Server Version#: Version 1.40.1.8227
Player Version#: everything on the latest version
Devices used for this experiment:
- Chrome on a Macbook Pro M1
- iPad Pro 12.9 5th Gen
- 2009 Shield TV
- Chromecast 4K TV
- Pixel 7 Pro
For the purposes of the experiment, “home streaming” quality was set at 4Mbps to force a transcoding.
Some of the content of my server has both a 4k and a 1080p version of the same video. Plex correctly bundles those together as 1 media item. The problem is when I try to play such files on any of my Android & Android TV devices. What’s happening is that the loading spinner will run forever, and the movie never starts. The server dashboard does not show that a stream started.
On the web player (Chrome) and iOS (iPad), in this scenario, Plex immediately starts HW transcoding the 1080p source file. If instead of “play” I select “play version” and explicitly choose 4k, then it starts HW transcoding that. This behavior seems reasonable to me.
However, on Android mobile & Android TV, things get very interesting:
- Like I said above, hitting play will have the movie basically stuck on “loading” and transcoding never starts.
- If while the player is in that state, I go to the media toolbar at the bottom, and choose “Convert Automatically”, then everything immediately fixes itself and Plex start HW transcoding the 1080p source.
- If I choose “play version” and choose 4k, then Plex immediately starts HW transcoding the 4k source.
The problem goes away if there is no 1080p source and only a 4k one. Also, I believe this problem has been around for a while, although I didn’t get the chance to investigate and understand the specifics of it, until now.
