When syncing movies if you select sync original quality why does Plex Server still perform a conversions?
If its relevant, the syncing client is the windows client.
Yeah, this fix has been requested for literally years. Can anyone explain why a lengthy transcode is required for an original format transfer? If no good reason, then just let us transfer the original already!
8 Likes
The setting is “original quality”, not original format. If the format isn’t compatible with the target device, it still needs to be transcoded, otherwise it won’t play after it is synced. If you can provide the XML for a file that is converting, I might be able to tell you why.
1 Like
@“MovieFan.Plex” where would the XML file be?
Would be very strange for a windows device to need any transcoding given when you play it locally (which is also windows) it doesn’t do any transcoding
You can find instructions for finding the xml in https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201998867-Investigate-Media-Information-and-Formats.
When playing the file locally using a regular video player, the player uses software decoding to playback any codec that is installed in Windows. When using the Plex for Windows App, the app uses the Windows video player which cannot use all the same codecs. The codecs it does have access to are limited so the playback capability is different.
1 Like
Good info, here’s the xml file.
Your file has DTS audio. You cannot Sync DTS audio, so Plex has to transcode the audio. It should not be transcoding the video.
1 Like
I would have expected audio only conversion to be pretty quick, but this took a good amount of time (30-40mins) and the server is a 4Ghz i7. Is that what you would expect for just audio conversion?
It depends on if your PMS is doing something else. Syncing is a background task which has a lower priority then other PMS tasks.
1 Like
Nope nothing else.
Will monitor it next time it does a conversion and grab the logs.
Thanks for all the info.
Just wish that there was a setting to just copy over the original file. My mobile devices can handle h.265. This would save so much time an energy (literally) because I already encode my library to be small and…optimized.
To add to this, I know I can transfer the files over by hand, but that takes more time and effort plus, by doing it through the Plex app, you can see on your server which files are transferred over to which devices and you can remote delete files from your devices from your server page which is nifty.
6 Likes
Well, to a user this reads as: “we know a fix, but haven’t implemented it. Instead we’re the reason you all are experiencing needlessly lengthy sync times and CPU usage (read: electricity usage and load on your local server that might want to get other things done as well)”
As for what “original quality” means: every recompression (which a conversion to a lossy format always is) is not going to result in original quality to be technically correct. A correct description would be “original resolution and bitrate”. I get why you call it original quality anyways, since the loss in quality usually isn’t percepted and even if it is, it’s not like stepping down to 720p from 1080p, I get it. However a user’s expection most certainly isn’t to see a conversion take place when they specifically select original quality.
If I had to decide on one thing that Plex needs to address the most urgently it’s the player on all the platforms I use it on. Android, Android TV, Windows 10.
5 Likes
I bought Plex Pass literally for the convenience of syncing my shows and movies in the original format and quality to my Android device for travelling but I see conversions happening and it is taking hours on a Synology DS918+ where before I spent a few minutes SFTPing the files over manually. Now that was basically a waste of money and I am back to transferring the files to my SD card and playing them with MX Player.
13 Likes
I’m using an Nvidia Jetson to stream, and Plex will stream without conversion to my android device. Why then, does it insist on converting when syncing?
4 Likes
I bought Plex Pass and regret so much. Conversion need long long long time.
1 Like
Can there just be an option to download the file and play it as it is.
I also bought the plex pass to save the file offline and this conversion time is unacceptable.
My workaround is to just copy the video on the tablet and playing with VLC which actually bookmarks the last location watched.
1 Like
I have the same problem and I’d really appreciate an answer from the team…
also does not make any sense that I can click “Play version” but no “Sync version”. So I could sync the lower quality (like 720p) versions of a video using “Original quality”. However this is just the icing on the cake, first the OP issue must be fixed.
CURRETLY SYNC IS UNUSABLE.
Bought plex pass to sync my media for offline playback. In 95% of cases I got to see transcoding that takes too much time (1:1), on few occasions I got it transcoded really quick.
Ended up with previous method of transfering the files on my own which is incovientent.
Both my iPad and Android devices play any of my media without problems, so I have a difficult of understanding why I need to spend so much time waiting to sync on plex.
Plex Team, please do not ignore this topic. Some of these people have dedided to support the team and paid for a license therefore we deserve to have some feedback from you on this topic.
2 Likes
