Questionable transcoding on Samsung UE55ru7172

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Hi, sorry if this question has been asked hundred times. I tried looking up a solution and tried several things but to no avail. I am streaming media on my local network, which shouldn’t be transcoding but it does.
The manual of my television seems to indicate that mkv/h264/aac should not be a problem: https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/202102/20210217131938382/MUSDVBEUR-3.0.6_EM_MUSE_EU_ENG_210104.0.pdf
Plex seems to agree: https://support.plex.tv/articles/203810286-what-media-formats-are-supported/
I have been able to play mkv/h264 before on much higher bitrates.
Direct play is enabled on the client.
What could be the issue? I appreciate any help I can get.

Server Version#: 1.20.2.3402
Player Version#: 5.14.1
Platform Version#: 5

file in question:

Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 1.54 GiB
Duration : 23 min 44 s
Overall bit rate : 9 282 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf58.76.100
Writing library : Lavf58.76.100
ErrorDetectionType : Per level 1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5
Format settings : CABAC / 10 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 10 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 23 min 44 s
Bit rate : 9 021 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.181
Stream size : 1.50 GiB (97%)
Writing library : x264 core 155 r2917+44 ba48085 Yuuki [all-bit@all X86_64][GCC 8.2.1]
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=10 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=0.80:0.25 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-4 / threads=24 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / fgo=0 / bframes=8 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=70 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=17.0000 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0:0:0 / qpmax=69:69:69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=3:0.80
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : A_AAC-2
Duration : 23 min 44 s
Bit rate : 662 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 111 MiB (7%)
Writing library : Lavc58.134.100 aac
Language : Japanese
Default : Yes
Forced : No

debug:

May 06, 2021 14:40:39.489 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] We’re going to try to auto-select an audio stream for account 1.
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.489 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Selecting best audio stream for part ID 486 (autoselect: 0 language: en)
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.489 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Audio Stream: 2790, Subtitle Stream: 0
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Scaled up video bitrate to 13923Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Selected protocol dash; container: mp4
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: analyzing media item 479
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: Direct Play is disabled
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: media must be transcoded in order to use the dash protocol
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: no direct play video profile exists for http/mkv/h264/aac
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Scaled up video bitrate to 13923Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: E1 - Golden Experience: Audio Direct Streaming is disabled, so video’s audio stream will be transcoded
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: Cannot direct stream audio stream due to profile or setting limitations
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] MDE: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012) - S4 E1 - Golden Experience: selected media 0 / 479
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 14822kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 8000kbps
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Determining preferred transcode encoders through transcode only decision.
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.492 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Scaled up video bitrate to 13923Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.492 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Scaled up video bitrate to 13923Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.492 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Reducing playback quality for 7619kbps stream bitrate: video resolution to 1920x1080, audio channels to 2, quality to 8
May 06, 2021 14:40:39.492 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Scaled up video bitrate to 13923Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.

2

This seems to be the interesting part from your logs…

May 06, 2021 14:40:39.491 [0x94de0430] DEBUG - [Transcode] Streaming Resource: Calculated bandwidth of 14822kbps exceeds bandwidth limit. Changing decision parameters provided by client to fit bandwidth limit of 8000kbps

Can you double check the video quality settings on your Samsung Plex client?
If the Samsung client is set to maximum/original quality – take a look if your TV and PMS are on the same subnet. Otherwise Plex might consider this a remote streaming and apply additional restrictions (Settings > [Server Name] > Remote Access > Limit remote stream bitrate).

3

Depending on the hardware specifications, this might also be too high.

4

Thanks for replying Tom and Otto, I appreciate it.

@tom80H
The bitrate limiting is interesting indeed. The client and server are on the same subnet though. Furthermore, the samsung client is indeed set to the original quality.

@OttoKerner
When you say too high, do you mean the L5 or the Ref frames? The TV should be able to handle up to 5.1. I’ll try out some tests though to confirm this. The ref frames is interesting as well, I’ll look into that. Thanks for pointing it out. In that case, and excuse my ignorance if incorrect, the audio should not be affected by this, no?

5

Then this should be OK, I guess.

You should verify that the TV is also of the opinion that it sits in the same subnet as the server.
Forced secure connections and “DNS rebinding protection” in your DNS resolver can interfere here. https://support.plex.tv/articles/206225077-how-to-use-secure-server-connections#toc-4

Is the 8 Mbps limit set in the preferences of the Samsung app for remote connections?
Or is it set in the “Remote Access” section of your server preferences?

6

Actually, I feel kind of silly saying this. While trying to debug, I set the limit myself… I just realized that, apologies :sweat_smile:

I just reran it and there was no bitrate limiting this time. Only the usual messages of direct play being disabled as the profile does not exist.

I did some testing with regards to the encoding levels, 5.1 in either 265 or 264 was fine. However, you were right with regards to the Ref Frames being a potential issue. I did some encodings and saw that ref frames < 7 would direct play and ref frames > 8 would transcode to the same format. I assume this to be the issue. Anyways, once again thanks for the help.

Edit: I just took a more detailed look in the manual:
H.264 UHD is supported up to Level 5.1, and H.264 FHD is supported up to Level 4.1. Seeing as this file is FHD, I assume that 5.1 is actually not supported and therefore neither the Ref Frames.

7

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