Files downloaded from Web send transcoder crazy only on Android/Google TV

General Discussions
1

Having an issue that has popped up in the last few weeks, where any video that has been downloaded from a web source, mostly Youtube, no longer play in the plex player properly.

An example file I know this started with, file info shows it to be a H264 file with a 3mbps bitrate.

When I hit play,

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It spikes to over 56 Mbps on the bandwidth meter but the player doesn’t even start, the server doesn’t even show anything is even attempting to play.

If I choose “convert automatically” it shows it being converted to 22 mpbs, but lists the original version

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I tested the file and it works fine via web and my phone’s android client.

Is this a another new Plex android bug I’m just going to have to learn to live with?

2

At playback start, it is normal for the bitrate to spike because the playback buffer of the client needs to be filled.

Only if the high bandwidth is sustained throughout a longer time, it might be sign of something being wrong with the file itself. See High Bandwidth via Direct Play on Windows 10 - #4 by OttoKerner

3

The file never starts playing. It hangs around 50+ mpbs until I cancel the attempt to play it.

I’ve also stated it works fine in clients other than Google TV based ones, so the file is not at fault.

If you look at my screenshot, you can see Play original quality is 3.6mbps, but convert automatically is 22. Something else is going on.

4

That is not certain. Try the remuxing anyway.

5

It’s now doing this on about 2 dozen files I can reproduce the results with.

I can remux them and it does indeed work, but doesn’t that defeat the point of having a transcoder in plex?

Additionally, they all play perfectly fine on the web client. This is only happening on the Google TV client.

6

That means they’re all incorrectly muxed and unfit for streaming applications.

7

If they are incorrectly muxed and unfit as you say, why does it work fine in regular phone Android, Web, Roku, LG smart TVs then?

8

Most of those sound like the kind of device that might automatically transcode the video, solving a potential issue with non-web-optimized files. Observe your server dashboard when it “works” on those devices, and let me know if it is transcoding the file, or sending it as-is. Do the same with the player that it hangs on.

9

Direct plays on anything that it works on.

Blockquote It spikes to over 56 Mbps on the bandwidth meter but the player doesn’t even start, the server doesn’t even show anything is even attempting to play.

From my original post. The server acts like nothing is playing, but the bandwidth is sure as hell being consumed. Just an endless buffering on the player.

10

It was already explained above.
Either you disable “Direct Play” in the client’s settings, or you fix your files.

11

“Fix my files” when they exact same files play fine in every other client type except GTV ones leads me and anyone else to believe the issue is with the GTV client and not my files…

But forgive me for expecting plex to work properly on anything other than iOS devices.

12

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