When HEVC / x265 videos are transcoded they look awful as a 1500kb/s x265 file is comparable to a 15000kb/s x264 file but plex transcodes it at 1500kb/s in x264 and the resulting file looks awful. You should be able to transcode at a higher bitrate for x265 and this should be done by default.
What is your server version?
Settings - Server - General
Which client are you using?
Server Version 0.9.14.5; Clients: The Web Client and Roku 2 XS
This seems to be a pretty well known issue, I’ve seen a few comments on other sites about this limitation.
I just tried to play a HEVC video in Plex Web. I am on version 0.9.15.1
this is what happens (Plex Media Server.log, see last line):
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 682123
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: The.Walking.Dead.Uncut.Season5Episode1 (2014): Direct Play is disabled
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: The.Walking.Dead.Uncut.Season5Episode1 (2014): selected audio stream is not the first audio stream and direct play stream selection is not enabled
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: The.Walking.Dead.Uncut.Season5Episode1 (2014): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: The.Walking.Dead.Uncut.Season5Episode1 (2014): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/ac3
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: The.Walking.Dead.Uncut.Season5Episode1 (2014): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/ac3
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: The.Walking.Dead.Uncut.Season5Episode1 (2014): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - MDE: computed resolution bounding box of 1920x1080.
Jan 18, 2016 18:01:11:042 [3604] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 9040Kbps based on 4.500000x fudge factor.
enable debug logging on your server and try the same. You can search for “MDE”, because this will mark the beginning of the playback.
Please try with both Plex Web and the Roku (same movie, pls) to see whether there are differences due to client.
I updated to the latest server version and it looks a lot better (and can see the scaled bitrate in the logs). One question though: I’m using a 1080p file on a 1080p screen yet the computed resolution bounding box scales down to 1280x534. Not sure how much this affects the quality - but why is it doing this?
Perhaps you have set a bitrate limit on your client, maybe down to max 4 or 3 mbps.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200289408-Plex-Web-App-Settings
Or your file is not really 1080p. Check the mediainfo
The File is 1920x800 (widescreen), I have the “local” and “online” qualities set to Original.
then enable debug logging
start playback and inspect the Plex Media Server.log file
(search for the string MDE, this marks the beginning of playback and has additional information why the stream format is as it is)
Which client?
The Web Client:
Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 369001 Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): Direct Play is disabled Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/aac Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/aac Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/aac Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:569 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: computed resolution bounding box of 1280x534. Jan 18, 2016 12:10:55:570 [8568] DEBUG - MDE: Watchmen (2009): selected media 0 / 369001
This is not enough. It doesn’t show the client settings.
Try setting the quality to ‘20mbps’.
OK, it’s playing at the full resolution now, the problem was I didn’t hit the ‘Save Changes’ button after changing the quality settings (had to scroll down to see it). I sincerely appreciate the time and help, thank you.
Early 2021 clean-up: implemented (here: bad configuration)
