Not direct playing 1080i OTA stream from remote server

Plex Media Server
, ,
1

Server Version#: 1.41.0.8992
Player Version#: iOS app 8.38.3 and Roku app v.7.2.4 build 8

I am trying to watch a 1080i channel over the internet. The remote server has a 23 mbps upload and was configured as such. Per rabbitears, the channel uses 12.35 mbps for video and 384 kbps, so let’s round up to 15mpbs. I should still have 8 mbps upload to spare.

The biggest issue is this:

  • Deinterlacing (which is a side effect of 1080i->1080p transcode) detracts from the image quality, especially motion image quality, which is important for watching sports. If transcoding could stay 1080i->1080i, while still less than ideal, it probably wouldn’t impact quality as much.

While troubleshooting, I noticed several smaller issues:

  • When watching on my Roku Ultra, I could not find a setting to fix this. It was always transcoded to 1080p
  • When watching on my iPad, the app’s stream quality setting seemed to unintuitively related to the server’s max upload speed. If my server upload speed was set to 23mbps, and the iOS stream quality setting was set to max, I would get a “Not enough bandwidth for direct play of this item.” The error doesn’t make sense. The stream is 15mbps, and there’s 23mbps of bandwidth available - it should be able to direct play.
2

It’s worth noting that I am able to direct play on a local server (on the same network).

Same Roku client. Both Plex servers are Synology DS220+ NAS’s.

3

Plex server has no information about the live stream’s peak bitrate. It has to estimate; and will err on the safe side by assuming a much higher bitrate than what you will find on rabbitears.
These numbers on there are average bitrates anyway. But both ATSC and DVB can reassign a portion of the bitrate of other streams within a multiplex momentarily, if one of the streams within requires it for a short moment.

So there is no safe way to estimate the actual bitrate requirement to a low-ish number. Hence why Plex is telling you that there is not enough bitrate in your remote connection.

4

Fair enough.

Perhaps a better solution would be to preserve the interlaced scan when transcoding a 1080i source? The deinterlacing that Plex currently performs is probably makes the biggest impact to image quality, especially when watching live sports.