Plex Aggressively Tries to Transcode Everything

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
1

Server Version#: 1.16.6.1592
Player Version#: Web Client 3.108.2

It doesn’t seem to matter where I stream from, plex forces transcode. There doesn’t really seem to be an option anywhere on the web client, android app, or when casting with chromecast to “play original” like there used to be.

I’m using my PC as an example here since out of everything it should be the most capable. I can access my SMB share over the network and crack the file open in VLC and it just plays mint. Full HD, no problem, ~100Mbps.

I play with the plex app in it 100% transcodes every time. on PC “Convert (Maximum)” and I had to set that manually in the player settings. I typically only want to transcode when the network is saturated but no way in hell that’s happening on a gigabit LAN with only a single stream going at any given time.

In addition I have no clue why I’m getting transcodes on chromecast. I convert to what I thought were compatible codecs, and it used to work in the past and randomly stopped working. I use a chromecastize script:

I’ve been testing with a video in particular, but it does happen on all videos. Here’s the output from the script:

####@####-arch ~/t/m/Videos>
~/Scripts/chromecastize.sh my-video.mkv

Processing: my-video.mkv

  • general: Matroska -> ok
  • video: VP8 -> copy
  • audio: AAC -> copy
  • file should be playable by Chromecast!
    ####@####-arch ~/t/m/Videos>

And yet… plex transcodes on chromecast, desktop, phone (android), anything.

Like by the time plex figures out its crap to transcode to my desktop I’m already about 10 seconds into the video without issues with VLC over SMB.

Here’s the mediainfo:

####@####-arch ~/t/m/Videos> mediainfo my-video.mkv
General
Unique ID : 181177450171470306142491290176915988265 (0x884D81F5910074EFAE2BFAEE1F6F5F29)
Complete name : my-video.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 2.70 GiB
Duration : 11 min 36 s
Overall bit rate : 33.3 Mb/s
Writing application : Lavf58.29.100
Writing library : Lavf58.29.100
ErrorDetectionType : Per level 1

Video
ID : 1
Format : VP8
Codec ID : V_VP8
Duration : 11 min 36 s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Compression mode : Lossy
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : A_AAC-2
Duration : 11 min 36 s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -21 ms
Default : Yes
Forced : No

2

Just a quick reply because you had 0 so far,
The web client can’t direct play. Try Plex Media Player.

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To be clear, Web can’t direct play that VP8 video codec.

Edit - And I don’t think casting will work either. My understanding is that Chromecast supports VP8 in a WebM container, not MP4 or MKV, plus the audio needs to be vorbis.

2 Likes
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What should I transcode my media with if I want everything to direct play to chromecast/plex apps?

5

Oh good question.

The script you’re using is perfect. You just need to use a his config.sh and set defaults.

DEFAULT_GFORMAT=webm
DEFAULT_VCODEC=VP8
DEFAULT_ACODEC=Vorbis

Something like that. All the details on how to use it are in his config.sh file.
Might need to be called libvorbis if it errors out.

It wanted to default to MP4 + AC3 passthrough I guess for the newest Chromecast.
The defaults MovieFanPlex told us about and that I chose work for every Chromecast though.

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