I have this issue with my Plex Media Server where it seems almost every time someone accesses my server to play a video, it gets transcoded. I know it wasn’t like this before and there were more direct play & streams than transcoding. I’m just trying to figure out what changed. I have Plex Media Server hosted on a Mac Mini on OS Sierra (which I upgraded to recently). Most all of my video media files are in H.264 MKV format. Sometimes the transcoding is just the audio which is fine, but when I have two or three people on my server at once transcoding, that just freezes my entire server. I know I didn’t have this issue before. Anyone have any ideas as to what it could be?
Have your remote users changed their clients? For example, I recently switched to an Amazon FireTV as my primary client, and all my h.264 MKVs get transcoded to that box. They direct played to the RasPlex client that preceded the FireTV.
I converted them all to m4vs and bada bing now they’re all direct play. They all direct play to most every remote client, as well.
A note to both of you is to find out what devices are requesting playback and cater your material to those devices if your server is incapable of delivering multiple transcoded streams. If those remote devices have upgraded their Plex versions recently it’s quite possible the app settings have reverted to their defaults. If the remote quality settings on the remote Plex apps are not set high enough Plex will transcode a version that matches those quality settings. Remote Plex app audio settings are also very important. If the remote device reports to Plex that it can’t handle a particular audio format - even if it can, but a setting is wrong - Plex will stupidly transcode a version to match the information it is given… Plex just does what it’s told.
In the case of FireTV upgrading the Plex app will result in default settings across the board. Default settings for AFTV (V1), for instance, are set to an H264 Level of 4.0. If the material is at Level 4.1 (like almost every single item in my libraries) Plex has no choice, but to transcode a version at level 4.0. You can fix this condition quite easily by altering the Max 264 setting in the Plex app from 4.0 to 4.1 where a direct play version will happily be delivered.
A little trick for AFTV users (Androids) is to enable the Information Overlay in the app:
Play an item (any). Hit OK. Arrow right to the ‘Gear’ then arrow down and enable Information Overlay.
Then when you hit OK some on screen information about the file will be displayed such as; Resolution, Direct Play, Direct Stream or Transcoding and if so the reason for the Transcode. This could be handy when troubleshooting streams that once Direct Played, but now are Transcoding.
I hope that helps track down the issues…
Every device is doing it. Xbox One, PS4, Apple TV, iPhones, iPads, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox 360. These devices used to direct play all the time, now suddenly they all transcode for MKV files. I don’t get it. Ive tried your method of checking the video settings, but they aren’t reset. Theyre all playing ‘original’ quality and still transcoding. I tested this with Xbox One which I know for a fact never had issues with MKV .h264 codecs.
The crazy part is it will direct play for a little while then transcode. I don’t understand.
Enable information overlay on your AFTV and find out why it’s transcoding. The overlay will tell you why.
A little trick for AFTV users (Androids) is to enable the Information Overlay in the app:
Play an item (any). Hit OK. Arrow right to the ‘Gear’ then arrow down and enable Information Overlay.
Then when you hit OK some on screen information about the file will be displayed such as; Resolution, Direct Play, Direct Stream or Transcoding and if so the reason for the Transcode. This could be handy when troubleshooting streams that once Direct Played, but now are Transcoding.
A very recent upgrade caused an issue with transcoding/copying then the latest version addressed that issue. I would upgrade the server and client apps to the latest version.
It could be due to you enabling the streaming brain functions, so check that as well.
