I noticed this with Plex Web and Plex Player. Some of my media just downgrades to 720p for some reason.
Anyone know how I can find out the reason it is downgrading it?
Server: 1.25.2.5319
If Automatically Adjust Quality is enabled, disable it. Plex has to transcode to auto-adjust quality. Settings → Plex Web → Quality.
Is the connection local, remote, or indirect?
If remote, check the bandwidth settings on both the client and the server.
You can dig into the log files as well. Look in Plex Media Server.log for lines with [Transcode].
Example:
Jan 11, 2022 13:21:36.319 [0x7f36580bab38] DEBUG - [Transcode] 12 Strong - video.bitrate limitation applies: 4999 > 4000
Both of the video quality is set to Maximum. It is local.
If I go via https://IP:32400/web it seems to be ok.
Thanks. I will check the log.
Can’t see anything in the logs.
- Make sure your server is set for debug level logging. See Reporting Issues with Plex Media Server.
- Play the video for ~30 seconds.
- During playback check Plex Dashboard to check that video is transcoding.
- Stop playback, wait one minute for server to settle.
- Pull the server log files and upload the zip file to the thread.
Thank you. I have attached the logs.
I tried with Plex for Windows as well and get the same issue. It’s really weird as it doesn’t do it all the time. Sometimes it does Direct Play and then goes to Transcode from 1080p to 1080p. On the Fire TV there are no issues. Which is making me think it’s an issue with my machine, but I am unsure why since it does play 1080p on YouTube. It cannot be the browser as it happens on the Plex for Windows as well.
The log files did not capture the necessary information.
Please enable debug level logging. Info level does not capture the necessary information. See the document linked in my first post on how to configure logging.
Then follow the rest of the steps to recreate the problem and capture the information in the log files.
Attach the entire zip file retrieved from Settings → Troubleshooting → Download Logs.
Sorry, I thought I did enable it. I enabled it now and attached the logs.
Still not there. Only info and warning level messages.
Make sure you enable debug for the server, not Plex Web.
To verify, look in Plex Media Server.log (in the zip file). You should see entries with DEBUG, not just INFO & WARN.
I just had a look at the Plex Media Server.log that generates. It has some sensitive information such as my email address / DynDNS, one of my users email addresses.
Plex must have a secure way of uploading the log that doesn’t allow anyone else to download it?
Send it via PM to @FordGuy61
PM will be fine. Click on my username. You should see a pop up with Message.
I’m off to watch some football of the American variety. 
I’ll check the log files later this evening.
I prefer not to.
I think, this bit of the log is what you need.
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.235 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol http; container: mkv
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.235 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 80047
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.235 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Leavetaking: Direct Play is disabled
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.235 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Leavetaking: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.235 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Leavetaking: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/eac3
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.236 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: SHOW - S1 E1 - Leavetaking: selected media 0 / 80047
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.236 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 10880kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 4000kbps
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.236 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Determining preferred transcode encoders through transcode only decision.
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.236 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: testing h264_qsv (encoder)
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.236 [10384] DEBUG - [Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API qsv
Jan 16, 2022 18:32:16.244 [7988] DEBUG - We’re going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 1.
The bold is the issue, the 4Mbps (720p) . I have the set for Remote but the issue is in the Dashboard it shows the episode is being played on a local device.
Well I confirmed the source of the issue.
I set the “Limit remote stream bitrate” to Original (No Limit) and restart the Plex Media Server. The media now plays at 11 Mpbs instead of 4Mpbs. I set it back to 720p and restart Plex Media Server it goes back to transcoding to 720p. I even set the local IP range in the LAN Networks but the dashboard says it’s local but still forces 720p.
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