So I have noticed that almost all of my files are being transcoded and I am not sure why.
Container of files: .m2ts
Video Codex: H264
Audio Codex: AC3, DTS-HD, TRU-HD (any of those three)
I can understand why the audio would need to be transcoded but I can not understand why my video is being transcoded.
If I am using the app on my xbox one, than go to the web app to see if anything is being transcoded, it shows me (video: Transcoding (h264). Audio; transcoding (AC3)) As I said, my Video Codex is already h264 so why the transcode. It should be direct play.
But if I use plex server through the xbox one media player, I get direct play on both video and audio with NO TRANSCODING (Not yelling I did upper case for effect).
The quality using the plex app is set to 20mbps, why is there no Original setting as there is in the web app?
Why does it transcode when I use the plex app and does not transcode when I don't use the plex app? (yes there is a quality difference between the transcodes and the directplay and that bothers me a bit since keep full quality of my Blu-ray rip. Each one is about 30-40GB in size.)
input on this matter would be appreciated.
The supported file types for the Media Player app on XBOX one are:
3GP audio
3GP video
3GP2
AAC
ADTS
animated GIF
.asf
AVI DivX
DV AVI
AVI uncompressed
AVI Xvid
BMP
JPEG
GIF
H.264 AVCHD
M-JPEG
.mkv – coming late 2014
.mov
MP3
MPEG-PS
MPEG-2 MPEG-2 HD
MPEG-2 TS
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
MPEG-4 SP
PNG
TIFF
WAV
WMA
WMA Lossless
WMA Pro
WMA Voice
WMV
WMV HD
as you can see from this list, I meet all the criteria for direct play on my video for my files.
So I have noticed that almost all of my files are being transcoded and I am not sure why.
Container of files: .m2ts
Video Codex: H264
Audio Codex: AC3, DTS-HD, TRU-HD (any of those three)
I can understand why the audio would need to be transcoded but I can not understand why my video is being transcoded.
If I am using the app on my xbox one, than go to the web app to see if anything is being transcoded, it shows me (video: Transcoding (h264). Audio; transcoding (AC3)) As I said, my Video Codex is already h264 so why the transcode. It should be direct play.
But if I use plex server through the xbox one media player, I get direct play on both video and audio with NO TRANSCODING (Not yelling I did upper case for effect).
The quality using the plex app is set to 20mbps, why is there no Original setting as there is in the web app?
Why does it transcode when I use the plex app and does not transcode when I don't use the plex app? (yes there is a quality difference between the transcodes and the directplay and that bothers me a bit since keep full quality of my Blu-ray rip. Each one is about 30-40GB in size.)
input on this matter would be appreciated.
The supported file types for the Media Player app on XBOX one are:
as you can see from this list, I meet all the criteria for direct play on my video for my files.
As mentioned in just about over a quadrillion threads in this subforum (ok ok, a bit exaggerated...) Third-party suppliers does not automatically get access to all the capabilities of the machine. Microsoft must give Plex the ability to use the formats that the box can play back. Until then a transcode takes place.
There are a couple of reasons why the video track might get transcoded even if it is h264 already. The most common one is that you have enabled subtitles.
The info xml from a movie that it's happening on would be helpful.
There are various things that set off a transcode. What container are you using? mkv? In the case of most dvds I've noticed that anamorphic dvds in an mkv container will transcode due to the anamorphic flag being on. Also, dts isn't supported and needs to be transcoded, ac3 shouldn't be however.
MKV container isn't supported in 3rd party applications yet, only the media player app can use the libraries.
Perhaps this is a great opportunity for Plex to "log the reason why it is transcoding" and have this available for users who "want to know". Most don't and won't care unless their Plex Media Server is underpowered.
As mentioned in just about over a quadrillion threads in this subforum (ok ok, a bit exaggerated...) Third-party suppliers does not automatically get access to all the capabilities of the machine. Microsoft must give Plex the ability to use the formats that the box can play back. Until then a transcode takes place.
There are a couple of reasons why the video track might get transcoded even if it is h264 already. The most common one is that you have enabled subtitles.
Yes I agree and as I have read over a quadrillion times the difference was between using PLEX APP Xbox One and the DLNA media player on xbox one. My difference is that I am still using the PLEX SERVER instead of the PLEX APP on the Xbox one and it does not transcode it. It does a direct play.
This is what I am asking. Also I do not have captions in any of my video files as i strip them from the start. Thank you for responding and giving your input.
Yes I agree and as I have read over a quadrillion times the difference was between using PLEX APP Xbox One and the DLNA media player on xbox one. My difference is that I am still using the PLEX SERVER instead of the PLEX APP on the Xbox one and it does not transcode it. It does a direct play.
This is what I am asking. Also I do not have captions in any of my video files as i strip them from the start. Thank you for responding and giving your input.
Understood. No, the Plex app has this limitation. As soon as Microsoft gives its go ahead, and the Plex developers implements it, then native playback can be had. Until then we just have to hope is something that will happen soon.
I have been having the same problem. I think I figured it out tonight. Go into the video settings on the Xbox and tick the allow 24hz ON. This, and making sure subtitles are off (as they are hardcoded) means you should be able to watch video without transcoding. Mine still transcodes very high bitrate files (20,000 kbps+ 1080p files), but 12-15k kpbs works OK. Hope this helps.
@coryczorna said:
I have been having the same problem. I think I figured it out tonight. Go into the video settings on the Xbox and tick the allow 24hz ON.
This isn’t something that will trigger a transcode, and the Plex App can’t switch video modes so whatever video mode your xbox is outputting is the video mode that the Plex App uses.
Mine still transcodes very high bitrate files (20,000 kbps+ 1080p files), but 12-15k kpbs works OK. Hope this helps.
Plex doesn’t transcode based on bit rate. The cap was removed around the same time MKV’s were added for direct play. So something else in those files is causing a transcode, which if you look at your Plex Media Server.log it will tell you when you start playback of one of those files.
