+1 for AV1 support
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I canât even believe we have to keep asking for AV1 support? Is it not obvious this would be good for plex and for plex users? I canât even find a place where the plex team has even addressed why they are not ahead on the curve on this. It almost seems like they do not want to implement it for some reason⊠They seem to act like if we ignore this request it will eventually go away.
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They do not need to steal or decompile anything⊠They already use ffmpeg custom compiled⊠ffmpeg ALREADY supports av1 decoding (FFmpeg 4.2 releases with AV1 decoding support through libdav1d and more|Packt Hub ). They just have to update the custom version of ffmpeg or better yet, NOT customize ffmpeg, just customize the flags on the plex side. Then they can stay current on ffmpeg.
I am running ffmpeg 4.3.2-0+deb11u2 Copyright (c) 2000-2021 the FFmpeg developers, when run Plex Transcoder you get ffmpeg fa235d6-3858 Copyright (c) 2000-2019 the FFmpeg developers. You can tell just by the copyright date, the custom plex version is two years behind on the ffmpeg code build.
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Itâs obvious what is happening here. (At least to me.) Plex has decided that is more cost effective to scrape content off of other services and back burner everything else. Thatâs easy. You donât seen need much of a server for that. Eventually, someone will come up with an alterative with all the necessary compatibility, (and no log in requirement) and we will just all move on. Plex will be one of a dozen similar services, that some may, or may not, use. âPlay anythingâ is just not on their agenda.
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+1 for AV1 support. Itâs shameful Plex doesnât have this feature after so long.
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Guys, stay on track, I know how badly everyone wants AV1. Iâm sure Plex noticed the demand for this codec, but I donât think blaming management helps. Just changing the underlying ffmpeg code is not easy, itâll likely to drag a lot of problems along with it, new dependencies, removing old dependencies, maybe another piece of code then tries to use a new dependancy (they commonly say âat least version xâ) which doesnât support a certain feature anymore and so on; and in the end, half of all the code has to be changed. Management has a reason to say no (, not yet), because this uncertainty that it might or might not work is not worth what 200 people want, of which maybe 10 people would get a Plex Pass. Also, with time passing, more and more code (some of which Plex uses) will add support for av1, which lowers costs for Plex.
On the other side, itâs not unlikely they are already working on it, but publicly saying âHey, weâre working on av1â raises expectations that they - might or might not - fulfil.
Just an idea: I donât have the licence of Plex Software in mind but if they allow decompiling, some coding expert could try to enable support and give them some feedback.
Very strange my ffmpeg has no problem converting also. So why canât Plex.
Because Plex does not care and uses a millenia old version of ffmpegâŠ
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I donât think itâs fundamentally about the version of ffmpeg thatâs embedded.
(Even ignoring whatever legal/licensing/patent issues affect AV1.)
I think interoperability across the wide spectrum of devices Plex supports is a larger problem than people realize, even for direct streaming. Plex is still constantly chasing down compatibility issues for the âwell supportedâ codecs, much less something as new as AV1. It would add another variable to that mix, and itâs not clear that AV1 will be a âlong haulâ codec like H.264 has been.
And thereâs basically no AV1 content except YouTube downloads ⊠which can also easily be downloaded as H.264, so thereâs at least a workaround. And thatâs not a use case that aligns with Plexâs core Movie & TV time-and-place-shifting competencies anyway.
Iâm not saying I donât want to see support for AV1. But I understand why itâs not there today.
New?! I touched on this earlier (aka last year) in the thread. Sometimes you really donât have a choice in what to support. Cassettes vs. CD, VHS vs. Betamax, Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, and so forth⊠Having someone like YouTube using it, has a tendency to decide the issue for them, eventually. Plex, like it, or not. Doesnât matter.
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Just another hopeful bump that plex will one day support this codec. Iâd love to start transcoding my media over to AV1 but wonât so long as plex doesnât support it 
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The genius thing about AV1 is that there are no legal problems affecting it. Unless you use AV1 in your commercial product and then sue Apple, Google, Netflix etc in regards to video patents and I highly doubt Plex has the lawyer budget for that.
I self-encode my content from BD / UHD Remuxes and prefer to use AV1 to x265.
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To your point, AOMedia says you can use AV1 for free. But itâs in murky water - it was created because of that murky water! - and it hasnât been tested.
âNo legal problemsâ is ⊠a really broad statement.
See also: Sisvel
AOMedia is good for the big member companies that want to dodge the MPEG and HEVC patent pools, licensing confusion, and payments.
Iâm sad about it because itâs still a gang. If youâre big enough you can join the mutual protection/destruction agreement. If youâre small they will overlook you.
It will be interesting to see if Sisvel ends up taking anybody to court, or if they just run their protection racket quietly.
â-
Aside: Itâs interesting that there was still room for H.266 from a technology and patent perspective.
Do you actually do that, or wish that it was practical to do so?
If so, how do you play them?
I do! I currently have 268 TV show episodes encoded in AV1 (including 11 seasons of The X-Files) and 73 Movies. All 1080p and from the BD remuxes.
Encoding time with AV1 is only slightly longer than x265 on slow (~8fps vs. 15fps on my machine) using av1an with libaom and almost the same using svt-av1 on preset 6 (~14fps vs. 15fps).
Watching is no problem at all using any decoder featuring a recent version ob libdav1d. I compiled mpv-android with an up-to-date version of dav1d and it runs flawlessly on my Pixel 5, my Shield TV and ofc on all Laptops / PCs I have.
Emby plays it fine too on the Shield TV.
Only Plex is missing this feature⊠For years now. Even though compiling a recent version of ffmpeg with libdav1d >= 0.9.1 is a no brainer really.
You can even play AV1 using a remote Plex server. Trick is to start downloading the file, then copy this link to your mpv instance. Runs flawlessly. Another feature Iâm really missing from both Emby and Plex (but Jellyfin has this) is âcopy linkâ instead of being forced to start downloading the file.
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I have started encoding with av1an and aomenc as well. My LG OLED from last year hardware decodes AV1. So does the i3 I was planning on upgrading my Plex server to. Itâs obvious that this will happen at some point, but AV1 is just about relevant enough for it to happen sooner rather than later.
@aaaaaaaaa oh boy, itâs your lucky day. Iâll leave you with this.
Funny enough this option is not available to me, because âDownload Fileâ is not an actual link but an event in my Plex instance (app.plex.tv and local):
And thus I can not just copy a link:
(Chromium/Firefox based browsers are the same)
:-/
But the event does eventually give you a link which downloads in your browser? Hmm⊠that button has been coded as a link for a long while for me now across different browsers on both Win 10 and Linux, even when it used to be âGet Fileâ or whatever. They might have all been chromium based to be fair. There must be something causing different behaviour for you. Since it appears in the first place, itâs probably not an account/library issue. Could be worth making a thread about it.
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I found the reason; if there is only a single version it is a link. If there are multiple versions it is an event that opens a popup to select the desired version - those are links I can copy. Thank you!
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Well, since plex distributes their modified ffmpeg binary, they do have to release the code.
https://downloads.plex.tv/ffmpeg-source/plex-media-server-ffmpeg-gpl-be22e264c2.tar.gz
which seem to be a gitpull from the 4.1 version GitHub - FFmpeg/FFmpeg at n4.1
Seem more like someone is not willing to spend a pretty penny on migrating and testing all that changed code on a newer version of ffmpeg. But rather update the UI constantly, which only makes the whole thing laggier and slower.
Or maybe waiting for the âright timeâ. But you never know, because the higher ups donât talk about this.
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