I’m attempting to configure so that full bitrate MPEG never gets streamed to my Chromecast with Google TV (CCwGTV). The Plex app crashes a lot when the full MPEG stream is sent.
I’m having trouble making that happen with the “Home Streaming”
If I set this to the 720p setting then 1080i live TV and recordings do get transcoded. However, full MPEG 720p live TV and recordings always get Direct Streamed or Direct Played.
If I set this to one of the lowest bitrate 1080p setting then only the very highest bitrate 1080i live TV and recordings get transcoded. Most 1080i live TV and recordings that are very clearly way above the setting just dont get transcoded. 720p live TV and recordings direct stream always.
Seems like Plex should honor the resolution and bitrate limits implied by the setting options.
I kind of understand why Plex might choose to not upscale 720p live TV and recordings into a 1080p resolution.
Are there other settings that may be getting in the way of Plex doing what I think it aught to?
@FordGuy61, I have to thank you for sending me down the path that seems to have solved all my problems.
Trying to figure out how get both 1080i and 720p TV content to start NOT in Direct Stream/Play mode with a reasonable Home Streaming setting kept me from learning how the “Adjust automatically” setting works.
The page that you linked finally made all the pieces click for me.
“Adjust automatically” will not do anything if the stream starts out in Direct Stream/Play. So all you have to do is pick an unreasonable value for “Home streaming” of “1.5 Mbps, 480p”.
This ensures that both 1080i and 720p TV content start under transcoding to H264 and then “Adjust automatically” makes sure that the bitrate and resolution are negotiated up to what can be supported on over your network connection. It takes just a few seconds for the negotiation to jump out of the starting 480p resolution and soon thereafter gets the bitrate up.
Now all my TV/DVR content plays stably with out crashing the Plex app. Initial testing indicates that I can FF/REV skip without causing any app crashes.
Once again, thanks for the right pointer!
It is a little confusing that the in-player quality menus will indicate the initial 480p resolution without really giving a hint that all has been negotiated higher. Dashbord will indicate the current H264 bitrate but does not indicate the current resolution being used.
