In my case I’m connected through Gigabit ethernet, so I know it’s not a bottleneck.
Corentin
Regardless of the wired connection, almost every television has 100 Mbps ethernet.
AppleTV and Nvidia Shield Pro have gigabit but not all others do.
A lot of folks use WiFi over wired for their smart TVs.
Again, my test is based on finding where the bottleneck is.
If the above doesn’t play then we stop and figure it out.
When all those issues are resolved, we move forward to the next one.
Yes, I am moving slowly but I also am using this as the vehicle to share/teach how we figure out problems presented to us.
And I perfectly understand that (which is why I ran the test and posted my logs 
).
It was merely a comment that in my case, the network shouldn’t be the issue.
ChuckPa,
The issue is not network throughput. It is not subtitles. It is not HW transcoding. This is self-evident from the symptoms posted previously.
Can you PLEASE read my previous posts before guessing incorrectly at the cause?
I’m sorry you do not understand my method here.
Please let me remind you of a few things:
-
I’m the engineer who does NAS qualification and maintains the NAS Compatibility Guide. I know what each machine can and cannot do.
-
I’m the engineer who wrote and maintains the packaging for Synology (DSM 6 & DSM 7).
-
ANY subtitle burning will kill EVERY except for Xeon CPUs,
-
I need to define the EXACT condition(s) which cause this failure and make it reproducible
This problem is fraught with unknowns.
- EVERYONE has different Synology models, networking, and players (TVs and/or set top players).
- EVERYONE has different video; some of which is properly curated while some is whatever they downloaded in an as-is state.
The process I am taking is to REMOVE as many unknowns as possible as quickly as possible.
Please allow me to be clear: I am NOT GUESSING.
I am following a logical path for EVERYONE in this thread to participate in synchronous steps.
I am preparing the next step of this diagnosis for EVERYONE to participate in.
1 Like
I’m always using soft subtitles though. They are embedded within the mp4 files (from a .srt subtitle file). Does it make a difference? I was under the assumption that in that case, the subtitles don’t need to be burnt onto the video at any point.
(and thanks for your help on this @ ChuckPa).
You are correct.
- SRT are text based.
- As long as the player can accept the SRT, it will stream as a 3rd stream without burning.
- Any MKV or MP4 which has a SRT subtitle (or ASS/SSA if the player supports it natively), will DirectPlay or DirectStream.
Alright, I followed the instructions.
I can’t disable tone mapping or hardware acceleration because I don’t have a Plex pass.
File failed with “The server is not powerful enough to convert video”.
Tried playback at 00:34:00, downloaded log zip 60 seconds later.
You can stop.
Because you don’t have a Plex Pass,
- You can’t use HW transcoding.
- HEVC is not possible on that CPU with software transcoding.
- The Synology CPU will almost ALWAYS complain because it’s not fast enough. It only has 3000 Passmarks total.
For you, without a Plex Pass, you are limited to H.264 720p/1080p video.
Because it’s a quad core, you might be able to get 30 Mbps 1080p out of it and convert audio.
Please see the NAS Compatbility Guide, Line 289.
Chuckpa, please read this slowly and carefully.
I am NOT trying to transcode ANYTHING. I do not WANT to transcode ANYTHING.
PLEX is incorrectly trying to transcode certain 2K content that USED TO, and sometimes STILL DOES, Direct Play.
At no point in this thread have I even mentioned transcoding 4K files, or needing/wanting to transcode ANYTHING.
The files which are having difficulty are 2K, 1080p, x264 files which should be Direct Playing. Under certain conditions, described below, they STILL DO. Most of the time, they incorrectly try to transcode.
All the posts, logs and replies I have posted made this quite apparent.
Now, I am going to detail the conditions where THESE FILES that USED TO PLAY FINE, but now INTERMITTENTLY DO NOT:
These files Direct Play FINE if they can be RESUMED, even if only 1 minute in. Zero issues. No transcoding.
These files FAIL to Direct Play if played FROM THE START. It can be 5 seconds after Direct Playing the same file, Plex suddenly attempts to transcode, which FAILS because I have disabled transcoding.
These files used to Direct Play FINE under ALL CONDITIONS. There was no issue.
I have noticed a far higher incidence of this issue when the file has EAC3 audio. Infact, one file with EAC3 failed to play 5 times in 20 seconds, and then played instantly when I switched to a DTS audio stream.
Now… what do you need to investigate and solve this issue?
This is a test file which is targeted for you.
This file will DirectStream to Plex/web.
It’s 1080p, H264, DTS
I ran this on my ARMv8 CPU (which can software transcode up to 20 Mbps 1080p) without issue in Plex/web.
The overall bitrate is 32.7 Mbps. You should be able to DirectStream (audio conversion) this file with ease. When you recognize it, you’ll understand why I set the runtime as I did. 
Do you need logs from me as well for this one? (I suspect not).
Corentin
Did it play for you?
Without any problem.
Good. There should not be any problems playing that for any Synology even at that bitrate.
Now to wait for @dslyon82 to share his results.
To be fair, there is only data for the first 5 minutes or so of the video, but it plays flawlessly.
The mkv file itself is blank after that (but it’s not a Plex issue, it’s the file itself that’s like that).
Corentin
This plays fine.
I would suggest sending a test file that has an EAC3 audio track. I’ve noticed that these files fail most often, and almost always on the first attempt.
Further to EAC3 comment above, this is from the Plex console when playback fails on another EAC3 file:
[Transcode] MDE: [deleted]: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/eac3
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