I think this might be to do with Direct Stream/ Direct Play, but I'm new to PMS so apologies if this has been answered before (I have looked).
I have a ReadyNAS 102 with PMS 9,11 on it. I've paid for PlexPass so I could use the PS3 to watch movies.
I have to say I was REALLY impressed with the front end etc - all the metadata etc. That was until I tried to play movies, it seems like around a third of my collection can't be played by Plex.
The strange bit is that if I play them using the PS3 built in DNLA (ie, go to Videos, find the Plex Media Server, choose the film) they ALL play fine. It's only when trying to use the Plex App that they don't. It's a really shame as I love the plex GUI.
I don't really want to have to convert over 200GB of films to different formats.
Is there a setting which allows me to use the front end, but use the DNLA method to play the actual file. On my android phone, I have set 'External Player' which means it lauches the files in VLC. I know this means the 'watched' information isn't updated etc, but that doesn't bother me.
My question (finally) is:
Are there any settings I can change that might make my files playable?
(I'm at work posting this so I haven't had a chance to play with the PS3 app - they frown on people bringing games consoles to the office!!;))
I think this might be to do with Direct Stream/ Direct Play, but I'm new to PMS so apologies if this has been answered before (I have looked).
I have a ReadyNAS 102 with PMS 9,11 on it. I've paid for PlexPass so I could use the PS3 to watch movies.
I have to say I was REALLY impressed with the front end etc - all the metadata etc. That was until I tried to play movies, it seems like around a third of my collection can't be played by Plex.
The strange bit is that if I play them using the PS3 built in DNLA (ie, go to Videos, find the Plex Media Server, choose the film) they ALL play fine. It's only when trying to use the Plex App that they don't. It's a really shame as I love the plex GUI.
I don't really want to have to convert over 200GB of films to different formats.
Is there a setting which allows me to use the front end, but use the DNLA method to play the actual file. On my android phone, I have set 'External Player' which means it lauches the files in VLC. I know this means the 'watched' information isn't updated etc, but that doesn't bother me.
My question (finally) is:
Are there any settings I can change that might make my files playable?
(I'm at work posting this so I haven't had a chance to play with the PS3 app - they frown on people bringing games consoles to the office!! ;))
Thanks
Sinista
No, you can't use DLNA inside the Plex for PS4 app.
Your NAS is to weak to transcode the video, so this is why this is happening. But if you can stream the file via DLNA (I assume that is what you are doing, not saving the files locally on the PS4 harddrive right?) then the PS4 supports that particular file. But the Plex app didn't think that the PS4 supported it.
So take a file that you can play via DLNA but not via the PS4, and get the mediainfo and add it in here so we can get a chance to help you.
OK, I've got the MediaInfo for one of the files - but it's only one of them (see below).
I tried to play around 30 movies yesterday, a mix of MP4, AVI, MKV etc, but only 2 of the 30 played! I would have anticipated at least a higher ratio of success.
I just had a little look remotely with a friend and we did find that Plex thought it had 3 servers, 2x 9.7 installs and 1x 9.11 which is the current one. We've deleted the old ones, but I need to rebuild the library, which I don't think I can do til I get home.
Here's the MediaINfo for the one file:
General
Unique ID : 190364499146015450779948617752931308291 (0x8F36DE71E46F5FD0B579F9AD30A59303)
Complete name : F:\Big Hero 6.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 772 MiB
Duration : 1h 41mn
Overall bit rate : 1 060 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2015-01-08 01:19:36
Writing application : mkvmerge v7.4.0 ('Circles') 32bit built on Dec 12 2014 12:10:09
Writing library : libebml v1.3.0 + libmatroska v1.4.1
DURATION : 01:41:51.456000000
NUMBER_OF_FRAMES : 190983
NUMBER_OF_BYTES : 97783296
_STATISTICS_WRITING_APP : mkvmerge v7.4.0 ('Circles') 32bit built on Dec 12 2014 12:10:09
_STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC : 2015-01-08 01:19:36
_STATISTICS_TAGS : BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES
After some further investigation, when trying to play the files on my Mac via a Firefox session to the PM Server, I see the message 'This media server does not support transcoding' - which backs up what you put in your original reply.
So, I guess, is there any option for Direct Play/ Direct Stream on the PS3 app? The PS is obviously capable of transcoding/ playing the file so I was hoping that Plex would allow me to use these capabilities?
After some further investigation, when trying to play the files on my Mac via a Firefox session to the PM Server, I see the message 'This media server does not support transcoding' - which backs up what you put in your original reply.
So, I guess, is there any option for Direct Play/ Direct Stream on the PS3 app? The PS is obviously capable of transcoding/ playing the file so I was hoping that Plex would allow me to use these capabilities?
Thanks
Ben
The PS3 is not capable of transcoding anything. It is an old CPU which would have a tough time to handle realtime-conversion of any type of HD resolution video. Not that it would matter, because transcoding takes place on the machine which has PMS installed on it. :)
Anyways, let me rephrase. The PS3 and PS4 only Direct Play´s MP4 container files with H264 as video codec and AAC as audio codec (as far as I know). But the server will remux instead of transcode if you have the codecs right but the container wrong, and a remux isn't especially taxing for the server machine.
On the other hand perhaps your server machine is extremely weak and then a remux is out of the question as well.
I know that the ReadyNAS can't do transcoding. I'm pretty new to all this so I'm not entirely clear on what Transcoding entails other than 'on the fly conversion', but the NAS does say it doesn't support it.
That I find weird is that the PS3 can play the files via DNLA, and I guess I rather simplistically thought that if I can play the files on the ps3 via the DNLA which shows as PMS, that the actual player should be able to play them too. It doesn't look like it can, so I guess I'm stuck.
It would seem that I am left with the choices of converting all my files or not using the plex front end. I am a bit disappointed, but I guess that's how it is for now. I will just use the DNLA support on the PS3 and forego the nicer front end of plex and all the lovely metadata.
I know that the ReadyNAS can't do transcoding. I'm pretty new to all this so I'm not entirely clear on what Transcoding entails other than 'on the fly conversion', but the NAS does say it doesn't support it.
That I find weird is that the PS3 can play the files via DNLA, and I guess I rather simplistically thought that if I can play the files on the ps3 via the DNLA which shows as PMS, that the actual player should be able to play them too. It doesn't look like it can, so I guess I'm stuck.
It would seem that I am left with the choices of converting all my files or not using the plex front end. I am a bit disappointed, but I guess that's how it is for now. I will just use the DNLA support on the PS3 and forego the nicer front end of plex and all the lovely metadata.
Thanks again for all your help.
Sinista
That is because Sony (and Microsoft) does not give thirdparty app makers (like Plex Inc.) the ability to use the private API's needed to use lowlevel features, and the full support for all formats they themselves support.
