Server Version#: 1.18.4.2171
Player Version#: 7.25.2.14287
There are many videos, when Plex starts to burn the subtitles (SRT). If I stop the playback and restart, it will play direct without burning (subtitles will show locally).
Sometimes it takes two restarts of the video, other times 3 or 4, but eventually it will not burn.
Since it is clear that it is capable to play the video with subtitles locally, I don’t understand why does it starts to burn regularly and have to trick it.
Is there something to set? (It is already set to only burn image subtitles, which does not apply to srt…)
If you use the ‘old player’ and enable ‘Display Information’ (Plex App Settings), when playing the video, bring up the OSD and ‘Display Information’ in the upper left should tell you if Direct Play or Transcoding and if so the reason.
That may or may not help isolate the issue - which may be a by-product of Plex on FireTV.
It also depends very much on which FireTV you’re running. The original Gen 1 device can only Direct Play up to Level 4.0, but you can ‘Trick’ it in the app settings. That does NOT mean that level 4.1 material will play without issue, it just means that Plex will stop transcoding if the level exceeds the device limitation it’s reporting to Plex.
Also - if you have ‘Automatic’ enabled for quality - I’d turn that off - it might ‘Automatically’ turn on the transcoder.
Also - make sure ‘Original’ quality is the app default - and defeat everything that wants to ‘Automatically’ flip on the transcoder.
When it does not transcode, this is in the server log:
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.769 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - MDE: received PLEX_PROTOCOL_ANY from client, but could not determine best protocol. Defaulting to HTTP
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.769 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 7730
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.769 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: Direct Playing due to no transcode profile
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.769 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.769 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/ac3
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.769 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - MDE: Shadowhunters - S1 E12 - Malec: selected media 0 / 7730
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.770 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Added session 0x97028b00:5145d1aaa764884a-com-plexapp-android
Jan 19, 2020 20:26:06.770 [0xa0ffa450] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reached Decision id=6719 codes=(MDE=1000,Direct play OK.) media=(id=7730 part=(id=8778 decision=direct play protocol=* streams=(Video=(id=35047 decision= width=1280 height=720) Audio=(id=35046 decision= channels=0 rate=0) Subtitle=(id=35068 decision=unavailable languageCode=hun location=sidecar))))
When it transcodes, it changes to this:
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.650 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol hls; container: mpegts
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.650 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 7730
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.651 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: Direct Play is disabled
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.651 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: media must be transcoded in order to use the hls protocol
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.651 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: selected subtitle cannot be converted to a compatible format, burning into video stream
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.651 [0xb13ff450] DEBUG - Completed: [192.168.1.124:58717] 200 GET /hubs/home/recentlyAdded?type=8 (27 live) GZIP Page 0--1 6ms 480 bytes (pipelined: 5)
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.651 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: avoiding video remux due to burned subtitle stream
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.651 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: E12 - Malec: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.654 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.654 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 3397Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Jan 19, 2020 20:23:58.655 [0xa41f0450] DEBUG - MDE: Shadowhunters - S1 E12 - Malec: selected media 0 / 7730
The strange thing is that it seems to be ad-hoc. It works for every 3rd or 4th attempt without adjusting anything. No one else is streaming anything else, server is idle.
Remote? Are you streaming Remotely, or Locally? Those are two completely different settings. If you are Streaming Remotely - and Plex sniffs one peak over your max bandwidth - or any limitations you have set at ‘Server/Settings/Remote Access’ - it’s transcode city.
Did you Display Information?
Did you enable the old player?
Did you create the issue and read what Display Information says about the transcode in progress?
Anywho - I’m just another Plex on FireTV Victim - sharing all I know - and that about does it.
