Server Version#: Rpi v3 Model B v1.22.0.4163
Player Version#: Samsung TV 2018 v5.11.1 platform 4
Tuner Make/Model: Vbox Android TV
Gateway for Satellite
Guide/Lineup name: Freesat UK
Using XMLTV?:
Channel number/Name:
I have a Vbox Android TV Gateway for Satellite which is tuned for Freesat UK. There are a mix of HD and SD channels. My PMS is running on a Raspberry Pi v3 Model B. I have clients running on a mixture of different hardware platforms. Streaming works absolutely fine on all but one.
Works fine on:
- Android phone
- Ipad
- Amazon firestick
- Windows
For all of these platforms whether streaming an SD or HD channel PMS indicates that it is Direct Streaming - both video and audio.
However when I try to stream on my Samsung 2018 TV, both SD and HD channels transcode both video and audio. My Rpi cannot keep up when transcoding and so I get 10 seconds streaming followed by 30 seconds buffering. I am aware of the feature request Hardware transcoding for Raspberry Pi 4 plex media server to add support for hardware transcoding on Rpi4. If this feature was implemented I’d buy an Rpi v4 immediately and I assume this would fix my problem (any hint as to when this is likely would be great!). However, the Vbox can itself be streamed on the same TV (taking Plex out of the equation) via a really bad - totally unusable - native interface, so it seems to me that Plex should be able to direct stream rather than transcode. Can anyone please explain: why does PMS believe it needs to transcode for my TV, and is there any way to override this?
On PMS, this is the info I see about the transcoding.
HD channels:
- Video: 1080i (H.264) → 1080P (H264) - Transcode
- Audio: English (AC3 Stereo) → AAC - Transcode
SD Channels:
- Video: 480i (MPEG2VIDEO) → 480P (H264) - Transcode
- Audio: English (MP2 Stereo) → AAC - Transcode
Obviously I could work around the problem by getting another firestick for the tv, but that’s not the point. I’d like to understand the reason, and if it’s a bug whether it can be fixed.
