Server Version#: 1.19.3.2852
Player Version#: 4.29.5.
I have a Plex Lifetime Account and am very satisfied so far.
Now I have a problem:
On my LG TV “LG 65SJ810V” some films with 1080p don’t stream correctly after being resumed. Video and audio are jolting after pushing the “resume” button. The same behaviour occurs after fast forwarding or fast rewind. Other 1080p films don’t make any problem. The LG Plex App is set to enable “direct stream”.
I have checked per Plex “dashboard”, that the Plex app requests a transcode from the server for the problematic films. The server, a QNAP NAS TS 251+ with the latest Plex version 1.19.3.2852, is on 100% CPU-usage in this case.
With the DLNA-Client on my LG TV all my films are played correctly, from the same server.
I don’t understand why the LG Plex App requests a transcode from the server. If it would “direct stream”, there would be no problem, I think.
All my software components should be up-to-date:
The firmware of my LG TV is version 05.80.55, webOS is version 3.8.0, and the App “Plex for LG” is version 4.29.5. Server and LG TV are connected to the router via ethernet cable.
Local quality is set to “original” (there is no “automatic”), remote quality is set to “4MB 720p” in the LG TV Plex app. But my server is in the LAN, so the “remote setting” couldn’t be the problem. Also, the server tries to convert from 1080p to 1080p according to the Dashboard.
Thank you for your insight. AVI is a common container format for video. Since my Windows Plex Client, my Web Plex Client and even my iPhone-Plex app are able to show this video, why not the LG webOS Plex client? I would be very happy to have someone of the Plex team here on this forum.
So they can tell you it’s time to stop downloading AVI files - cause support for them has been abandoned by almost everyone - and they’re (not so) slowly riding off into the sunset in the Plexiverse as well.
Get a Shield - that’ll probably play AVI files for a bit longer - while you make plans to rid yourself of them entirely.
Mux what you can to MKV - replace the rest with something else.
or deal with a transcode.
A Plex employee would probably have to provide the details, but FWIW, the Plex Smart TV docs do not list AVC/H.264 video as a supported format in an AVI container:
webOS Models
Additional Direct Play video support:
AVI container with:
mpeg4 or mjpeg video encoding
aac , ac3 , dts , mp3 , or pcm audio encoding
Only available on webOS 3.0 or newer
Agree with others to try converting to MKV format.
MKVToolNix is an excellent tool for such conversions. You can queue up several jobs and come back when the remux is finished.
If you prefer a command line option, you can use ffmpeg directly (MKVToolNix is basically a GUI for ffmpeg).
An example from the ffmpeg docs: ffmpeg -i input.avi -map 0 -c copy output.mkv
Many thanks for all answers. @FordGuy61: this is especially helpful. I testet converting with both, MKVToolNix and ffmpeg. It works and is fast. There is a warning message “Timestamps are unset in a packet for stream 0. This is deprecated…”, but according to internet search this can be ignored, because it is a raw stream, which cannot have timestamps.
Nevertheless, it will be an enormous effort to convert all my 200 AVIs to MKV and replace them in Plex. Therefore, I will make up my mind if I really change the container format for all problematic AVIs or leave them as they are, because all other clients besides the LG TV are able to play them without problems. Or perhaps, I will switch from Plex to another Platform - the DLNA client in the LG TV plays the AVIs flawlessly, so it cannot be a restriction in webOS. It is really a pity that a format isn’t supported, only because it is an older format than others. What will be in 10 years, when perhaps MKV is an old and “uncool” format? Do you all want to convert your 1000+ files?
Perhaps the Plex team realizes this not so cool situation.
Again, thank you all for your quick and mostly constructive support!
