Not sure why but some of my recently encoded .mp4s will not direct play; however, they transcode just fine.
Unfortunately, my android devices detect it as a .mp4 and choose to direct play. How can I disable Direct play on Android devices?
There isn’t a way to disable it. However, if most of your files are h264, you can change the supported h264 level setting to 1.0 which will force transcoding of pretty much all h264 files.
Why is that? I need to disable “Direct Play” for my Android devices.
There are probably only a few people in the WORLD that would want to disable Direct Play. An Easy Button probably won’t be developed, but…:
There you go - Instant Transcode.
No.
Not the same.
A Transcode is a Transcode.
Disabling Direct Play causes a Transcode.
Direct Play is when the device/client can deal with whatever you’re sending it - and Plex delivers it untouched. This should happen automatically, if enabled in the settings.
Direct Stream is when the Video or Audio track is incompatible with a device/client and Plex transcodes the incompatible track into one that can be used on the device/client - this should be done automatically - if enabled in the settings. Direct Steam can also occur if the container (MP4/MKV/AVI/etc) is incompatible with a device/client and Plex merely muxes the original tracks into a new compatible container - this should be automatic - if enabled in the settings.
A full blown Transcode is a brand new Video and Audio track encoded into a new container - slamming your CPU/GPU up against the wall and strip searching it for contraband - and I’ve spent my entire life trying to avoid this horrific condition - and have, for the most part, succeeded, so it absolutely melts my brain when somebody WANTS a Transcode… but… here we are.
You’re gonna have to go into much more detail if you want followers to this new cult you’re pitching… The Cult Of The Perpetual Transcode. A lot of just don’t get it. Yet.
Show me the way… I’m like putty…lol
There you go. Big difference. A “Direct Stream” is kind of remuxing. Because there is an unsupported audio track or unsupported subtitles for instance. The video is untranscoded - but the audio is transcoded… that’s exactly what I need. But the Android client doesn’t do it. Plex for Windows does.
Well… that’s different.
Sometimes, for reasons as yet to be determined, Plex can’t do a Direct Stream and must transcode the entire thing. Some of these reason include, but are not limited to:
HEVC material <— is that what you have?
Hardware Encoding <—is that what you’re using?
Sub Titles <— if any, do you have them switched on?
Also, at this time you should Enable Debug Logging, Disable Verbose Logging, replicate the issue, wait 5 minutes then grab a fresh set of logs - drag and drop the zip to a message window along with the XML information for the offending file - or a MediaInfo Report.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201998867-investigate-media-information-and-formats/
That should get us - particularly you, and the Elevated Support Person that’s gonna help you figure it out - started.
My work here is almost done…lol
It is not “sometimes” - it is reproducible, most of my video files are affected and I know exactly what is causing the issue on my Android-based devices. Believe me, I’ve done my homework - and put a lot of time, work and effort in solving or at least bypassing this particular problem. The Plex support is not helpful at all. Disabling “Direct Play” and making sure, “Direct Streaming” works as intended could be a workable solution in this scenario - and that’s what the topic starter asked for, I guess.
And yes I know, I speak in riddles… nevermind!
OK, well this isn’t a riddle:
You can’t Disable The Transcoder and force a Direct Stream.
You CAN find out why it’s not in Direct Play and change either a setting or the material, but Plex is gonna do what it does - and that’s what it does.
If you were able to disable the transcoder, something wouldn’t work. You’d have video without audio or audio without video and Plex, normally, won’t allow that.
So - do you wish to continue in our efforts to find out what’s going on, or would you rather we left you alone while you ask for something you can’t have?
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The Android app tells PMS if this needs to be done. The app checks with your device what audio formats are supported. If it’s unsupported, then it will tell PMS to transcode only the audio. If it’s not doing that, then your device is reporting to the app incorrectly, which I have seen happen before.
Have you looked under the advanced player options. There you can turn off certain audio codec support. This will force the audio transcode.
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Hey i found this thread searching for a way to turn off direct Stream since its causing some Problems on my Android TV.
Now i found out the only Problem is the new Player! If i can turn him off and using the old one all! My medias work just fine with the Standard settings.
It says there that the New one has to be used in the Future, but for now its optional.
What i want from You:
Please fix the New Player.
I really dont want to Set up now everything and when u Hit the Switch, nothing works anymore. (Android TV is just New and bought for plex actually)
The error says Not possible to play content, You should restart Server and app. Needless to say that this advice is total useless nothing changes.
Oh and my pms is Set up correctly and works on my other Devices just fine, PC,Handy, tablet, PlayStation. So my Media Files are also okay.
This Problem only occurs in the Android app on the Android TV Box (using Vodafone gigatv)
Oh and to the question why someone would Not want direct play:
Well if i watch on remote over the Internet direct play often dont work on the PC of my friend the only way to get it working is to disable it in the Plex Media Player options for Windows. So its Not very Server friendly but Users need this options to get ot working properly.
Thanks for ur Support and this great Plattform
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