Server Version#: 1.27.1.5916
Player Version#: Latest
Hello all. I am wondering if if it is possible to direct play live tv remotely to a nvidia shield. It works just fine locally. I feel like I have exhausted all settings trying to get this to work but my Plex server still always hw transcodes the video from MPEG2VIDEO to h.264. I have plenty of bandwidth, 500 mbps up at the server and 500 mbps down at the client.
If anyone has successfully done this, please share what settings you used!
Make sure this isn’t enabled: Automatically adjust quality (Beta) .
Look in the Plex Media Server.log and filter on MDE for statements that say what is happening with the stream.
Thanks for the replay @pl_5309. I confirmed that setting is unchecked. Here is the bit of the log after starting a live stream.
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 53087
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: The Six: Direct Play is disabled
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: The Six: no direct play video profile exists for hls/mpegts/mpeg2video
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: The Six: no direct play video profile exists for hls/mpegts/mpeg2video/ac3
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: The Six: no direct play video profile exists for hls/mpegts/mpeg2video/ac3
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: The Six: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: The Six: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] Codecs: testing mpeg2video (decoder) with hwdevice vaapi
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.327 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - [Req#65c/Transcode] Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi
Not sure why this isn’t direct playing.
If direct play and direct stream are disabled on the client it will definitely transcode.
Edit: I guess the Android client Quality settings now only say Remote Streaming(set to Maximum) and Home Streaming ( set to Maximum)
If Remote access isn’t working that would also limit the stream.
In the logs looking for a line like:
Request: [192.168.1.28:59966 (Subnet)] GET /video/:/transcode/universal/decision?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=1&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&hasMDE=1&location=lan&maxVideoBitrate=200000&mediaBufferSize=209664&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&path=%2Flibrary%2Fmetadata%2F1008&protocol=*&session=fba06e30dfd71e8a-com-plexapp-android&subtitleSize=100&videoBitrate=200000&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=3840x2160 (15 live) #8cc TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (Tiebierius) (BRAVIA VH2) (Memory Usage: 75.0 MB/418.0 MB)
I have remote streaming set to “Maximum” on the Shield app settings. My server says remote access is working as well.
This line kind of looks like what you shared. Thanks again @pl_5309.
Jul 05, 2022 18:02:08.313 [0x7f24bb3e5b38] DEBUG - Request: [68.84.106.111:55468 (WAN)] GET /video/:/transcode/universal/decision?audioBoost=100&autoAdjustQuality=0&directPlay=0&directStream=1&directStreamAudio=1&fastSeek=1&hasMDE=1&location=wan&maxVideoBitrate=200000&mediaBufferSize=209664&mediaIndex=0&partIndex=0&path=%2Flivetv%2Fsessions%2Ff3c15466-117e-4eb4-9e1b-11fcaf19741d&protocol=*&session=fc4f638c581a8512-com-plexapp-android&subtitleSize=100&videoBitrate=200000&videoQuality=100&videoResolution=3840x2160 (11 live) #65c TLS GZIP Signed-in Token (Rozerem) (SHIELD Android TV)
Turn off transcode interlaced and/or turn on MPEG2 support depending on the client.
Thanks @sixxnet, where is the interlaced setting? I can’t seem to find that anywhere.
If the Settings menu is the same on the Shield as any other Android client then it’s all the way at the bottom all the way to the right.
@sixxnet I don’t see it. Though I did download the logs from my shield right after starting a live tv channel. Here is the line for “media decision”
[MediaDecisionEngine] Unable to direct play; AC-3 audio is not supported by the device
Is this what is causing the video transcode? Anyway to resolve this?
No, the audio format is not making the video transcode. It may be making the audio alone transcode but it’s not making Plex convert MPEG2 to h264. Can you post a screenshot of the dashboard showing the playback status…
Here is where the setting is:
Thanks for the screen shot @sixxnet. It appears I do not have that option on my Nvidia Shield!
I stops at “Enable I/O cach” option.
Here is the dashboard when streaming live tv:
After doing some googling, I found this setting in the Shield for Dolby processing:
When switched on…
The same stream shows:
I did notice that the video does lag a bit sometimes but right now for this live sports…it is running pretty smoothly which is a relief. Just odd that this audio setting seems to resolve the issue.
You might want to redact your public IP from your screenshots
I don’t own a Shield right now but I’m pretty positive MPEG2 shouldn’t have to be transcoded to h264 to watch. The only thing I can think of is it’s not liking interlaced and is transcoding to progressive.
Also with the Dolby if your TV/audio system supports it there shouldn’t be any reason for it to transcode the audio. I didn’t get a chance to see the screenshots but did it play back normal with the Dolby processing turned on?
I see the screenshots now. I’m not sure why the Dolby audio processing setting would make the video transcode or not. Seems weird but if it works then I guess it works lol…
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