Orangepi PC
debian stretch
file: your average 8bit mkv,
I am having a problem where plex always transcodes when there are subtitles. With subtitles turned off it direct streams just fine.
I tried: settings -> player -> advanced -> burn subtitles -> only image formats
and similar setting on the plex app but no change.
Could someone point out what I should do for plex to direct stream the video / audio with just the subtitles on top?
I suppose your subtitles are in an image format. Please attach the media XML of the affected file.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/201998867-investigate-media-information-and-formats/
I have no idea, the above was suggested to me as a possible solution on IRC. My experience with plex is ~ 2 days.
And I need to clarify something, it’s been a few days since I last used it, since I am also trying out other similar software. The problem appears when I try to cast it to chromecast 2, on the android app it plays fine with direct stream. Keep in mind same file with alternative software casts on chromecast just fine.
So it’s more of a “how do I do that”.
I am not allowed to upload as a new user so :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionUUID="7cf0377f-bcb1-4432-8873-147c0ddcc6e6" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1528479126">
<Video ratingKey="163" key="/library/metadata/163" parentRatingKey="162" grandparentRatingKey="161" guid="com.plexapp.agents.thetvdb://331753/1/40?lang=en" librarySectionTitle="TV Shows" librarySectionID="1" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/1" type="episode" title="A Black Beach Story" titleSort="Black Beach Story" grandparentKey="/library/metadata/161" parentKey="/library/metadata/162" grandparentTitle="Black Clover" parentTitle="Season 1" contentRating="TV-14" summary="Entrusted with a mission by the Wizard King, Asta and the other Black Bulls head to Raquey, a place that’s surrounded by strong mana. With Captain Yami gone off somewhere, the other members decide to play around on the beach in their swimsuits." index="40" parentIndex="1" year="2018" thumb="/library/metadata/163/thumb/1531290548" art="/library/metadata/161/art/1531290542" parentThumb="/library/metadata/162/thumb/1531290541" grandparentThumb="/library/metadata/161/thumb/1531290542" grandparentArt="/library/metadata/161/art/1531290542" grandparentTheme="/library/metadata/161/theme/1531290542" duration="1434250" originallyAvailableAt="2018-07-10" addedAt="1531290277" updatedAt="1531290548">
<Media videoResolution="720" id="153" duration="1434250" bitrate="3104" width="1280" height="720" aspectRatio="1.78" audioChannels="2" audioCodec="aac" videoCodec="h264" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="lc" videoProfile="high">
<Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="153" key="/library/parts/153/1531223414/file.mkv" duration="1434250" file="/srv/media/share/Anime/black clover/[HorribleSubs] Black Clover - 40 [720p].mkv" size="556416489" audioProfile="lc" container="mkv" videoProfile="high">
<Stream id="479" streamType="1" default="1" codec="h264" index="0" bitrate="3104" bitDepth="8" chromaLocation="left" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" frameRate="23.976" hasScalingMatrix="0" height="720" level="40" profile="high" refFrames="6" scanType="progressive" width="1280" displayTitle="Unknown (H.264 High)"/>
<Stream id="480" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="aac" index="1" channels="2" bitrate="128" language="ζ—¥ζ¬θ" languageCode="jpn" profile="lc" samplingRate="44100" displayTitle="ζ—¥ζ¬θ (AAC Stereo)"/>
<Stream id="481" streamType="3" selected="1" default="1" codec="ass" index="2" bitrate="0" language="English" languageCode="eng" displayTitle="English (ASS)"/>
</Part>
</Media>
<Extras size="0">
</Extras>
</Video>
</MediaContainer>
Ah. So it’s the chromecast 2. Yes, I am quite sure the Plex Chromecast app does not support Direct Play / Direct Stream of subtitles at the moment. And btw: your aas subtitles are not image based 
Please take a look at the Chromecast section of the forum. There are many posts on this topic.
https://forums.plex.tv/tags/c/plex-players/streaming-devices/chromecast
Yea, it is more of a change from automatic to transcode only if subtitles are in image format to make sure it’s not transcoding when not needed.
And aouts that hurts 
90% of the stuff I watch are no good without subtitles! Hope you implement that!
That is unlikely to happen, as subtitles in an image overlay format are fortunately becoming a thing of the past.
You might look into using a programme such as subtler on the Mac to convert the image subtitles into a modern format such as tx3g. Fortunately, that is a light weight operation as all the other streams (video and audio) can be passed unmodified from the source to the target.
I think I have made myself misunderstood. The subtitles I want passed along with the video stream are .ass .srt not image based. I mentioned the image based option just to make sure it would not try for any reason to transcode if the subtitles were .ass .srt etc
So what I am hopefully waiting for is plex to send to chromecast video stream + .ass .srt subtitle stream direct.
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