Interesting! I didn’t think of that at all. The 3.13.7 is out but I am stuck with the 2.1.
The TV firmware is up to date, I am on 5.30.03 (UK version).
In the App Store, the only Plex version that shows is the 2.1, there isn’t any update available. When an update is available is available, my TV informs me through a message and takes me directly to the App Store page. I updated the youtube app like that this morning.
So if I understand, the app is generic to all Smart TVs. What version do other LG owners run? Do they have the latest version? Is it that LG hasn’t pushed the last versions through or is it an issue from my side?
@Riusda said:
Interesting! I didn’t think of that at all. The 3.13.7 is out but I am stuck with the 2.1.
The TV firmware is up to date, I am on 5.30.03 (UK version).
In the App Store, the only Plex version that shows is the 2.1, there isn’t any update available. When an update is available is available, my TV informs me through a message and takes me directly to the App Store page. I updated the youtube app like that this morning.
So if I understand, the app is generic to all Smart TVs. What version do other LG owners run? Do they have the latest version? Is it that LG hasn’t pushed the last versions through or is it an issue from my side?
Please open the Plex app and go to About. The version you have is there. Please take a pic of it if not 3.13.7 ?
The about page says 3.13.7, whereas the app store page says 2.1.
I don’t remember updating Plex since acquiring my TV. You guys release regular updates, I would remember seeing a new version. All the other apps I use on that TV require my input to move to a new version, I need to specifically press the update button on screen. Does Plex bypass user input to install updates..?
What would be a flagrant difference between a 2.1 and newer versions? I will go trough the update page to try to figure out what I am really running.
“The launcher”: That’s what gets downloaded in the app store for almost all the “smart TVs”. It’s v2.1.0 and gets updated very infrequently because it hardly ever needs an update.
“The core app/front end itself”: That gets dynamically loaded from us (plex.tv) when opening “the launcher” app. It’s v3.13.7 and basically always gets the latest version every time the app is launched on the TV.
Alright, thank you for the clarifications.
So, back to the transcoding problem. Can the dev team do something about it?
XPlay on WebOS stream everything fine at original quality from the Plex Media Server. The app may have its own issues once I start using it long term, but so far it just direct-played everything I threw at it. No need to prepare my video files for direct-play. I am probably going to use XPlay until the Plex web app improves.
You need to give us users the ability to turn transcoding off on a user basis at least if you can’t sort this out. I am not going to lower my video quality requirements to suit Plex capabilities, I wanna watch those 4Ks and HDR.
There is nothing I can influence there. I have done all I can.
Any such change would have to come through business/customer demand. The best way to handle any of that is through the contact form which the marketing team / decision making folks see them.
My job here is is to support what is released, influencing what I can. This is one of those topics I have no influence over.
Thanks ChuckPA for helping me troubleshooting and finding workarounds. I will look for the contact form and expose my situation to the marketing folks. Hopefully future versions will be smarter with transcoding. Transcoding is the biggest strength and also the biggest weakness of Plex. It’s weird.
Hello,
I wanted to take a minute to also post my desire to also have the transcode off toggle switch added to the Plex server settings and all clients.
You stated above that you have no influence over the dev and marketing teams to see the light on this issue and hear the voice of the customer. I understand. How can I reach the devs and marketing decision makers to implore them to reconsider? What is their contact information or the channel I need to follow to do so?
My story:
I am a plex pass lifetime subscriber who has paid in full and wish to get my money’s worth out of it. Currently I have to use Kodi as my client to stream from my low powered Asustor 1002t NAS because it can’t transcode anything at all using the Plex server. Fortunately the plex app at least tells me now “Playback error: This server is not powerful enough to convert video.” (Thank you for at least that. I was pulling my hair out thinking your plex server was broken when it didn’t give any feedback at all.)
So I use Kodi to playback over my LAN via a gigbit network and merely browse the folders on the NAS. I rip my bluerays to .mkv at full passthrough H264, so the files are huge but at least lossless. They play flawlessly this way using kodi, VLC or MX Player via streaming with no transcoding at all.
BUT… I paid for and want to benefit from the Plex UI interface and other niceties I paid for – with a simple toggle switch to turn off transcoding easily.
I actually did not buy Plex for years and years because of this hurdle and the other hurdle that it wouldn’t play back multiple files in a folder continuiously. Both of which Kodi do. But Plex to me is prettier and should auto organize my collection and pull metadata info, etc., so it’s still the top dog for looks and automation in my opinion. If it would work…
I don’t want to run a NAS that draws 70+ watts 24/7. I’m intentionally running a very low powered NAS unit that draws 5-20 watts intentionally to save on the power bill. But your Plex transcoding requirements are killing all the joy for me in wanting to use your product. The one I paid for…
I’m your customer. A dissatisfied customer with these two points.
Please add a damned little on/off toggle switch for the server (and clients too if it’ll help).
Please add the ability to play back a folder full of videos non-stop.
