Transcoding at the beginning Direct Play at the end.

Dev Community Apps & Creations
1

I was checking something in PlexPy and I found out that since I’m using OpenPHT in remote location every episode I watch is marked as Direct Play.
I was watching an episode right now. Plex and PlexPy both showing Transcode, Plex Transocode process running, I have even checked the Transcoder folder, there were chunk files.
I don’t know when it happened, it was close to the end of an episode when I checked again and both Plex and PlexPy were showing Direct Play. Must be magic :slight_smile: Help me understand what is happening here.

2

I’m familiar with PlexPy (use it myself), but I’m not sure what you mean by “Plex” above. Does it refer to PMS info via Plex/Web or to OpenPHT itself during its playback ?

The standard way of checking if a video is transcoded for PHT/OpenPHT is to press the “i” key during playback to open the ‘Information’ overlay, which includes whether or not the playback uses transcoding.
I can understand a mistake being made by other programs showing statistics for the playback, such as PlexPy or Plex/Web, but OpenPHT itself should always show what method it really is using, and that method should remain constant from beginning to end of a playback event.

Another more complex way to check it is to make both PMS and OpenPHT generate debugging logs to analyze.

Best regards: dlanor

3

What I meant is that PlexPy and Plex Web App are both showing that episode/movie is being transcoded but recorded as Direct Play in PlexPy. I thought it was only OpenPHT related but it’s not.

4

@dlanor said:

Sorry to jump in, quick question to @dlanor I see you use both OpenPHT and Plexpy same here, do you have any problems with logging IP of OpenPHT? I do have problems with this my self.

5

@coz2001 you need to enable it in settings but please seek for help in plexpy topic.

6

Just a guess as I don’t know exactly how PlexPy checks for transcoding vs direct play. But if you were near the end it is possible that the transcoding process would have ended due to the transcode being completed. So if it is checking the log for transcoding entries or looking for a transcoder process then at that point it would no longer see the transcoder as running.

7

@Bartlomiej Baraniec said:
What I meant is that PlexPy and Plex Web App are both showing that episode/movie is being transcoded but recorded as Direct Play in PlexPy. I thought it was only OpenPHT related but it’s not.

I suspect that both those programs might reflect some incorrect feedback from PMS regarding the playback method. Please make the test I suggested, of pressing the “i” key on the keyboard of the PC running OpenPHT while it is playing such videos, to check if that too is inconsistent in showing the playback method both as transcoded and direct played when making this test in parts of the video for which PlexPy and Plex/Web would show such inconsistency.

I don’t think it’s even possible for the playback method to reallly be switched in mid-stream, but it would be nice to know if OpenPHT shows the correct information for cases where the other software doesn’t.

NB: If that PC is an HTPC which doesn’t normally use a keyboard, you can still connect one temporarily.
Any USB connected keyboard should work fine for this.

@jmckee:
Your guess is quite valid and could be the true explanation, as OpenPHT could be playing buffered data after PMS prepared and sent the last parts of the video. This buffered data could even exceed the buffer capacity of the client system, as some of it may reside in transmit buffers of the PMS computer awaiting physical transmission.

Best regards: dlanor