Samsung Smart TV: HEVC sometimes transcoded to H264

[FordGuy61]

Samsung TVs have a bandwidth limit and also a limit on the number of tracks in a stream. If you exceed either it can result in a video transcode.

Set the TV to log to the server at the debug level.
Play one of the movies that transcodes.
Look in the log file for the error messages.

See this post for details, including error message examples:

Transcoding buffers, where is my bottle neck, and why do both audio and video transcode?

You might be hitting the bandwidth limit for HEVC video. Samsung apps have a 80 Mbps limit for HEVC media and a 60 Mbps limit for H264 media. It is a Samsung, not Plex, limit. If the limit is exceeded, Plex Media Server will transcode the video to fit under the limit. The limit is for the sum of all tracks in the file, video + audio. There is also a limit of 30 total tracks in the media file: video + audio + subtitles. If exceeded, Plex Media Server will remux (direct stream) the file. You…

Additional info:

Issue with direct play / direct stream if "stream count exceeds 30 streams" always transcodes

Tizen 5.5 devices have some bad player issues. Specifically, files with more than 30 streams fail to direct play and must be direct streamed, and DASH playback stutters like crazy and must be played over HLS. However, if a video is direct streaming over HLS, direct playing subtitles causes issues with drift, so the subs need to be transcoded. Congratulations, you’ve hit the bug jackpot! Your best bet, is to drop some streams so there’s less than 30 in your file, and that should allow you to dir…