Server version: 1.18.9.2571
Player Version: latest Android TV
I’m running Plex Media Server with Docker on my Raspberry Pi 4 and every little bit when I play a movie, I see CPU goes crazy and running around 350% and quite fast, within 2 minutes I get message that “platform you’re using isn’t powerful enough” while transcoding.
I don’t have a clue why would it do transcoding because video file is 1080 H264 which is pretty within RPi 4’s abilities. This especially happens with a bit older movies from say 2007-2013. Also some videos play just fine, some are transcoded for whatever reason.
Any idea why I’m having this problem?
I’m running latest Rasbian Linux.
The ARMv8 is only capable of transcoding about 20 Mbps of H.264 with audio conversion and general server operations. The transcoding is the most difficult part (obviously).
If subtitles are being burned, this will add additional load on the CPU.
The video and audio processing are separate.
In the Activity indicator, you’ll see “DirectStream” if the audio is being converted but Video isn’t. Expand the display and it will show you what’s happening with each element (video & audio)
I’m starting to think it’s an issue with a TV I’m watching this on.
On this 2020 Hisense Android TV I have transcoding problem while on old Samsung Smart TV from 2012 I don’t and everything works great. (I’m observing Raspbian’s htop).
Do you thing there’s anythng I can do on Android TV to fix this?
Many Samsung TVs from this era support dts audio. It is probably direct playing the audio and video streams.
You can check the model’s specifications to see if it supports dts audio. If not, then PMS is most likely transcoding it to a supported format.
With AndroidTV devices, if the audio is transcoding and subtitles are enabled, then the video also transcodes, increasing the load on the Plex Media Server’s CPU.
As @ChuckPa mentions, you can use the Now Playing section in the Plex Dashboard to tell what streams are direct playing, direct streaming, or transcoding.
Hi FordGuy61, I turned on the extended info on plex and from the screenshot it can be seen that transcoding reason is:
DTS audio is not supported by the device
When I check TV settings and spec it says that it has something called “DTS Studio Sound”.
I don’t know what DTS sound is really but I wonder why would the video be transcoded because of DTS if a TV supports it as they claim.
The same video plays just fine on other TV so RPi4 isn’t the culprit here, it’s clearly the TV.
@pentago
Buy a higher spec tv. If you purchased from Sams club or Costco they take returns free of charge on TV’s. Most BluRay or better will have DTS so its worth it to spend at least $500 on a TV now days.
