I run PMS on a intel NUC i3 with 16GB of RAM (Non docker) Ubuntu 18 running latest version of PMS.
My main client is a Nvidia shield (2017) wired connected gbit.
Content is being “served” from a Synology NAS 918+ with dual gigabit connection to the switch with the relevant drive mounted on the Ubuntu nuc.
I recently noticed that some stuff is still being transcoded even though the nvidia shield should be perfectly capable of direct playing 1080p content (i don’t have a 4k TV).
Doing some research i found this: https://freetime.mikeconnelly.com/archives/7213
I did not have a Profiles directory so i created it and set the correct permissions. I created the suggested xml file and set the correct permissions and restarted plexmediaserver.
However Tautulli still shows 1080p as being transcoded from MKV to MPEGTS
I am not sure if this can be fixed or if it’s simply time to upgrade to a better player. Ideally i’d like to direct play all my 1080p content. Is there anything else i can do to fix this?
As a side question: Does it matter what the xml file is called? The name as suggested in the article is not very linux friendly.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!
Product
Plex for Android (TV)
Player
Shield
Quality
Original (44.8 Mbps)
Stream
Transcode (Throttled)
Container
Transcode (MKV MPEGTS)
Video
Transcode (H264 1080p H264 1080p)
Audio
Transcode (TrueHD 7.1 AC3 5.1)
Subtitle
Burn (PGS)
Location
LAN: 192.168.xx.xx
Bandwidth
47.1 Mbps
Looks like your setup does not support TrueHD 7.1, so it is transcoding the audio to AC3 5.1. When anything gets transcoded, the app is no longer able to directly playback subtitles and they need to be burned into the video. Turn off the subtitles and you won’t transcode. Or reencode the audio to AC3 5.1 to begin with and it won’t need to do any transcoding and the subtitles will direct play.
Thank you for your reply. However below is another example. This is 5.1 but is still beinig transcoded from EAC35.1 to AC35.1. In the shield settings EAC35.1 is enabled. Does this mean my receiver doesn’t support it?
Are you using a receiver? Does it support EAC3? If the Shield is connected directly to a TV, does the TV support EAC3? Android is only able to passthrough EAC3, it cannot locally decode it.
I use a Marantz 5007 receiver. It should support EAC3. I think i have resolved this now. The shield was set to manully selected supported audio formats and EAC3 was selected. However if i switch it to “detect what the audio device says it supports” there is no more transcoding and everything direct plays.
Someone in another thread recommended setting this manual setting.
I assume i should go with the location Chuck mentions? I only see a Android.xml generic profile. Does it still make sense to create a specific Shield one? Or has this since changed as the article i mentioned is from 2018.
Manually selecting the audio formats on the Shield results in Plex transcoding all audio, even those formats supported by the attached receiver/tv/etc.
Not sure why that happens, but it does.
In general, you should leave the Shield setting at “Auto.”
The Shield and receiver perform a handshake over HDMI, letting each other know supported audio/video formats. Under normal circumstances, there is no reason to specify individual audio formats.
