I was wondering why plex shows the “Transcoding H264 to H264” when i have the original quality settings on my plex player? I mean why does plex need to transcode a movie to the same H264 codec when it just can play the normal file?
could be the bitrate or resolution of your video aren’t supported by the client?
It could be, but most of my videos play with direct play so im not sure why this one is transcoded. Anyhow i just felt it would be strange that its transcoding from h264 to h264
@trumpy81 said:
If any one of the hundreds of parameters in your video file does not match with the format specifications of your Plex client, then Plex will need to transcode the file. Since the file is already H.264 and Plex always transcodes to H.264, that explains why you see transcoding H.264 → H.264.
is there a way to FORCE plex to skip the entire transcoding part and just direct play?
nothing beyond the “best quality” / “direct play” settings on both the Plex server and client. as trumpy81 stated… if the client tells your server it doesn’t support one element of this video, Plex will transcode.
you could try accessing Plex via DLNA (activate in Settings > Server > DLNA). DLNA clients most often tell plex to go with a “generic” profile – this means Plex doesn’t transcode (but can also result in the video simply not playing because the client really cannot handle the video).
