'Original Quality' optimize drops framerate

General Discussions
1

I’m trying to get my Plex server set up, and was playing with optimizing content, and noticed that 720P @ 60fps content is being converted to 30fps, and despite having the same ballpark bitrate, the quality isn’t so hot… it seems less sharp, and obviously not as smooth. 1080i 30fps is untouched.

For background, it’s going after .WTV files that have been converted by Win8.1 WMC, from various sources. In this case it was recorded by a HDHomeRun. I do have MCEBuddy (which works great!), but something as simple as clicking and optimizing content would be really convenient to do remotely on a onesie-twosie basis as needed, if I’m not around to kick off a conversion.

Here’s an example of the media info of the two:

***** Original Media*****

Video Resolution 720p
Duration 2:09:57
Bitrate 9732 kbps
Width 1280
Height 720
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Container WTV
Video Frame Rate 60p
Video Profile main
Title Original
Part

Duration 2:09:57
File UFC Fight Night- Lee vs. Iaquinta 2_FS1HD_2018_12_18_03_55_00.wtv
Size 8.83 GB
Container WTV
Has Thumbnail 1
Indexes sd
Video Profile main
Codec MPEG2VIDEO
Bitrate 9156 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Closed Captions 1
Color Range tv
Frame Rate 59.94 fps
Height 720
Level 4
Profile main
Ref Frames 1
Scan Type progressive
Stream Identifier 48
Width 1280
Display Title 720p (MPEG2VIDEO)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 384 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 46
Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
Codec AC3
Channels 2
Bitrate 192 kbps
Language Español
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 47
Display Title Español (AC3 Stereo)
Codec EIA_608
Stream Identifier 42
Display Title Unknown (EIA_608)
Codec EIA_608
Embedded In Video 1
Stream Identifier 48
Display Title Unknown (EIA_608)

Optimized Media

Video Resolution 720p
Duration 2:09:57
Bitrate 9432 kbps
Width 1280
Height 720
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Container MP4
Video Frame Rate NTSC
Web Optimized Yes
Proxy Type 42
Has 64bit Offsets true
Target Original Quality
Target Tag I D 3
Video Profile high
Title Original Quality
Part

Duration 2:09:57
File UFC Fight Night- Lee vs. Iaquinta 2_FS1HD_2018_12_18_03_55_00 (2018).mp4
Size 8.56 GB
Container MP4
Has 64bit Offsets true
Indexes sd
Web Optimized Yes
Video Profile high
Codec H264
Bitrate 8851 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Closed Captions 1
Frame Rate 30 fps
Height 720
Level 4.0
Profile high
Ref Frames 9
Stream Identifier 1
Width 1280
Display Title 720p (H.264)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 384 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
Codec AC3
Channels 2
Bitrate 192 kbps
Language Español
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 3
Display Title Español (AC3 Stereo)
Codec EIA_608
Embedded In Video 1
Stream Identifier 1
Display Title Unknown (EIA_608)
Codec SRT
Format SRT
Display Title Unknown (SRT External)

2

The drop in frame rate to max. 30fps is intended to maximize compatibility with older player devices.

Every transcoding causes quality reduction.
How much, however, is depending on several variables.
Go to
Settings - Server - Transcoder - ‘Show Advanced’
and set “Background transcoding x264 preset” as low as possible. I recommend ‘Slow’.
Delete the current optimized version and trigger optimization again. Re-evaluate the quality.

3

Ah, makes sense. I’ve got it set to ‘Very slow’, to try and get the most out of it.

Is there a setting to override the drop in frame rate, or perhaps configure a custom preset? The platform I’m on is primarily the Plex Media Player PC app, and Roku, so it’s not of the utmost importance, unless I’m remote and want to try and get better performance out of a poor connection.

4

No, there isn’t.