Please add NO TRANSCODING option (DirectPlay only)

Feature Suggestions
21

This is exactly what I’m talking about

an iphone should play at 1080p direct play!

If for whatever reason plex is transcoding to 720p or 480p because it had a hiccup in bandwidth or there isn’t enough bandwidth. I would rather than the stream not happen if it can’t direct play

22

OP said checking the box did not work. I was simply showing that it does work on my system.

Why is the video transcoding?

If Plex is transcoding to fit a 3 Mbps bandwidth limit, it will transcode both the video and the audio.

23

image
I notice only the audio is transcoding… If your audio system or the playback client can’t handle DTS-HD MA or any other audio format (because of licensing or hardware limitations) PMS will transcode the into a form that your system can handle, both audio and video if that is the case.
Check the capabilities of your playback client and your audio system. EVERYTHING must be able to handle a specific audio format for it to playback as a direct stream. For example, my 1 year old LG-OLED TV can’t handle any DTS formats, so if I use the TVs player the audio gets transcoded, so I use either a HTPC, NVidia Shield or Pi4 for playback clients.

24

I didn’t see a screenshot of that, just audio transcoding(which is expected behavior) and a chrome error message. Does chrome have the necessary audio and video codecs for a dvd rip?

25

To my knowledge no browser can handle HD audio tracks or HEVC. 2 friends and I were working through that & I noticed he was using a browser. I told him to use a Plex player app & it direct streamed perfectly.

26

No, it doesn’t. On DVD, you can encouter PCM, MPEG audio layer 2, AC3 (Dolby Digital), or DTS.
Chrome does only support the first 2 (I think).

27

Well there… that’s the issue. @FordGuy61 try your playback with a Plex client app, see if it direct streams…

28

@phoneguyinpgh @craigvp
You are missing the point of this thread. It has nothing to do with the ability of Chrome, or any other Plex client, to play a given audio format.

  1. OP wanted a way to disable video transcoding.
  2. I replied to check the “disable video stream transcoding” box.
  3. OP said it does not work on his system.
  4. I provided an example of it working on my system, with Plex refusing to transcode video.
  5. If you read the text for that setting, part of it says, “With this set, the transcoder may still transcode audio as well as remux video.”
    My example also shows exactly that - direct streaming video and transcoding audio.
29

Yes I have it disabled on my nas plex as well, and it works perfectly.

30

For that case there is this:

Thats the original feature request.

33

2023 clean-up: described feature exists and appears to be working (implemented); in case the OP’s issue still exists, I suggest to open this as a regular support thread and to provide server logs to show the issue as requested.