Server Version#: 1.28.0.599
Player Version#: LG webOS (latest 16-08-2022)
When I’m streaming a movie or show and turn on subtitles Plex starts transcoding even tho it should not.
Example 4k HDR movie
Container: MKV
Video: H265 10bit (direct stream)
Audio: AAC LE 7 channel (direct stream)
Works perfect but if I add
Subtitles: English SRT (in the MKV container)
I start getting the error “This server is not powerful enough to convert video.”
Which idk is true but it should indeed throw that error because I have video transcoding turned off.
So this is both a bug report and I’m asking if there is a way in Plex (on LG webOS) to play 4k HDR movies with subtitles without transcoding (and no I’m not gonna burn in the subtitles).
Why is the movie direct streaming instead of direct playing?
What you are seeing is expected.
On LG TVs, when direct streaming, enabling any subtitle results in a video transcode.
This is due to a limitation in the streaming protocol used between the TV and the Plex server. Plex must transcode the video to burn in the subtitles. If it did not, the subtitles would lose sync with the audio and video streams.
Plex Media Server needs to transcode the video. It cannot because video transcoding is disabled. Therefore, it displays the “server is not powerful enough” message.
Granted, the message is very cryptic, but it is expected behavior.
I have forced the TV to use Direct Play and it did after first very shortly giving an HDR tone mapping error. I double checked it was Direct Play on the Plex Dashboard but nevertheless turning on SRT subtitles still gave me the CPU power error most likely implying it’s trying to transcode.
Either what you’re saying is not true (I highly suspect that because your “solution” didn’t work) or Plex is just faulty.
I suspect both is true
I don’t have any problems like this with an unnamed competitor but they don’t offer smart TV applications so alas.
The information I provided is correct. Direct Stream + Subtitles results in a video transcode.
I provided no solution. I explained what was happening and asked why the media is direct streaming.
Did you disable Direct Play in the Plex webOS app settings? If so, re-enable it. Disabling Direct Play forces Plex Media Server to direct stream the media, which, as mentioned, forces a video transcode when you enable subtitles.
By turning off Direct Stream on the client side and turning off transcoding on the server side. Plex Dashboard confirmed it started using Direct Play for the same content it previously used Direct Stream for. (I don’t care if it uses either one as long as it doesn’t transcode.)
Direct Play was enabled since Plex told me it was using it, but turning on RST subtitles stopped it.
So I guess this is a bug, where would I then be able to report that?
In your initial comment you said it was direct stream and not direct play.
Either way, it’s best if you enable the option in the app to send logging information to your server, reproduce the errro, then grab the server logs and post it here.
