I’m having issues with playing from my server remotely on a few devices. I recently batch converted a lot of my files using Handbrake with the exact same settings on all files but some files will be Direct Played but not others. None of them are above the upload speed the server has access to so there’s no reason for them not to direct play… Any ideas? I realise this is a bit vague but I honestly have no idea what the reason is, they all have the same container and codec - MP4 H264…
Thanks for your time!
Activcate debug logging in the server. Server logs
then perform some playback tests. Note down the time when you press Play.
If you inspect the Plex Media Server.log files, look out for line which contain MDE: These (and their surrounding lines) give the best clues about why transcoding occurs.
On the dashboard, none of them go higher than my upload speed, that’s what I was using to make sure, unless that’s not as accurate as I had thought? This issue has only come up recently though, I’ve not had issues like this in the last 5 years or so I’ve been running the server.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll check the logs now, I hadn’t thought of that!
So looking at the logs, it was a bandwidth issue, apparently the files were peaking in excess of about 3x the reported bitrate which is mad… Do you know of any tricks in Handbrake to help reduce that or is that not something that can be avoided?
You simply need to keep in mind that video files usually don’t use a stable bit rate.
(Btw I encountered up to 5x higher bandwidth peaks of movies when compared to their average bitrate.)
Bandwidth peaks can be better handled by using better client devices with have larger network receiving buffers.
A nVidia Shield Pro or a PC running “Plex for Windows/Mac” have much larger buffers than your average Firestick or Chromecast or generic “smart TV” device.
To better handle these bandwidth peaks when making transcoding decisions, let your server perform the detailed media analysis during the server maintenance period. Scheduled Server Maintenance | Plex Support
On the other hand:
You could produce files in Handbrake with a bitrate which is better suited for streaming. Simply by changing the quality setting from “constant quality” to “constant bitrate”.
However, this means that now not the bitrate is variable, but the quality.
And if you want to maintain a higher quality in your files, their overall size will tend to be larger with “constant bitrate”.
