How to Disable Direct Play/Stream on Firestick?

Plex Players Streaming Devices
1

Server Version#: 1.41.6.9685
Player Version#: 10.27.1.2743 (3ca2c244)

This is a side question I had from a previous post.

In short, is there a way to disable Direct Play and/or Direct Stream on Amazon Firesticks?

For some background, I recently discovered my Plex library contained HEVC/MP4 videos that would stutter when playing on various, but not all, streaming devices. The only solution I found is remuxing the MP4s into MKVs via MKVToolNix. While I work on converting my entire library, I found disabling Direct Play and Direct Stream do indeed allow the video file to play without a stutter. However, while the option to disable Direct Play and Direct Stream are found on many streaming devices (e.g., PS5, Roku), I cannot find such an option on the Firestick. The only option that removes the stutter is transcoding to a lower resolution (e.g., 1080p → 720p), but this creates these discolored vertical lines throughout the picture, making the media unwatchable.

Does anyone have a solution to disable Direct Play/Stream on Firesticks or to remove the vertical lines when playing at a lower resolution?

2

If any of your media uses subtitles you can just set the subtitle setting to always transcode and that would make it not direct play while keeping the same resolution.

3

I appreciate the workaround, I will test it out. Sill, crazy that Firestick is one of, if not the only, device out there that doesn’t allow you to disable Direct Play/Stream.

Edit: Do you mean change this subtitle setting from the server side or the client side? I would rather not change anything from the server settings.

4

No, the client setting.

Video > Burn Subtitles > “Always”

1 Like
5

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.