Glitch? in Plex app from Sony Bravia Android TV that makes transcoding always-on

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Server Version#:1.25.0.5282
Player Version#:8.26.2.29389

After a deep dig on another thread about long delays before loading medias, it is clear that the problem came from transcoding. Now, what I would like to bring here, is a glitch that I observe in the Plex app, from a Sony Bravia X900H Android TV.

After many changes and adjustments to avoid as much as possible transcoding, I still could see long delay while loading a media. This let me think that I was still transcoding. Task manager on server confirmed that.

But curiously, when I was going to the playback options, during the playback, I could see Direct play. BUT when I was then going into the More info (sorry, my plex is in french, but it is the last option in the menu), it was saying that it was transcoded, with the reason : cannot direct play.

A workaround that I tried and worked : I changed the playback mode from supposedly Direct play to auto convert, and then I put it back to direct play. After that, I stopped the playback, and then start it again and then, on both screens (Playback options and More info), I was getting Direct play.

Also, it was obvious by the loading times and the much nicer picture quality that transcoding was indeed not employed that second time. This was also confirmed by the Windows task manager of the server, no more intense usage of the CPU & GPU.

So, I think there may have a glitch in the client, since a bizarre workaround like this one corrects the situation.

What do you think about this situation and the manipulation applied ?

2

Can you please share the first 20 or so lines of the XML Data for the file you were trying to play?

3

Yes, here is the XML of a media that presented the problem. Also, I added the player version in OP (Sony Bravia Android TV, Plex app).
8322.xml.txt (5.2 KB)

4

So for some easy troubleshooting lets start with uninstalling and reinstalling the app to see if that fixes anything. If that doesn’t, can you please attach the server logs from right after the issue occurs.

5

Hello, okay I’ve reinstalled and installed back the app.

The included logs should be instructive (I hope so)
Plex Media Server Logs_2021-12-02_13-19-08.zip (4.2 MB)
, because the first time that I launched the media, after a while, the screen was just stuck in black, nothing happened.

I stopped and started the media again. The loading was long, and after checking the More info screen, I saw that once again it was transcoding.

Thank you !

6

Can you please go into your app settings and see if Direct Play is enabled? Your logs are showing that it is disabled. It doesn’t appear that it is actually transcoding anything, its just repackaging it and Direct Streaming it because it sees that Direct Play is turned off for some reason.

7

@Blkbyrd unfortunately in the Bravia, I don’t have this setting. On my other TV, a TCL with Roku, I have this setting. If you wish, I can name each and every setting labels of the app ?

8

If you mean “Play original quality”, that does not mean it will necessarily direct play.

Do you have subtitles enabled? and what is the “burn subtitles” setting set as?

9

When I get home tonight let me see how my stuff is set up on my TV. I also have a Sony X900H. It is still odd to me that the logs report that Direct Play is disabled, but like BigWheel said it may have something to do with subtitles.

10

Indeed @BigWheel, the correct sentence should have been that I switched from Play at original quality, to Auto convert, then switch back to Play at original quality. And indeed, this does not necessarily mean Direct play. Nonetheless, this action seems to force Direct play as a consequence.

For the subtitles, the intial setting was Automatic, which I changed to “Seulement les formats d’image” in french (which means absolutely nothing, bad translation in the app), but in the end, it is the remaining option that is not Automatic neither Always.

11

Just to chime in, I have the same TV and am experiencing the same issue. I previously reported to @ChuckPa a bug where I could not resume any media or use auto-play with this TV, and I think this may be related to that.

When Plex fails to direct play video and falls back to transcoding, I’ve noticed that my audio will also get transcoded as well. I’ve also been able to get direct play to work again for the specific media after direct play fails by switching to a different quality and then switching back to original quality. This will also fix the audio transcoding so that it direct plays.

Let me know if I can help in any way so that this bug(s) can be squashed.

12

@ricke666

Can you suggest a better translation for Seulement les formats d’image ?

The intended meaning is to Burn-in only image formats .
The literal translation I have is “only image formats”

13

Can you point me to a documentation that explains this setting ? Since I am not sure of what it does, I am not able for the moment to propose a better translation.

Does this setting refer to Open caption, where the pixels are replaced by hard-coded subtitles, during the transcoding ?

14

Burn in subtitles means that the server transcoder hardcodes the subtitles into the video stream So they are part of the video and there is not a sub stream sent to the player from the server

Text format subtitles are ones like SRT, SSA/ASS which can be opened and edited in a text editor.

“image format” subtitles are subtitles like PGS or sub/idx subtitles which are not editable text. Those types of subtitles are images that are overlayed on the video. They are the subtitles that you get when you manually rip a DVD or Bluray. Most players cannot handle these so they are burned into the video.

some more info on the two Subtitle Formats Explained - AfterDawn: Guides

The setting is specifically asking the the player to ask the server to burn-in/hard code the subtitles only if they are one of the image formats.

15

Hello,

Okay now I understand better. Considering this, what I would propose as translation for these subtitles could be “Seulement les sous-titres en format image”, which could be translated back into “Only image-format subtitles”. Maybe it is not advised to repeat the term “subtiles”, and that could be Plex’s call, but the confution in my case came from “image”, I did not understand that we were talking about image subtitles, and not image stream of a media.

16

As a final note, there IS a bug in the Plex client for Sony TVs, making a high percentage of medias being transcoded where it should not.

To confirm the bug :

  1. Start a media playback
  2. Go to Plakback settings : you may see “direct play”
  3. Go to “Information” : you will see Transcoding

To avoid the bug, only for the current media :

  1. Change the playback mode from Direct play to Auto convert
  2. Change again the playback mode from Auto convert to Direct play
  3. Stop the media, then restart it
  4. Now you should see both in Playback settings and Information screens that it is direct play

Note to the software editor : For some people, as it is my case, it is important to avoid transcoding as much as possible.

First, with a 85inch screen, transcoding does a poor job, compared to direct play, and we can see it very easily.

Second, with 4k content, with HDR, x65, HEVC and all the latest technologies, even a Ryzen 5 coupled with a SSD cannot do the job, not enough performance, so transcoding is a big issue.

17

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.