The information overlay is a very useful feature on Android devices, especially when trying to determine why a movie is transcoding. Unfortunately, it is off by default. Also, the checkbox to enable the feature is somewhat hidden on Android and Amazon Fire TV devices.
Suggestion 1: Enable the Information Overlay by default.
This will make it much easier to determine why a movie is direct streaming or transcoding. The only other way to tell why something is transcoding is to dig into the Plex client and/or PMS logs. A side benefit will be faster / better answers to “why is my video stuttering…” type questions in the forums. If the transcode reason is displayed on-screen there will be less need to pull & post log files.
Suggestion 2: For Android phone/tablets and Amazon Fire TVs, move the checkbox to enable the overlay to a better position.
On the NVIDIA Shield TV the setting is in the global Plex app settings, which makes sense. For other Android devices, you have to start playing a video, then pull up on-screen controls, then select the gear, then check the box. Once you do this, it is on for all future videos, not just the current video. This makes no sense as (a) that’s hiding it pretty deep; and (b) it is a global setting located in a place for an individual video. It would be better located in a global Plex app setting, like on the Nvidia Shield TV.
Suggestion 3: If possible, add this feature to all clients - Web, iOS, PMP, etc.
It is a very useful feature. Would be great to add to all clients.
