Is it me? Is it me?
It probably is… all I want to do is sync some movies to my phone WITHOUT changing the quality, but Plex insists on transcoding them even when I chose original quality and that takes about 5 hours each. But I don’t want them transcoded, stop misbehaving, naughty Plex!
A bad workman blames his tools - so what am I doing wrong, what magic setting will solve my problems?
But don’t tell me Plex has to transcode all files (we are not living in a Nanny state where Plex tells me what resolution I deserve) otherwise I’ll have install some nasty clunky app on my phone (Synology Cloud Station) and get it to do what Plex is too clever to do.
Original only refers to the BITRATE of the film when SYNCING.
All other properties of the original are converted to a format that will DIRECT PLAY on the target device.
But why!? I just want a copy of the original, not a Plex dictate that it must be converted to DIRECT PLAY on my device.
But what good is an original copy, SYNCED to your device, that will not play on that device?
The device can not transcode on the fly, that is the job of the server, so SYNCED media that is not DIRECT PLAY compatible will not play.
Sorry for belated response. But my devices can play the original files without transcoding.
I have the same issue. A movie will Direct Play, but when I sync it, Plex decides it needs to transcode it.
Let me guess… You all are using android devices? I also run into this issue. Probably has to do with the fact, that android range is wide and plex app for android only uses the smallest common denominator regarding formats that are playable on android. So basically plex sees you are trying to sync to android and somewhere checks what files can be played on android and decides well it needs to be transcoded.
That’s just my assumption and maybe one can find out with googling etc. what file needs to be modified to allow more formats to direct play on android (I assume it is android.xml in the profiles, but i am not sure).
EDIT: Just checked on my windows server C/ProgramFiles x86/Plex/Plex Media Server/resources/Profiles/android.xml
Direct Play Profiles are only mp4, mp3, flac containers etc. with codec h264, mp, eg 4 and aac
So if there is anything else than a mp4 file, and the video is encoded in h264 or mpeg4 and the audio is encoded in aac plex transcodes i assume.
Maybe fiddling around with that and adding mkv as a container and probably some other audio formats will stop transcoding and allow direct play and therefore sync without transoding? I am not familiar with it but maybe google around and/or try yourself. But better backup that original android.xml otherwise you will come by crying “no audio output on android” or something similar 
