Playback Bitrate double File metadata Bitrate?

General Discussions
1

Hi everyone,

Due to limited bandwidth, - I’ve made a conscious effort to add files to my Plex Library with a total bitrate of at most 5000kbps

However, when playing back files, the reported bitrate is double what is specified in the File metadata.

Now I know that bitrate varies- but double?

Here are some screenshots, 1. of the File Metadata on the Plex Server

608×382 15 KB

and then the message I receive when attempting to Direct Play the same file on an Android Device (with a server transcode limit of 4000kbps)

What is the cause of this issue?

3

Plex determines the real bitrate of video files very carefully.
All transcoding decisions are based on this ‘extensive analysis’.
The thing is: if the extensive analysis is not performed, Plex uses an estimation based on the average bitrate+“safety margin”, which might sometimes be a bit too cautious.

So make sure you let your Plex server perform the ‘extensive media analysis’ during the server maintenance.

You can view the results of this analysis, btw.
Call up the Plex XML info of the video.
Then edit the URL in the browser window. where it says includeExtras change it to includeBandwidths, then presss Enter.
The results are in the requiredBandwidths= numbers.

They are determined for different network buffer sizes.
Which means, a playback device with a bigger network buffer may get less often a transcoded video from your server than a device with a small network buffer.

4

Ok great thanks for the answer guys- will check out my settings.