DTS + Subtitles = Video Transcoding

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Hi all,

I have noticed something strange happening and can’t seem to find any topics on this. If there are and I’ve missed them, please point me in the right direction.

I have a video with DTS audio and want to play it on a tizen tv (2020) that does not support it and the following things happen:

  • without subtitles: audio transcodes in AC3 and video plays in DirectPlay.
  • with subtitles: the video switches to transcode mode because the subtitles get burnt in.

For the life of me I don’t understand why this happens. Why would the player/server make the decision that the subs need to be burnt leading to transcoding?

Since the server runs on an older Synology NAS, it lacks the necessary power and this leads to buffering which you can guess is annoying, even more that it makes no sense as the tv can play the video without problems in Direct Play.

Later edit: I’ve remembered that it does the same on a 2020 LG TV, so I guess it’s not Samsung related.

2

What’s the format of the subtitles? Image based subtitles format isn’t well supported on smart TV.

3

Extrenal srt file.

4

Is Plex set to burn all subtitles? Change the settings to image based files only.

5

Nop, does the same.

6

what language is external srt file? if it’s unsupported language, that may also trigger transcode.

7

Does your TV run Tizen 5.5?

  • Plex uses the HLS protocol to stream to Tizen 5.5 TVs
  • HLS has problems with subtitles when Direct Streaming, so they must be burned in to the video stream.
  • If the audio is transcoding, then Plex is direct streaming.
  • Samsung TVs do not support dts audio. Therefore it is transcoded.
  • Result: dts + subtitles = transcoded video. The same thing happens with TrueHD audio.

See post linked below.

Note: Enabling image based subtitles, PGS & VOBSUB, forces a video transcode, irrespective of the audio stream or Tizen version.

8

yeah, guess this is the case. thanks for the info. now I know…

9

Change DTS for AC3 or AAC

10

Is this a recent issue? Because this started happening to me right after I switched to Plex Pass and bought the one year upgrade. I was watching a movie with subtitles and everything was playing great, and literally after purchasing the upgrade, the buffering started. I’m watching movies with my kids so not having subtitles on is not an option.
I honestly can’t understand how this possible.

11

I do not know the history WRT Samsung. The thread I linked in a prior posts mentions a bug in Tizen 5.5, but I do not know when that cropped up.

I’ve a three year old LG. When audio transcodes and subtitles are enabled, the video also transcodes. It has always been that way.

12

And it sucks. First of all, allow us to pay a little more but leave DTS where it is, don’t make things complicated with sound bars and ARC - yes, some of us can do it, but most can’t.

Second, I know this isn’t directly related to Plex, but I remember a time when Apple TV used to do this, and Plex found a way around it. Or at least reach out to the manufacturers and try to work something out.

I used to recommend Samsung to people all the time, and how well Plex ran on them was a big reason for this. Now all Smart TVs are crap and the only solution for power-users is a separate box like Shield or MiBox.

13

Apparently I do have the Tizen 5.5 on my Samsung tv, but it hasn’t been updated recently as far as my researches told me. What I mean is, this happened all of a sudden, in less than 30 mins my movie wasn’t playing right, the only “update” I made was the plex pass upgrade. I find it quite odd for this to work for weeks and then suddenly change course, when all the other settings stayed the same (no change in the plex tv app, web app, synology app or network).
My older 2017 Samsung TV is working just fine, though.

14

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