This is especially true for the 4K files. I will also have normal 1080p versions of the same files in my normal movies library so there is ZERO reason for someone to need to transcode these files.
So like many other people who worry about transcoding I take the time to make sure my media is in a format that will direct play on every playback device (even web browser) when possible so my CPU is free for the times it really does need to transcode such as for mobile clients using ABR (adjustable bitrate).
What I donât do is just add files to my plex directories without knowing the formats as that will cause problems (for me) and will often require transcoding even when you donât think it needs to transcode. This can be the case for H.265 files. H.265 can need to get transcoded to H.264 in order to be segmented just because you didnât have an audio track that was suitable. Often times this is a âquirkâ of the device and not Plex but since Iâm aware of issues like this I standardize my formats to NOT have this problem.
A little care put into your media goes a long, long way.
Carlo
