Transcode FLAC to OPUS works on mobile data but not on WiFi

Plex Labs
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1

Server Version#: 1.32.8.7639-7000 on Synology DS218+
Player Version#: PlexAmp 4.9.5 on Android 14 Pixel 7a

Hi all,
I’m running a Plex server on Synology NAS, and PlexAmp on Android 14.
I have lots of FLAC albums in my audio library. Most 44/16 but some 96/24 or 192/24. All have a bitrate higher than 800kbit/s.
I set up transcoding in PlexAmp to convert all audio with a bitrate higher than 320kbit/s to OPUS at 160kbit/s.
Whenever I’m on mobile data I can see the format of the file being streamed set to OPUS 160kbit/s.
But whenever I do the exact same thing on my WIFI network transcoding doesn’t work. I still get FLAC at 44/16 as the current codec.
The limit for transcoding are set to the same walkie for mobile data and WIFI in PlexAmp settings.
Anyone knows about this ?
Thanks

2

Fetch the plexamp logs immediately after testing this again on WiFi. Then post them here.

1 Like
3

There you go
95521918703011.zip (402.0 KB)
You meant the logs from the PlexAmp client right? Not the server ones.

4

Corect.
Could you tell me the track title?

5

Huh that’s suspicious

Jan 13, 2024 16:17:58.369 [0xf8d34cb0] INFO - Media: Found an item to direct play with bitrate under 0 (it was 1042 kbps).
Jan 13, 2024 16:17:58.372 [0xf8d34cb0] INFO - Cache: Using RAM buffer of 2048 KB for item with container flac bitrate of 130 KB/sec.

I set the limit bitrate to 320kbps (40 KB/s) on mobile data and WIFI, how come it decides to stream with direct play instead of transcode, as the bitrate is 1042kbps (130 KB/s) ?

6

After the burial - π
then I also played After the Burial - a steady decline

1 Like
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Also, I see in the logs it precaches 15 next tracks when I set the buffering parameter to “next track” on mobile and WIFI altogether.
Seems like all precaching/transcoding settings are ignored on WiFi

8

The server is in the local network, right?
The bandwidth limit is only effective if the server is remote. Simply because a bandwidth limit for a local server doesn’t make that much sense.

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Yes it’s local.
You mean to say that the WiFi settings only work when I’m connected to another WiFi than my home network?

10

Precisely.
A local WiFi is rarely bandwidth-limited (or even paid by data volume) so that an artificial limitation doesn’t make much sense. And Plexamp only deals with audio data, which are not that bandwidth-hungry anyway.

11

Well that’s not clearly stated in the options, I thought it would mean it transcodes on ANY WiFi network, be it local or remote. That’s not straightforward in how the setting is formulated.

That being said, I wanted to transcode because I get lots of stuttering when playing 192/24 FLAC files.

12

“Music above this bitrate will convert when on remote network”
is the explanatory text under the setting.

Try setting the WiFi precaching to “only next track”.
You can also play a bit with the “network speed” setting.

13

Oh sorry I just noticed the “remote” part. My bad.

As for the precaching to next track, as I mentioned before it seems to disregard that option when I’m connected to the local wifi network. I set the parameter to next track and the logs state that it’s precaching the next 15 tracks.

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it shouldn’t ignore that setting, it might cache metadata further but not media.

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Jan 13, 2024 16:18:06.675 [Javascript] INFO - Player: Precaching next 15 tracks.

I was on WiFi and cache was set to next track only…

16

That is metadata pre-caching, not media.

1 Like
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Jan 13, 2024 16:18:00.754 [0x9ce92cb0] INFO - PQCache: Looking for 0 items ahead (total of 3) to pre-cache with network type of 2

“0 items ahead” ⇢ only next track pre-caching.

1 Like
18

Ah gotcha. Thanks for making it a bit clearer in my head :wink:

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