Thanks for the link on how to extract the logs. Attaching them:
logs.txt (33.1 KB)
Let me know if you want me to try and change some settings. Still new to Plex here
Can you get me the xml for that video? https://support.plex.tv/articles/201998867-investigate-media-information-and-formats/
Also, it appears you were trying to play the video from the middle. Can you mark the video as unwatched so it will start from the beginning and try again? I wonder if itâs a resume issue. I still want that xml.
Got the file.
refFrames=â6â
1080p video should only have a max of 5. Some clients only support 4. This is why itâs transcoding.
Thanks. So Chrome browser doesnât support 6 ref frames? The odd thing is that 1 in 3 or 4 tries it starts playing using the Original Quality setting. If it didnât support then it should play at all, right?
Nothing should technically support 6 refframes for a 1080p video. Itâs outside of the h264 spec. Having too many RefFrames wonât necessarily make the file unplayable. It will try to play the file and it will either work or not. In your case, it works sometimes, but often it doesnât. When it doesnât, it fallbacks to transcoding. This is the expected behavior. If you are able to get this to direct play sometimes, that would be the exception.
Just some feedback. I downloaded PMP (which I didnât know existed and thought was the same thing as the web client) and use that on the same laptop.
To compare, the PMP direct streamed/played the original file with any hiccups or issues from the get go. The Web Client plays the file like 1 in 3 or 4 tries and it ends up buffering a lot (Iâm on a 30/30Mbps connection here and my server is on a 150/20Mbps while the file is 4Mbps).
Not sure if isâ possible but it would be nice to use the same player from the PMP in the Web Client and that should fix the Web Client issues. Also is there a reason that the buffer size cannot be adjusted in the Web Client? If the player from PMP cannot be used in the Web Client, just adjusting the network buffer size would fix my issue as well.
PMP is a dedicated player with itâs own video player engine. It is not dependent on the underlying web browser like Plex Web, so it has a lot more capabilities then Plex Web.
Itâs not possible to run the same player for Plex Web. You notice how large a program PMP is. Totally different animal from Plex Web. In case you didnât notice, PMP has a desktop mode which looks exactly like Plex Web, but uses the same video player engine as TV mode.
Thanks for the explanation. So to clarify if I change the network buffer settings in the TV mode on PMP it will also apply to the Desktop Mode because it uses the same underlying engine?
Well said , I also want this feature ives set up all my clients with 4k Sticks and Nvidia Shields and i still transcoding being done so people just stop using my server. Where i live most people have around 100mbps they should be able to watch without any lag but when Plex Transcodes it degrades quality and speed.
Yes. But keep in mind that the buffer only applies when direct playing a file. PMP (either desktop or tv mode) should be able to direct play most things, but if the video does have to be transcoded, then that buffer is not used. It canât be used with a transcoded stream.
And thereâs probably a reason for it but without more information, no one will ever be able to sort it for you. (Subtitles are typically the most common culprit).
Not all 4K files are the same. If you donât want transcoding then you need to make sure the file has codecs that the devices support.
I have been looking for similar option for several years. I have my Plex Media Server in Synology D416Play, and I have several clients, like a client in my iPad, 2 clients in computer, a client on Shield TV 2017. The Shield TV is connected to LG OLED C8P TV and Sony Z9F sound bar.
When I sit in front of my TV, I am sure I want to play video and audio in original quality without transcoding, I am sure my device has the capability to decode the video and audio. If Plex cannot play it directly, there must be some errors in my environment or my configuration, I want Plex to tell me this information(it cannot play current movie) explicitly so that I can start to dig out whatâs the problem in my environment or configuration, instead of transcoding the movie automatically, which DO conceal problem in my environment, even I may not be aware of the problem that I am watching a movie with downgraded quality until several months later.
Currently, each time I start to play movie in my TV, I have to open the dashboard to make sure Plex is directly playing, this is really a strange experience. What I want is, I have an option to tell Plex, I only want to direct play on this special client because I know that client can do it. If Plex cannot, just throw error to me, or ask me if I want to transcode this movie, but please do not do it quietly.
Yes, itâs acceptable to transcode movie automatically for most of my clients, thanks Plex to make this experience so great, but transcoding is not always good, why not give user a choice?
Hi
Maybe you could try out Kodi ? You can configure it to mimic Plexâs clients/server architecture, and it will not transcode anything. But your videos will still need to meet Kodiâs player requirements.
Iâve read somewhere that you could set up the transcode directory to a place where your Plex server canât write so this will yield an error. Not tried it myself, anybody here has some feedback ?
Thanks
+1 on wanting a preference to direct play first on the list. My issue is that with Unraid running and multiple VMs I donât have a need for plex to have 4 cores with 4 additional threads on 1gb redundant fiber line. I am just curious on if there is a way for me to do the edit myself. I may start poking around soon since this is deliberately being ignored, I will keep yaâll posted on what I find.
P.S. I also run a 100TB server so telling me I need to get better hardware is an idiotic statement. Lets not be idiots here. Its called efficiency and having a preference for direct play on the server side seems the smartest way to do it. On a side note the Plex dev team did at least a nice job with the automatic scaling of quality although I personally would never use it.
If you set the Plex client app to Direct Play then it will direct play whenever possible.
True but I have over 40 Users on 100 devices for training videos we create it doesnât always workout that way even when told to do so
there is currently no way to force direct play, and plex does not seem interested in providing that option.
your only option is to make sure you have content that matches the capabilities and avoids the limitations of your clients.
not to mention, sufficient bandwidth for both server and clients.
obviously if the clients are NOT physically yours and/or are remote, you wonât be able to control the client bandwidth and maybe not even the client settings.
so you can live with transcoding or make your content work with the lowest common denominator in quality/size/codecs.
Sounds like youâre trying to solve a user problem with a technology solution and one that Plex doesnât appear interested in implementing⊠(but you never know!)
