Is VC1 transcoding triggered by the audio stream format?
In this case study, VC1 is played directly for Movie 1, but transcoded for Movie 2. Additionally, Movie 2 audio goes silent for a few seconds at a regular interval.
Movie 1:
Plex for Samsung — TV QN55Q80RAFXZA
Video
1080p (VC1)
Direct Play
Audio
English (AC3 Stereo)
Direct Play
Movie 2:
Plex for Samsung — TV QN55Q80RAFXZA
Video
1080p (VC1) (hw)
1080P (H264)—Transcode (hw)
Audio
English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
AAC—Transcode
The subtitles selector was set to None for both Movie 1 and Movie 2 although subtitles are available. I copied the exact verbiage from Plex Web > settings > dashboard for both movies into the original post.
The log files attached to the original post include the problem instance for Movie 2. I restarted the Plex server and then reproduced the problem. The issue was encountered while streaming M:\HD Movies\Love Actually.mkv (found at 10:13.41.443 in Plex Media Server.log). I can generate further log data if needed.
I am new at this and would like to stream the file without transcoding, but keep the quality of the original version, so would you happen to know the best/easiest tool for extracting an individual track from an mkv, transcoding it and adding the new track to the original mkv. I’m assuming that the fix is as simple as transcoding the DTS track to AAC and then adding it to the mkv container as a second audio track. I’m considering MKVToolNix, MKVExtract and MKV Wizard but haven’t tried them yet.
I don’t know of any tools that can “add” to an existing file. They typically write out a new file with the addition. It would be better to write out the AAC to the first audio track and the original DTS as the second.
However, VC1 cannot be direct played on all clients so it would be better to reencode the video to H264 to allow direct play on more clients.
