I don’t understand why is there no option to choose 1080p transcoding on mobile devices? I want to play HEVC file. When trying to play the original file Huawei P8 doesn’t even attempt to play it and Galaxy tab s2 tries to play and crash restarts.
That’s fine, because my devices don’t support HEVC. Shouldn’t the app detect that automatically and switch to transcoding? I can choose 720p 4mbps and it works just fine on both devices, except that I still want to watch it in 1080p resolution, but there is no option to choose x264 1080p. Only original quality, which doesn’t work.
All in all I find this plex thing really confusing and incomplete. Lots and lots of problems and a million of questions without simple solution.
If you don’t see the 1080p options, that means that your file does not have a high enough bitrate for PMS to transcode to a lower quality and keep the resolution at 1080p.
If original is causing issues, you’ll need to provide the log from the app after playing back the file so we can see what is going on.
Plex is supposed to be this easy solution that does everything for you. In reality it seems to be the opposite. I wouldn’t have much issue with that if I could choose let’s say that I want my movie to be transcoded to x264 at the same resolution, if the original file doesn’t work, but there is no such option.
Why isn’t it possible to transcode 1080p HEVC to 1080p x264? E.g. I’m trying to play a file that has a bitrate of 4.6Mbps. Why can’t it be transcoded to a higher bitrate x264 at the same resolution?
Ok. forget mobile devices, obviously the android app is quite buggy, but do you want to say that if e.g. a SMART TV doesn’t support 1080p HEVC then it has to be transcoded to lower bitrate and lower resolution x264?? It doesn’t make any sense.
To pull logs, login to your Plex server with a web browser. Check Settings → General. Make sure debug logging is enabled. Make sure Verbose logging is disabled. Go to Manage → Troubleshooting.
Play the problematic movie on your P8 for about 30 seconds, then, in Plex Web, choose “Download Logs.” Post to forum.
Note, if you’re trying to stream remotely, check the Remote Access settings in PMS. Set your Internet Upload speed correctly. Also check the setting for “Limit Remote Stream Bitrate” and adjust if needed.
What I really wanted to ask is why isn’t it possible to transcode hevc to x264 without loosing resolution AND quality? That would probably mean higher bitrate than original, but at least for me, that’s the whole point of hevc - to save space. I just tried it on a PC and it starts transcoding only when I choose a bitrate that is lower than original, regardless of resolution, which means that if I have a hevc file that is lower bitrate than 8Mbps, I won’t be able to watch 1080p in x264. A bit disappointing, because e.g. my laptop doesn’t have hevc hw acceleration, so I’d prefer my server to do that, but there’s no such option.
And in terms of mobile apps, I realy don’t expect my P8 to have 10bit hevc HW decoding so why is the app even attempting to play it?
