PMS latest version.
When plex is transcoding a movie how far in advance will it transcode? If the transcode settings are set to something like ‘make my cpu hurt’ how far will the transcode get before plex says ‘ok, ive transcoded X minutes of footage ahead of what the client is playing, ill stop for now’
I know plex transcodes a little bit ahead of realtime so you can skip 10-30 seconds ahead and not have to wait to buffer the movie. What is the maximum time plex will transcode in advance? And is this setting configurable in any way?
I’ve seen that, but its not super clear what that means.
If Transcoder default throttle buffer is set to let’s say 60 seconds… that means it will transcode 60 seconds in advance before ‘throttling back the transcoder speed’. But ‘throttling back the transcoder speed’ isn’t well defined. Does that mean plex will STOP transcoding, or just not transcode as fast? And if a user is watching a movie how long until they catch up to real time before plex starts transcoding again?
If I transcode 60 seconds in advance, how many seconds until realtime does plex let the stream get before it starts transcoding 60 seconds in advance again?
there is the default throttle buffer setting, but that seems to be the minimum buffer, not the maximum buffer.
meaning plex can often transcode way more than the default buffer (this can be seen by the light grey line that extends past the current play position in the dashboard).
I notice that some devices/streams will have large amounts of buffer, while some others will seemingly not have any buffer.
which brings up another point…
transcode buffer is entirely different than the STREAMING buffer.
transcode buffer is only used when transcoding (duh), if something is direct playing, there is no transcode buffer.
the streaming buffer is not exposed anywhere (on the server), as a setting, or as a UI element.
some clients do show, what appears to be, the streaming buffer, as the same gray line within the play progress bar.
this overlap of using the same/similar ux for 2 completely different things, can be confusing, especially when trying to sort out buffering issues, whether they are caused by server or client.
