Server Version#:1.32.5.7210
Player Version#:1.71.1
I have an .mp4 that plex says is playing direct to an Apple TV 4K. However I see the transcoder is actually running for this when playing to an Apple TV. It is not when playing on Plex Player for Mac. The video is jumping back and forth - the audio is normal. This same video file plays properly on Infuse.
There is nothing extraordinary about this file. It appears to be the same as all the other files I have.
The "Transcode Reason: inside of Plex.app on AppleTV 4K
Source Transcode (FebruaryMan’s Server)
Quality 1920x816 @ 4.2 Mbps
Video Copy (HEVC)
Audio Copy (AAC)
Player AVPlayer
Transcode Reason App cannot direct play this item. Selected sidecar subtitle stream must be segmented.
Initially I thought it was the sidecar .srt files so I removed them and did the Plex dance. I then removed the entire movie directory, did the plex dance, and readded the movie directory. no joy. even with no subtitles the video jumps.
I have poked around in the forums here and there are many questions on transcoding. The only question I found that matched mine was on r/Plex which is no longer visible to me… on account of the strike.
Changing settings for transcoding to lowest possible and streaming to lowest possible has no effect… the video still jumps.
The issue was a setting on Plex.app on AppleTV misnamed Auto… being switched on.
Turning this off resolved the transcoding and playback issues. Usually “auto” is a setting that allows more compatibility and doesn’t create compatibility issues.
IMHO Plex should explain that the option itself is causing transcoding and should suggest turning it off. Something like:
transcoding reason: Auto feature is on, to turn off transcoding disable in settings
The first message was:
Transcode Reason: App cannot direct play this item. Selected sidecar subtitle stream must be segmented.
I then had to troubleshoot for 20 minutes. Read up on subtitles, remove subtitles, etc. to get a second message that kind of suggests in different terminology something about an “enhanced video player” and “automatically adjust quality”, but doesn’t suggest a course of action.
The Enhanced Video Player cannot be used when Automatically Adjust Quality is enabled
After seeing that message I still didn’t get it. Had to do more googling…
Maybe disable or grey out this Auto feature if “The Enhanced Video Player” is chosen?
I would love to see a Plex help page that explains how to turn off every setting that attempts to transcode movies.
I think the OP is talking about the “Adjust Quality Automatically” setting. It’s not enabled by default so it’s probably not causing you a problem. Obviously it will appear different in different players
Settings → Quality
But, if you want to disable ALL transcoding you can do that if you want
Settings → Transcoder
Just be aware that if your server can’t direct play something and tries to transcode you will just get a blank screen with a playback error
Most things inside your network probably should be direct playing. If they’re not, you should investigate why and try to avoid things in that file causing you a problem
@JaysPlex It’s actually not in the plex server settings where my issue was. Transcode is completely disabled there. This is why plex.app was showing direct play, but I could see that it was transcoding because the transcoding binary was running! Looking at lsof results for “plex”.
The issue was on the Apple TV 4K… Apparently setting Automatically Adjust on the Apple TV 4K will override the server settings and cause the conflicting “Direct Play” message to show in Plex.app
