Possible Bug after version 4.21.2 on Tizen on Samsung

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

erver Version#: 1.19.3.2843
Player Version#:4.21.2

I couldn’t figure out why one of my 4K movies suddenly started to transcode, and I found this in my debug logs

May 28, 2020 06:31:09.501 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol dash; container: mp4
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.501 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 23142
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.501 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): Direct Play is disabled
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.501 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): selected audio stream is not the first audio stream and direct play stream selection is not enabled
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/aac
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/ac3
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/hevc/truehd
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - John Wick 2 - video.bitrate limitation applies: 83258 > 80000
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - John Wick 2 - video.bitrate limitation applies: 83258 > 80000
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: John Wick 2 (2017): no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
May 28, 2020 06:31:09.502 [0x7fe5610d0700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations

With the 4.21.2 version of Plex client on Samung-tizen there is as change

  • Added proper maximum bitrate to player profile

The Samsung dev website writes that the maximum bitrate for video is 80 Mbps for HEVC (H.265 - Main, Main10 ).

The dump from the MKV file states that the Video Stream has Bit rate of 77.9 Mbps

    Stream #0:0: Video: hevc (Main 10), yuv420p10le(tv, bt2020nc/bt2020/smpte2084), 3840x2160 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 23.98 fps, 23.98 tbr, 1k tbn, 23.98 tbc
    Metadata:
      title           : John.Wick.Chapter.2.2017.2160p
      BPS             : 77945916
      BPS-eng         : 77945916
      DURATION-eng    : 02:02:23.253000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES: 176062
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 176062
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 71547073535
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 71547073535
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP: mkvmerge v9.6.0 ('Slave To Your Mind') 64bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: mkvmerge v9.6.0 ('Slave To Your Mind') 64bit
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC: 2020-05-24 21:37:33
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2020-05-24 21:37:33
      _STATISTICS_TAGS: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
      DURATION        : 02:02:23.252000000

But the Metadata for the MKV states

  Metadata:
    title           : John.Wick.Chapter.2.2017
  Duration: 02:02:23.28, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 83898 kb/s

So I’m guessing that Plex uses the overall bit rate and not the bit rate for the video stream

Should it not be the Video stream bit rate instead of the overall bit rate?
Or at least have some “buffer” in the setting?

  • Henning
1 Like
2

So we won’t be able to even attempt playback of above 80Mbps without transcoding?

3

The tricky part is that the overall bitrate is a combination (as i understand it) of alle the streams
If the overall bitrate is 80001, it is above 80000 and thus it will transcode.
Even is the Video stream is only 79999
As I can conclude - it will transcode.

4

I infect I have problems with friends with samsung smart tv where I use the whole upload bandwidth also to play a simple 3mbps video of bitrate (I use 70 / 80Mbps of Upload)

update:
rectification, it does it with some files (with androidtv, ios, tvos, webos, windows, and mac, it doesn’t)

5

Any solution for this yet?

6

No - I have not heard anything - @sLumpy do you know if there is a verification of what we are experiencing?

7

The bitrate in the file header is almost useless, because it is a simplistic average (file size/running time).

However, the bandwidth of a video can vary quite a lot over its running time.
Plex is determining the real peak bandwidth of a file during the extended analysis. Therefore it can have (and usually will have) totally different bandwidth values. These values are much closer to the truth.

8

There’s a 80Mbps limit on hevc video. See the specs here: https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications.html

See the note where it mentions:

Media with higher bit or frame rate than specifications can cause video or audio playback to stall.

We’ve experienced this on many occasions, so we’ve limited the bitrate to 80Mbps so that videos will at least transcode and play vs video just failing on multiple occasions.

9

Yes - I found that as well, but the problem comes with eg. the movie i provided the debug log from. Where the Video has such high a bitrate it self, that if you have to many audio tracks, that the comibned bitrate is over the 80, where the video in itself is not.

I my case use the 77945 instead of the 83258

Why not use the bitrate for the video stream, instead of the overall bitrate from the file ?

10

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