First I would like to say, I dig the plex app. Great work devs. Keep up the good work.
1) I would like to first ask, If I am streaming to my PS4, how can I find out or know if my file is being transcoded or being streamed? (this may be something simple but I am picky this way. I would rather format all my files to direct play than transcode.)
2) I noticed that when playing my DVD rips (Straight off the original disk and full quality. No compression no nothing) My 16:9 letterboxed DVD shows and play out as 4X3 letterbox. Now I have searched the forums and people have said this is depending on sony. But I am not completely convinced because before this last update, I was not having this particular issue on my PS4. (I am sure of this because I was streaming Hidalgo on my PS4 about 2 months ago and it was full screen on my PS4)
Things that I noticed
1) Funny thing is that support for HD-DTS is not supported from what I can see but I am able to stream it just fine on my PS4. Can anyone clarify on this?
2) Also I just ripped Star Trek blue ray and it has audio TrueHD 5.1. Here is the funny part before anyone says that is it not supported. My Xbox One can play the file and output audio to the correct channels. My browser on my desktop can do it as well. But my PS4 can not do it and will be going between buffer and play. Now from what I can tell, The XBOX One does not support TrueHD 5.1 but it is playing anyway which means to me that I may be transcoding the file. If my XBOX one can transcode the file why is my PS4 not doing?
3) Also seems that the quality of streams for regular ripper DVDs is degraded as opposed to the disk. (I will say again, my DVD rips are taken straight from the DISK. I don't do any conversions or do I compress them. I just mux the necessary files together and changed the container extension.) Wonder if anyone else has noticed this? Since I like this app so much, I will actually but in some leg work and will make a comparison video as soon as I get a chance and post it here so we can all see the differences.
This should about cover couple of things I have noticed. I have some other quality issue but those belong in other threads. Thank for you guys time and DEV awesome work so far.
1) I would like to first ask, If I am streaming to my PS4, how can I find out or know if my file is being transcoded or being streamed? (this may be something simple but I am picky this way. I would rather format all my files to direct play than transcode.)
You can log into the web app at the same time and look at the activity. In there you can click on the info icon and it will tell you if you are transcoding or not. It even separate the audio from the video.
You can log into the web app at the same time and look at the activity. In there you can click on the info icon and it will tell you if you are transcoding or not. It even separate the audio from the video.
awesome thank you for that tid bit. I will be using that info. Very helpful and thank for the quick response.
You can log into the web app at the same time and look at the activity. In there you can click on the info icon and it will tell you if you are transcoding or not. It even separate the audio from the video.
You mentioned it separates the audio from the video. I wanted to know about XBox since it has optical audio out, which should send audio straight out to a receiver to decode. If Plex is direct streaming because the file is an mkv, and supposedly XBox cannot open mkv's yet, will the audio (DTS, etc) be converted to AC3 for playback through the xbox or will the audio stream go out the optical audio for an external receiver? Meaning are the audio and video handled separately?
I highlighted the part that answers your question below.
Direct Play
The media file is 100% compatible with the native player on the device on which you wish to play it. The file is sent as-is to the Plex App.
Direct Play requires almost no CPU usage on the Plex Media Server.
Direct Stream
The media is almost compatible with the native client. For example, the audio and video codecs are compatible but the container is not. In this case, the audio/video codecs are direct streamed to the client, and Plex transcodes the container to a format the native player can use.
Direct Stream requires very little CPU usage on the Plex Media Server.
Transcoding
If the video or audio format isn't compatible, then your Plex Media Server has to convert them to a compatible format. It does this by "transcoding" it. Depending on the situation, only the audio may need to be converted, only the video, or both.
Transcoding audio requires very low to moderate CPU usage on the Plex Media Server. Transcoding video (including burning in subtitles) requires high to extreme CPU usage.
