Just started watching a DV/HDR 4K movie with my Android phone using the “new plex app experience”, and I noticed some inconsistencies in several places:
- First, I want to clarify that I have an Android phone without an HDR screen, so it’s normal that the stream is transcoded to h264 - I don’t have any issues with that. The problem is that not everyone knows the specific features of their phones! So the first issue is that the Plex app displays “original quality” when in reality that’s absolutely not the case:
- Then the second problem is that the server-side logs are not precise enough imo, and according to my specific example:
Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.139 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] Audio Stream: 3425818, Subtitle Stream: 3425820 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mkv Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 706810 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: Direct Play is disabled Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: selected audio stream is not the first audio stream and direct play stream selection is not enabled Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/eac3 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: selected embedded subtitle stream is not the first embedded subtitle stream Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/eac3 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: selected embedded subtitle stream is not the first embedded subtitle stream Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/eac3 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: selected embedded subtitle stream is not the first embedded subtitle stream Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/eac3 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: selected embedded subtitle stream is not the first embedded subtitle stream Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: E2 - test file...: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.141 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] MDE: Stranger Things - S5 E2 - test file...: selected media 0 / 706810 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.142 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Adding session 0x72839c0caab8:a35913fdd45a5343-com-plexapp-android which is using transcoder slot. Used slots for 10de:1b81:1462:3302@0000:01:00.0is now 3 Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.142 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Added session 0x72839c0caab8:a35913fdd45a5343-com-plexapp-android Nov 28, 2025 23:46:25.142 [125909394914104] DEBUG - [Req#5c6a75/Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=281138 codes=(General=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK. Direct Play=3000,App cannot direct play this item. Direct play is disabled. Transcode=1001,Direct play not available; Conversion OK.) media=(id=706810 part=(id=893308 decision=transcode container=mkv protocol=hls streams=(Video=(id=3425814 decision=transcode bitrate=20121 encoder=h264_nvenc width=2560 height=1440) Audio=(id=3425818 decision=copy channels=6 rate=48000) Subtitle=(id=3425820 decision=copy languageCode=fra location=embedded))))
Personally, I would have liked the logs to specify that transcoding was activated because the target device is connected to a non-HDR compatible monitor.
