Poor Quality in Web Player, HEVC

Plex Players
1

Hi,

I am running off the latest (beta) Linux server, HEVC streaming to my device(s). Roku playback looks great, but the same file when watched on the web interface / player (in Chrome) … noticeably poor quality. Is this a known issue? Or perhaps some settings that can be adjusted to help this?

Thanks!

2

Hi,

OK, looks like this is because the web player doesn’t support HEVC (right?), and has to transcode to h.264. This info seems to indicate that Chrome forces this (transcode to h.264). Or do I have this wrong?

Thanks!

3

Correct.

HEVC will transcode when using Chrome. The only web browser that supports HEVC is Safari.

If you are using a Mac or PC, try the Plex for Win/Mac desktop app. It direct plays most most audio/video formats.

1 Like
4

Yep, agreed! That was my intention … using the Windows Player instead, but (still) having this issue :frowning_face:. HEVC => causes the app to freeze (as it did before, and seems I’m not the only one with this issue?).

Thanks!

5

I’ve also seen other reports of problems with Plex for Windows.

Unfortunately, I will be of little help.

I can’t re-create the problem on my desktop PC. The app works fine for me, even scaling & tonemapping 4K HDR to 1080 SDR.

I’m using a relatively old system, with an i7-4790K, GTX 750 Ti, Win10Pro. Others reporting problems have much newer systems.

6

No worries, fully understand! I assume you are using HEVC, and it’s OK with the app? Just making sure I understand.

Thanks again.

7

Correct.

1 Like
8

Gotcha, thanks! Hmmm … wondering if it’s some non-standard / dumb setting I have. FYI, I am running HW encoding. You?

Thanks!

9

Or if it works, I could send you one of my files - see if it causes you grief (player freezing)?

Thanks!

10

I don’t have any special settings.

General
Version 1.39.1.2763
Allow Fallback to Insecure Connections = On same network

Quality
Home Streaming
Use recommended settings is checked

Debug
Direct Play / Direct Stream both checked

Player
Normalize Multi-channel audio = checked
Exclusive Audio = checked
Video Playback Quality = Maximum
Use Hardware Decoding = checked

I’m playing a 4K HDR Blu-ray rip on my PC, which has a 1080p SDR display.

CPU running ~45%
GPU running 75% - 85%
Dropping the quality to Low Quality reduces GPU utilization to ~15%. CPU stays ~45%.

1 Like
11

Thanks! Will try a similar config.

12

Some follow-up wrt Plex for Windows.

I loaded Windows 11 on a Lenovo PC with an i5-10500T CPU & UHD 630 graphics.

The same 4K HDR movies that play fine on my 4790K/750Ti system do not play smoothly on the Lenovo. The video stutters, the audio becomes out of sync, and the application at times is non-responsive (cannot pull up on-screen controls, etc).

Changing playback quality (Max vs Low) or turning hardware decoding on/off changes CPU & GPU utilization, but the video still does not play smoothly.

Video bitrate does not matter. The problems occur when playing a 15 Mbps video or a 70 Mbps video.

Note that playback of HD Blu-ray rips, H.264 1080p 8-bit video, is without issue.

No idea why Plex for Windows works better on a six year old PC that cannot natively decode HEVC video than one from mid-2020 with a GPU that does support HEVC video.

Not sure the specs of your PC, but you may not be able to have smooth HEVC playback no matter what settings you use.

13

I’m running with a Ryzen 5 2600X, and GTX 750 Ti - but my issue is not burping and farting along the way … it runs just fine, then fully freezes. I have to kill the application, and restart it. I’d try to collect logs, but it just plain hangs => pretty sure the logs will do the same, no output when the application is dead :frowning_face:.

OK, let me try to force transcode (to h.264) for playback, see how that goes. Hmmm … set Quality (player) to Low, HW decode off … still HEVC Direct Play. Let me see if the HW decode helps, if not - I’ll see if I can force transcode to h.264.

Thanks!

14

OK, I think I found it! Your notes above got me thinking, so I went to the Windows player, tried turning Use Hardware Decoding off. Then I started to play a video - no issues for ~ 30 min. I turned Use Hardware Decoding back on, and boom! It immediately froze. So I restarted the player, it didn’t even go 5 min before hanging.

Finally, turned Use Hardware Decoding back off - started playing, and finally turned it off after an hour. No issues at all.

So it seems that Use Hardware Decoding and HEVC don’t play well together? Odd, as this card should support it, agreed?

Thanks!

15

If it works with H/W decoding disabled, then just run with it.

The GTX 750 Ti does not support HEVC video.

You can look it up at Nvidia Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix.

This is an example of what is weird/confusing/frustrating with Plex for Windows.

I have the same GPU and can play HEVC video without issue, no matter the H/W decoding setting.

On your system the H/W decoding setting matters.

On my Lenovo PC, with UHD 630 graphics that supports decoding HEVC 10-bit video, the app is unusable due to stuttering, etc., and changing the H/W decoding setting makes no difference.

Makes no sense to me. Hence the suggestion to just go with what works.

2 Likes
16

Agreed! Seems there were two issues here,

  1. HW Decoding seemed to be auto-enabled - and like you mention, I would have assumed that if HW Decoding is not available / supported in HW, Plex wouldn’t try to use it. Bad assumption on my part :rofl:
  2. I had seen the link you sent, but I mis-read it. My bad fully.

Bottom line though, as you say - just disable it, run that way. FYI, my CPU load for Plex (Player) is ~ 4% … so really not a biggie.

Thanks again for all the help. Much appreciated!

1 Like
17

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