PMS transcoding to SD on Windows client

General Discussions
1

Hey there,

I’m having an issue I can’t wrap my head around lately:

PMS 1.12.2.4929 on Ubuntu 14.04 oftentimes transcodes stuff from 720p/1080p to SD on Windows clients. I tried with PMP (TV mode and web) and Plex Windows App in fullsceeen mode. Quality is set to Maximum/Original, hardware is brandnew and definitely powerful enough. PMS debug log shows the following:

Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.952 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - We’re going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 2742407.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.952 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Selecting best audio stream for part ID 134786 (autoselect: 1 language: en)
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.952 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - We’re going to try to auto-select a subtitle.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.952 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Audio Stream: 438003, Subtitle Stream: -1
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.987 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol http; container: mkv
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.987 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 134223
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.987 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: Direct Play is disabled
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.987 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.987 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/aac
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.987 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: Saturday Night Live - S43 E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: selected media 0 / 134223
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 10500000kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 2000kbps
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Determining preferred transcode encoders through transcode only decision.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 6385Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 6385Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Reducing playback quality for 1904kbps stream bitrate: video resolution to 720x406, audio channels to 2, quality to 41, disable video DS as 2147483647kbps is > the 1724kbps available, disable audio DS as 2147483647kbps is > the 162kbps available
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 6385Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Scaled maximum bitrate for resolution reduction to 900Kbps.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.988 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol http; container: mkv
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 134223
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: Direct Play is disabled
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/aac
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B - video.width limitation applies: 1920 > 720
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 6385Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - Scaled maximum bitrate for resolution reduction to 900Kbps.
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: E17 - Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B: Audio Direct Streaming is disabled, so video’s audio stream will be transcoded
Apr 09, 2018 14:40:36.989 [0x7fe9253fe700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations

Same media plays fine on my Samsung Tizen TV, PMP for Mac and Roku clients. Does anyone have an idea why this is happening? And why is it transcoding to SD?? Does the client report a low bandwidth? If so, why would it do that?

This does not only happen to me, a friend I am sharing the server with also has the same issue. Is it my server? Wrong settings on the client? Missing profiles as stated in the log? Bandwidth settings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
RO55

2

There is actually a UI bug in the clients (most clients) when listing the 2Mbps quality setting as 720p. It should be 480p. So PMS is correct, it’s just not what you expect.

3

Thanks for your input, @“MovieFan.Plex”, but I don’t really get what you are saying. Could you be a little more specific?

The media is 1080p, the client can definitely direct play that media. Why is it transcoding then? I just tried it with multiple files, PMS always transcodes them to 1.5 Mbps 480p as I can verify in Tautulli/PlexPy…

4

A bandwidth limit of 2 mbps suggests that the connection between server and client may not be ‘direct’ but ‘relayed’.
Is this a local client or a remote one?
If it is local, is your server running in a different network segment or in a VM that has its own subnet?

5

The server is a hosted VPS, so all clients are remote. From where I am testing now I only have an indirect connection via proxy, I did not know that this limits the bandwidth to 2 MBps. If so I do understand the transcoding now. I will try from a direct connection again and will check with my buddy if he has a direct or relayed connection. Thanks so much for clearing that up…

6

https://support.plex.tv/articles/216766168-accessing-a-server-through-relay/

7

Thanks a lot, wasn’t aware of that.

8

@RO55 said:
Thanks for your input, @“MovieFan.Plex”, but I don’t really get what you are saying. Could you be a little more specific?
When you pick a quality (bitrate) setting, and your original video has a higher bitrate, PMS will transcode the video dropping the bitrate. It will also change the resolution if needed. Although the setting says 1080p, if PMS needs to transcode it will change the resolution of the output to 480p, but with the selected bitrate.

The media is 1080p, the client can definitely direct play that media. Why is it transcoding then? I just tried it with multiple files, PMS always transcodes them to 1.5 Mbps 480p as I can verify in Tautulli/PlexPy…
This could be the relay connection mentioned above or you specified a limit in your PMS remote access or network settings pages.