The server dashboard will tell you whether it thinks it is streaming locally or remote.
If the server thinks your pmp is remote, then it will apply the remote streaming restrictions (any bandwidth and/or remote quality limits that are set in the server).
Ideally you would figure out what is causing the incorrect remote detection, but in the interim you can change your remote settings to allow for direct play.
As mentioned the server dashboard, along with the server console log window will provide you with information which you can use to help figure out your problem.
I too am experiencing issues with the latest build of PMP on RPi3+. It was working perfectly for a the first few hours after install, direct playing virtually all of my media and live TV. The our of no where it just stopped and now insists on transcoding everything. that is not H264. That means everything that is either live or recorded.
Iāve messed around with the Konvergo device profile a lot, trying to get the live and recorded streams to direct play, but all to no avail.
The information for the media shows precisely the same container, codes and audio codec information, but the MDE always determines that directPlay is not possible. From the log, MDE reports:
MDE: E252 - Episode 11760 - Aug 28, 2019 : Direct Play is disabled
MDE: E252 - Episode 11760 - Aug 28, 2019 : no direct play video profile exists for http/mpegts/mpeg2video/ac3
The to make matters worse:
MDE: E252 - Episode 11760 - Aug 28, 2019 : Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
It is as if the profile is being ignored since the profile clearly contains a DirectPlay configuration for the stated combination. But I know it is not being ignored because and can force errors by doing stupid stuff in the profile. Settings on PMP definitely allow DirectPlay and DirectStream. In fact direct play works on other videos that are H264 in a matroska container.
Still haing the same problem. Even if Iām watching an movie I can directly play. When I play a movie or TV episode. It will direct play, because I have the right settings. Then a few min after it will start to buffer. I check. I have the same settings as before but now the subtitles are transcoding. then I need to click on the same subtitles itās already being used and has a mark on it. And then I go back to play and it works again. Super frustrating. This happens every episode or movie.
Please do something about this.
And to be clear. When I said Plex team I meant people working for plex. There isnāt just a free app with updates and fixes to it without having people working for them? Correct me if Iām wrong.
Letās say the Plex team added a checkbox in the settings screen that said ādisable transcodingā, which would make the clients always play the streams directly, or give an error message saying the device canāt play the file.
If this made Plex more user friendly for a large number of users, why is this a bad thing? āThatās not what Plex is supposed to beā seems like a very stupid reason to keep this feature out.
I personally never want Plex to transcode my video. I love Plex for the availability and organisation of my video files, but I never want them transcoded. If my client canāt play the file I would rather Plex tell me that right away rather than transparently try to transcode it, and often failing to do so fast enough.
If you can point me to a Plex alternative that does everything Plex does minus the transcoding, go ahead, but Iām pretty sure that doesnāt exist. Thatās why Iām requesting this option.
I use a raspberry PI 3 as a plex server, works great, as you can imagine though absolutely no transcoding whatsoever. I as well have times where the server will randomly decides to transcode various content even if the client natively supports it requiring me to fiddle with settings on the client to get it to play.
I honestly have no idea why a simple error on the client āThis content requires transcoding which the server has disabledā is so hard.
Also, Im not running my plex server on more powerful hardware(ie hardware that can transcode) for a specific reason, I keep the server running 24/7 which at max consumes 5watts. Im not going to switch to a couple hundred watt intel based server for something that could be resolved via software.
I canāt imagine paying for a service that forces you to work as a makeshift developer in order to use it. I am paying for fiber internet and an expensive 4k TV, I donāt want any buffering or burning of my CPU.
Some files direct play, others donāt. Seems to be random. I have spend at least 10 hours straight trying to fix this, here are the methods;
Removing all extra metadata from the file (subs, extra audio/video)
Using HEVC and x264 (same buffering/transcoding)
Replacing image based subtitles with SRT subtitles
Used different bitrates (from 4000-23000)
Enabled maximum quality on all my devices
Checked that my TV can play everything without problems (it can, HEVC, Image subs, large files, 4k, everything)
Searched for fixes as long as Iāve had this software.
If plex wants people to pay for this then at least they should fix their software to work properly.
That doesnāt seem likely since the Plex Media Server goes through a decision tree of sorts to determine if it will Direct Play, Direct Stream, or Transcode based on codec, container, subtitle type (if used) and the target platform.
During playback, have you gone to the server dashboard (via https://app.plex.tv/desktop) to see whatās happening?
I found the problem. I took a look at your audio compatibility and saw that DTS-HD is not supported with the mkv container. So I ran it through BOX4 3 and changed it to AC3. I took a look at the dashboard and after removing the image based VobSub subtitle it direct streams the video. When playing with AAC/AC3 it direct streams audio.
My TV fully supports these formats, I have taken them on a USB drive and played it directly on my TV with 0 buffering or delay. Subtitles work as well. So my problem is that Plex either thinks that my TV (Samsung The Frame 2019 49") canāt play it, or Plex just isnāt able to send it.
It bugs me that for every show or movie I download I might have to spend at least an hour or more changing the audio and subtitles so that Plex can send it.
Alternatively you can a) make sure that your download includes a compatible audio stream and then b) select a compatible audio stream via āā¦ā on the pre-play screen:
Update: Itās still transcoding. It says direct play for both audio and video in the plex app on my PC, like this: https://imgur.com/a/BhFGdUx
But opening the āGet Infoā tab on my tv it said that direct stream for video is false. Very long buffering times for starting/moving the playhead. Plex Media Server is using up to 8% CPU power when playing the video, which I believe it shouldnāt when direct playing.
āDirect streamā is not ādirect playā ā they are not the same thing.
Your video is direct playing and 8% CPU doesnāt seem significant to me. However, I think youāre on to something regarding your network speed, your screenshot shows the video and audio actually at least peaking at 54 Mb which is just close enough to your maximum LAN speed that that very well could be an issue.
Its real simple, they donāt care about people that have already bought plex pass, they only care about people about to buy plex pass, none of what we say matters and that is why the requests go unheard and we hear from these idiot fanboy moderators insteadā¦
The problem with this is that more and more people will get sick of plex and move to Emby, or another alternative and leave plex because they dont listen to their user base. I already use Emby for this reason alone.
Word of mouth means a lot and you wont get it by ignoring your user base you geniusesā¦
