Plex recently transcodes when it should not

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Server Version#: 1.20.4.3515
Server hardware : Synology DS214Play
Player Version#: 5.3.1 WebOS
Player hardware : LG 43UK6300PLB WebOS Tv

Hello

I am having a very frustrating problem with Plex since about a month. Many of my media that suddenly played fine on my TV through thr WebOS Plex app suddenly stopped working.

For instance, I am watching quite a lot of anime and I always download them on H264 1080p with ASS subs and all was fine for years. Then suddenly, new episodes using all the same file formats stopped playing. I investigated a bit, and for some reason, looks like now Plex is transcoding the video stream (and only the video stream) for playing ! Which is a big problem since my NAS is not supported for Synology Hardware transcoding, and because it should not transcode those files anyway.

I tried many things to solve : reset the TV app, reinstall the TV app, I even rebuilt my Plex database but still no dice. Has there been some major change on the server side that decided that now, those files would need to be transcoded (when all the needed codecs are supported by my TV) ? For information, I always keep my apps, server and client, up to date…

Could you please help ? Thanks

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are old episodes still fine?

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(File removed) s01e01.txt (3.1 KB)

Hi all. Thanks for replying. Please find attached the requested files…

Also, to answer BigWheel’s question… No, my old files also don’t play anymore either (the logs I am sending are using a file that used to play just fine without transcoding…)

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Check if it transcodes without subtitles. It could be the ASS subtitles which triggers the transcode because Plex subtitle support is still poor after 100 years. I have recently had again problems with ASS subtitles triggering transcoding when it should not be. I couldn’t be bother to debug it or to complain anymore because my server can transcode 1 single 1080p stream and because we’ve complained about it for years and still no results.

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Hello…

OK i will send details logs as soon as possible.

But my media are not in the default video folder… It is a different share called Videos that I created back when I got my Synology NAS…

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(File removed)

Here are the logs with the debug option enabled…

For information, following Havojeh’s post I tried playing the same file but disabling the ASS subtitles… and it played without problem.

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…and actually it pointed me to the solution : for some reason, in my Plex TV app, the “Burn subtitles” option was set to “Automatic”… I set it to “Image only” and no more transcoding !

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So I am making pointless comments by pointing the original poster to the ACTUAL reason of his problem. Damn bad attitude you have.

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Or Plex should transcode the ASS subtitles to SRT. But what do I know? I am only making pointless comments …

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They are TEXT based subtitles, it is not rocket science. Emby manages to do it. Enough said.

Edit: And my TV does support ASS subtitles, still transcode is triggered if ASS subtitles are activated.

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Why should I do Plex’ work? Or are you willing to pay me for it?

Does Plex knows the way you treat their customers?

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PMS does, but the user had the option fur burning set to “automatic” which indicates you want the stylized formats so it has to burn those in. Changing the setting to “image only” will give plan text which do not require burning in.

I doubt your TV has hardware for playing ASS subtitles. You probably mean you can play ASS subtitles using the TV’s built in video player which uses software decoding for everything.

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