Long time Plex user here… I am currently in the process of preparing to convert my 4k videos into something that can be transcoded using QSV. I was planning on h264/4.1 with aac as the first audio track and ac3 as the second. I am using FFMPEG to convert, and it seems if i use the default profile baseline, it outputs the file with a profile name of: constrained baseline.
Well, it seems that plex will only recognize baseline, high and main as profiles that can be hardware decoded. It will encode using HW fine, but decoding it will not.
My question is, is constrained baseline the same as baseline and if it is, is this something we can change in Plex, so it recognizes it? Or, for you FFMPEG guru’s, is there someway of getting it to output a file with the profile of just ‘baseline’ so it’s recognized? I have tried what seems like 100 different combinations of switches, and no avail. I am considering just using the “high” profile instead.
@OttoKerner said:
Use either main or high.
Restrict the level to 4.0 - unless you really want to go above 20 Mbps bitrate in your video stream.
I could be wrong… but after further reading, h264 needs to be level 5.1 in order to support 4k video. Further, h265 needs to be a minimum level of 5 to support 4k.
With that said, my system is using hardware acceleration to transcode 5.1 h264 video. What is everyone else doing for their 4k videos? I can watch my 10-bit HEVC 4k videos, but my family cannot while streaming–hence the reason for converting.
@mrtoye said:
My question is, is constrained baseline the same as baseline and if it is, is this something we can change in Plex, so it recognizes it?
No, they are not the same. The constrained version was mean for early video conferencing and not really used anymore. I believe PMS does recognize it, but the video player and hardware transcoders may not recognize it.
Or, for you FFMPEG guru’s, is there someway of getting it to output a file with the profile of just ‘baseline’ so it’s recognized?
Don’t use baseline either. That was meant for pre 1080p days. Use the main profile level 4.0. High is meant for 10-bit video. If you don’t have 10-bit video, using high will just make it less compatible. If you have non 1080p videos, baseline with level 3.0 would be fine.
@mrtoye said:
My question is, is constrained baseline the same as baseline and if it is, is this something we can change in Plex, so it recognizes it?
No, they are not the same. The constrained version was mean for early video conferencing and not really used anymore. I believe PMS does recognize it, but the video player and hardware transcoders may not recognize it.
Or, for you FFMPEG guru’s, is there someway of getting it to output a file with the profile of just ‘baseline’ so it’s recognized?
Don’t use baseline either. That was meant for pre 1080p days. Use the main profile level 4.0. High is meant for 10-bit video. If you don’t have 10-bit video, using high will just make it less compatible. If you have non 1080p videos, baseline with level 3.0 would be fine.
Thanks for the in depth answer. One thing is though, again, everything I read suggests that either 264 or 265 do not support 4k resolutions below level 5.0(5.1 for 264)? Max is 2k from what it looks like. I do apologize for being persistent, and thank you in advance.
I have noticed a decent quality increase between 264/5.1(minimum level for 4k 264) and 265/5.0(minimum level for 4k 265). The time difference is quite substantial though. All the videos I’m an decoding/encoding is 4k 10-bit video. I am re-encoding into 8 bit main profile for compatability. They all seem to work with hardware transcoding . Is this optimal?
@mrtoye said:
Thanks for the in depth answer. One thing is though, again, everything I read suggests that either 264 or 265 do not support 4k resolutions below level 5.0(5.1 for 264)? Max is 2k from what it looks like. I do apologize for being persistent, and thank you in advance.
For 4K H264 you should use level 5.1. Technically, you can use any profile level, but the player/encoder may not support it. The H264 spec did not include 4K content until 5.1, so if the player/encoder enforces the spec, it will identify any files <5.1 as being corrupt/incompatible.
H265 profile levels are not equal to H264 profile levels, but in the case of 4K content, the numbers do line up. H265 4K should also be (h265) profile level 5.0 or higher.