@sdlsatcom said:
Can’t be done or forced through the server but on your mobile client you can set your remote and local quality to original, that is direct play. On your htpc client you can set** your remote and local quality to 20Mbps or maximum **and this will direct play it as well. This is all assuming that the video rate of the recorded file is below 20Mbps.
I am using plex (android) on a amazon firestick, and i have set it on the client to maximum, but it is still transcoding.
Source is a simple SD
I finally managed to disable transcoding at server level !
I simply made a binary to replace Plex Transcoder, it patches the parameters sent by Plex to avoid transcoding (add -code copy and remove irrelevant options) and then executes the original Plex Transcoder with new parameters.
Then when a client tries to convert, it will display “Convert” as usual, but the server will send the original file (actually it will be the original file going through ffmpeg with copy options so it still adds a bit of latency)
If anyone need the code of the binary feel free to send a private message (it is not perfect yet, for instance it does not support subtitles)
@plex : in my opinion we should be able to prevent transcoding on server and display an error on clients that absolutely need the transcoded version. It does not make sense to force transcoding on a raspberry which completely unable to do it, but could perfectly stream original files.
I’m trying to champion this again. There are two sides to this:
PMS makes the wrong decision about whether to DirectPlay, DirectStream (Audio), or Transcode (video)
The desire to just ‘turn it all off’ and effectively use PMS as a glorified DLNA server
To this end, there are a few ways to resolve this:
a. Find out what PMS does not like about the video files in question, look at the decision it’s making, and, if wrong, FIX IT
b. Write custom device profiles (stored in the Profiles directory) to steer the transcode decision logic. (about 85% effective).
All said and done, I will be able to get the most traction and least resistance if we can identify what PMS is doing incorrectly.
There is also the side of this discussion which looks at the processor capabilities. I am in a similar discussion right now on NAS platforms.
My point in the discussion is: “Just because PMS runs on the platform, albeit a terrible user experience, should it be listed as supported?” This speaks directly to cases such as transcoding.
I see the RPi as a low end NAS box with very limited capabilities. Am I in error ?
Can we collect, and post here, where PMS is making the wrong decision (trying to transcode)? If I have evidence in hand, it’s a LOT easier to get it fixed. (They don’t want to create a sledgehammer option to address a bug which needs to be fixed for everyone)
I don’t think it is an issue of Plex making the wrong decision, it is simply the different clients which are requesting transcoded videos (for instance on mobile app, by defaut it wants to save bandwidth so it request 4Mbps files so the server tries to convert).
About Raspeberry it depends, I have a Raspeberry PI 3 and it is actually more powerfull than my NAS (I tried Plex on the NAS directly it was worse) but yes I guess we can say it’s the same deal, both cannot transcode fast enough.
I see there is already a way to limit transcoding to one parrallel transcoding, then further transcoding request get the error message “Not enough CPU on the server to transcode”. This is actually almost what we need, if we could set this setting to “0 transcoding possible” and maybe change the error message to also say “You can still watch Original file if your bandwidth allows it” it would be perfect.
Otherwise, for my experience it is only a client configuration issue, all my friends were unaware of this transcoding thing, when they tried my server they said “OK it does not load”, then I told them to go to _settings _and set quality to _Maximum _and always check the Original is playing, then it runs perfectly.
Well, i have the same problem. I have a little server that can perfectly stream original quality videos but can’t transcode files.
I don’t understand why into my Plex Windows app, all the series, movies, etc, plays fine with original quality but in my phone / ipad, the client can’t play original quality and needs to convert all the files, including files in 720p or less.
I try VLC in ipad and can play the original file without problem, but if i try to play with plex app, the file needs to be converted…
I think plex is awesome, and i want to use it with my phone and a chromecast, but seems impossible with transcoding enabled.
I can reproduce without problem into original quality in my pc with plex app movies with size of 30+gb, and i can play the same file into ipad with another player, but when i try to play with plex, just i can’t.
Yea, if the server can’t do the transcoding then you need to adjust your clients to not lower bitrates, not use adjustable bitrate etc so that you have the best chance at getting direct play.
@ChuckPA said:
“disable transcoder” feature can be debated forever.
Allow me to share my feelings about what Engineering will and won’t do.
Not gonna happen.
I have to say, I really don’t understand this attitude. This one single issue is what is blocking me from paying for Plex, and looking at potential alternatives instead. For the most part I really love Plex, the UI is great, the broad client support is great, the seamless operation is great, but my server runs on an older laptop and as soon as transcoding kicks in the whole experience goes to heck. Video that pauses for several seconds every 20-50 seconds of playback with no explanation is a horrible user experience.
It shouldn’t have to be debated at all, many paying and potentially paying customers are asking for it providing very good reasons to have it. Companies that refuse to listen to their users risk becoming irrelevant.
IF you disable transcoding completely but want to hook up a tuner (for DVR), you won’t be able to use it so there is no point in you subscribing to Plex Pass as those features would be worthless to you without transcoding.
I agree with you, this ‘debate’ is pointless.
Whatever you choose to decide is, of course, yours to make and I respect your right to choose.
