Hello people,
I am at loss as to whats happening, so maybe someone in here can help.
So here goes:
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The DLNA feature (enabled by the Plex Server) is discoverable by the native video and photos app on my LG TV and the 4K movie plays flawlessly and instantly.
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If I try to play the exact same movie via the Plex app on the TV it totally grinds itself to a halt and it takes like 1 minute before playback even starts.
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I do have Plex Pass and HW acceleration enabled (I also tried with disabled)
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If I disable movie transcoding under the transcoder settings the movie does not even try to play and I get an error message. So for some reason Plex tries to transcode the movie even though I am on local LAN with direct connection to the Plex Server
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My server and my TV is on the same LAN/subnet and I also tried whitelisted the subnet spesifically so it is forced to be seen as local lan. So transcoding should not be taking place?
However, transcoding clearly is happening via the Plex Server while via DLNA everything is fine and dandy.
So my question is, what is going on and is there something I can do to get all my content working within my Plex app without having to use a different app for 4K? My gut feeling is that there is some proprietary codecs in the file that my TV can play directly, while Plex cannot?
Alternatively, I am playing over the internet while thinking I am playing over local lan.
If so, how would I verify which network route the Player is choosing?
I have inserted the server IP adress in Manual Server Connecion within the TV Plex App. I also played the movie inside the Plex app but with auth from local lan whitelisted and without logging into the Plex Account. So I am pretty darn sure I am playing directly and localized within my LAN and in that case transcoding should not be taking place.
I wish there was an easy status message within the Plex TV app telling me if I am “LAN enabled/Playing over LAN only” and another option on the server side to turn off the transcoding module in its entirety.
By the way, is there anything stopping DLNA playback from being an option from within the Plex TV app (so you could tick/untick “Direct Stream”, “Direct Play” and “Pass on to DLNA (Local Playback only)” on the settings for a spesific movie or as a policy for a spesific quality i. e. 4K)
UPDATE:
I have found out I am playing a file in a format unsupported by Plex, hence it transcodes it down to 1080 even when I am on local lan.
I still think it would be interesting if within the Plex app on the TV one could choose “Pass on to DLNA/Play via DLNA” on a given movie. My TV is able to play a lot more formats than Plex it turns out. Plex can only play 4k material from mp4 it seems which is very limiting.
