Is Plex direct playing or transcoding?

General Discussions
1

I was just checking activity in Plex and noticed something weird.

My friend is streaming from my server and playing in PMP for MacOS.
In Plex it says it’s transcoding, while PlexPy says it’s direct play!

Which one is correct?

Plex:

PlexPy:

2

I am on Plex Media Server Version 1.10.1.4602

3

‘Refresh’ the “web page” in your web browser.

4

Did that, but no changes. Plex says one thing PlexPy another.
I only see it when Plex is trancoding audio to OPUS, which is does even though the client has support for AC3?

5

AFAIK PlexPy only gets the playback mode at the begin of playback.
If the user is using PMP in its ‘windowed’ mode (so it looks like the web app)
and if ‘Automatically adjust quality (Beta)’ is active under
Settings - Web - Quality
then the player may have switched to transcoding at a later time.

6

Ok, that kinda makes sense, I will look more into that, next time he connects.
So does this mean that the Plex Media Player settings you set in the “fullscreen mode” is not carried over to “web mode” and vice versa?

7

Generally speaking, only a part of the settings will spill over from the fullscreen.
(mostly these about audio bitstreaming and A/V sync)

What exactly is valid for this new Automatic Quality pref, I am unsure actually.
I’ll have to get confirmation on this one.

8

Ok, sounds like i need to play around with the Plex Media Player settings on his side, so will do that and see.
For now I will accept your earlier answer as it seems that Plex Media Player settings could be the culprit here.
Thanks for your help!

9

@OttoKerner said:
AFAIK PlexPy only gets the playback mode at the begin of playback.
If the user is using PMP in its ‘windowed’ mode (so it looks like the web app)
and if ‘Automatically adjust quality (Beta)’ is active under
Settings - Web - Quality
then the player may have switched to transcoding at a later time.

No, PlexPy should update the stream status throughout the stream.