Server Version#: 1.32.0.6973
Player HTPC Version#: 1.38.2.3738-02a27646
Player Desktop Version #: 1.67.2.3705-db506a00
Does Plex HTPC actually do deinterlacing? My DVR recordings are clearly not deinterlacing at the moment - yet it seems to work okay on Plex for Desktop.
I’d MUCH rather use HTPC ideally, is there any way to make it deinterlace correctly?
Thanks!
First the server must detect that the content is actually interlaced. Get info on the item using the web interface and see what the Scan Type indicates. If it indicates progressive then the server indicates that the item is not interlaced. In this case, the deinterlacer on the client is not enabled because it makes progressive content look worse.
Note: It appears that deinterlace doesn’t work with some hardware decoding pipelines.
It is detected as Scan Type: interlaced.
As mentioned, the Plex for Desktop app deinterlaces it correctly, but not the HTPC app. Hardware decoding is usually switched off completely, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference switching it on.
Thr scan lines are annoying for some content, but the main issue is that it just makes the playback very jerky, rather than nice and smooth on Plex for Desktop. It also doesn’t matter if I turn off Refresh Rate Switching in HTPC, it is jerky with it on or off.
I’m actually wondering if it is deinterlacing, but not well. If RRS is switched on, the TV reports 50Hz rather than 25Hz, but it does not look smooth at all.
Any progressive file plays fine.
So any ideas why the same file should play nicely on Desktop but not HTPC?
@geoffla I have no idea of anything here/below will help… But I just thought I’d post this, just in case 
I’ve had this recently and after a lot of digging I could find/see that Plex wasn’t identifying the recorded files correctly. You can look-up my original forum post here:
There are still a couple of things left outstanding:
How can PMS better identify file formats
It’s clear that DVR, depending on your country, can be “mixed formats” during a broadcast. So changes are needed to FFMPEG to conduct a deeper/longer scan before deciding on format
How are files are played on clients
The client is a different topic and I didn’t get a clear idea of how it works with deinterlace. This sent me down the rabbit hole on deinterlace. If you look at something like Jellyfin, it has an option to double the framerate switch is a good way to deinterlace. In that keeping the Hz/fps at 25 and merging two “frames” actually isn’t deinterlacing and can/does lead to artifacts on the screen
You’ll see that @ChuckPa took a look and the Plex team are aware of it. So it’s more of a wait and see.
In the meantime, I did look at “mediainfo” as this does actually identify the/my problem file correctly. No idea what it does under the hood, but I did start looking at whether I should make my own script to check and manually re-encode these files. I didn’t go any further though.
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