Server Version#: 1.16.1.1291
Player Version#: Plex Web
I was hoping to see if someone can reproduce this issue before I do a lot more troubleshooting to narrow it down.
I want to limit the bitrate of remote users. I have a remote user play a 5000 kbps video and it easily direct plays. Then I toggle my settings:
Remote Access -> Limit remote stream bitrate: 8 Mbps
Then if the remote user plays the same video in the same player, it always transcodes the video. This is not the expected result and is using my PC more than I want.
One thing I found is that if I enable hardware acceleration, it no longer transcodes videos that are under the limit I set (when the player supports them). This is the behavior I would normally expect with this setting on or off. I’m currently having issues that keeps me from leaving hardware acceleration on all the time.
How do I prevent this unnecessary transcoding when setting the remote stream limit?
The 5000 kbps are probably the average bitrate, so your remote user might actually exceed the limit of 8 Mbps if he played it directly.
At least on the TV Clients there is an option to play smaller files in original quality. Is this enabled? It might do the trick.
That option is checked on the client. But you bring up a good point… I did more experimenting and realized Tautulli indicates a much higher level of reserved bandwidth for a 5000kbps video (probably because of the variable bitrate like you suggested).
It looks like setting 8 Mbps on the server behaves a lot differently then setting it to 8 Mbps on the client. I’m still not sure why I see something a little different with hardware accerlertion on.
Setting my bitrate limit on the server higher (10-12 Mbps) allowed the 5 Mbps videos to direct play again. Thanks
Yeah, if you check the web interface (or Varys if you own a iOS device) for the used bandwidth you can see it spiking above the average bitrate. My movies usually have an average bitrate of 8-10 Mbps and remote users will use up to more than 20 Mbps when streaming.
Glad it’s working for you now!
