Maximum audio and video quality

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Hello

i watch movies that are on my computer’s hd on my samsung tv via the plex connected via the network cable.

what is the maximum audio and video quality I can have to watch movies?

it is true that if I configure the options on the transcoder page:
Transcoder quality for: Make my CPU hurt
and
Background transcoding x264 preset for: Very slow
does the audio and video quality improve a lot?

and the option: Disable video stream transcoding, does it produce higher audio and video quality than the above configuration?

is there more ways to configure to make the audio and video quality better?

thanks in advance

2

Make sure you direct play or direct stream media whenever possible. When direct playing/streaming, the Plex Media Server streams the media unaltered to the client.

In theory, “Higher Quality” produces a better picture than “Higher Speed.”

In theory, “Very Slow” produces a better picture than “Ultra Fast.”

However, video quality is subjective. What may look “better” to one person may look “the same” to another. Try the settings and see if you can tell a difference.

See the Transcoder documentation. It shows what x264 options are used for Higher Quality / Higher Speed / Make My CPU Hurt settings.

This disables video transcoding. If the video cannot direct play or direct stream, then Plex refuses to stream it to the client.

It is not a quality setting. Video transcoding is CPU intensive, and not all people have systems powerful enough to transcode video. This setting permits disabling video transcoding so you do not push your system beyond its means, which can result in pausing, buffering, etc, and affect playback for other users as well.

Make sure you direct play or direct stream media whenever possible. When direct playing/streaming, the Plex Media Server streams the media unaltered to the client.

https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250387-streaming-media-direct-play-and-direct-stream/

3

how do i set up plex to play videos with the resources: direct play or direct stream media mentioned by you above?

thanks for listening

4

Plex tries to direct play by default. It only transcodes when necessary.

You can monitor playback using the Plex Dashboard. It will show you if the media is direct playing, transcoding, etc.

You can manually force a transcode by selecting a different playback quality in the Plex app on your TV. I’m not sure exactly where this is located in the Samsung app (I’ve an LG). When playing a movie you can change the quality from Original/Maximum to other choices such as 1080p, 720p, etc. This will let you see the effect of transcoding video.

The best way to find out what happens is just to give it a try. If you set something wrong or click in the wrong place, the worst that happens is that the video doesn’t play. Nothing is broken. Nothing destroyed. You’ve out some time, but you’ve learned something as well. Experimenting will help you get a feel for how Plex works.

Some additional details:

You have to be aware of the capabilities / limitations of your TV, sound system, etc., and how it aligns with your video/audio material.

For example, you mention Samsung TVs.

With the Plex Smart TV app:

  • Enabling PGS (Bluray) or VOBSUB (DVD) subtitles when playing a movie forces a video transcode.
  • SRT (text) subtitles Direct Play.
  • However, if the audio is transcoding, enabling SRT subtitles also forces a video transcode.

Also, Samsung TVs do not support dts or TrueHD audio. Those audio formats will be transcoded by Plex to a supported format.

So…

When playing a movie using the Plex SmartTV app on a Samsung, avoid dts and TrueHD audio streams if you want to use subtitles. Also avoid PGS & VOBSUB subtitles.

How this plays out in the real world:

Audio Transcoding:
Audio transcoding does not require much CPU horsepower. You will see your CPU utilization increase, but it may not affect playback.

From an audio quality perspective, it depends on your sound system. If you’re using TV speakers, you’ll hear no difference, due to their limited capability. If you’ve a high end surround sound system then you can probably hear a difference. It depends on the quality of your system and the quality of your ears.

Video Transcoding:

Video transcoding is CPU intensive, especially since you do not have a Plex Pass and cannot take advantage of any GPU in your system. You can expect your CPU utilization to jump to near 100% and you’ll hear the system fans speed up.

Transcoding 4K requires much more work than SD or HD video. Unless you have a powerful computer (Intel i9, AMD Ryzen 39xx, etc) your system will not keep up. You will see pausing and buffering…

From a quality perspective:

  • On SD/DVD/480p content you probably won’t notice a difference.
  • On 1080p content you might notice a difference. It depends on the quality of the source material.
  • On 4K HDR material you will definitely notice it. Transcoded 4K HDR generally looks very bad, with washed out colors.

Additional information on CPU requirements for transcoding:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/

5

the fact that I use the option: Disable video stream transcoding
does it mean that there will be no transcoding?

that would improve the audio / video quality by showing the movies like this in the original file right?
or the best transcoder option would be:
Transcoder quality for: Make my CPU hurt
and
Background transcoding x264 preset for: Very slow

I noticed that there are some videos that do not play when I use this option, Disable video stream transcoding , is it necessary to do some more configuration for this not to happen?

6

Answered in my first post. Also, read the description on the Transcoder settings page:
“Disable transcoding of the video stream” and " the transcoder may still transcode audio"

Answered in my first post.

It is operating correctly. With that option selected, if Plex cannot stream the video at original quality then it refuses to stream the video at all.

Here is how it works:

  1. The default is to Direct Play or Direct Stream the file. This streams the file unaltered, at original quality, to the Plex client (TV, phone, etc).

  2. If Plex cannot Direct Play or Direct Stream the file, it will transcode the file to a compatible format. Plex may transcode the video, the audio, or both, depending on their formats and the capabilities of the client.

  3. You also have an option to disable video transcoding. If you choose this option, and Plex cannot stream the video at original quality, then Plex will not play the video at all. The client receives a message that the video cannot be streamed.

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