Q: how can I determine exactly why plex is transcoding?
- A: go to Plex > settings > console > filter > type “mde” without the quotes
- play the video on the device in question
- examine the log entries with the MDE: and TPU: lines, these should help explain why plex is transcoding.
in the logs, look for entries with
mde: will tell WHY something is transcoded
tpu: will tell you WHAT cpu/or gpu transcoder mode is used
you can see/filter the logs @ https://app.plex.tv/desktop > settings > console
or settings > troubleshooting > download logs
from @ [INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k
another thing to consider, when you set the upload bandwidth limit, plex generally applies a percentage of that (not the whole amount) to a single stream, so that other streams can still be started, each new stream will get a smaller portion until there is insufficient upload left.
if you suspect or determine the upload limit is causing transcoding, you can remove the limit to find out, then of course your remote client may direct play, but start buffering if the stream exceeds the upload.
so, if your upload is set to 40, plex may reserve 10 meg for future streams, your initial stream gets limited to ~30 (or whatever the actual percent is).
as already pointed out above, hevc can have much higher bit rates than what the ‘average’ shows.
