Transcoding works but "Convert Automatically" doesn't

Plex Players
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1

I’m having a strange issue with the “convert automatically” quality setting where it won’t start playing (all I get is the poster with the loading spinner). This is happening for multiple clients (I’ve tested on my Android phone and Nvidia Shield) which makes me wonder if there’s a setting I’m missing on my server.

To clarify, transcoding on my server is working fine. If I select a specific quality, I can start streaming right away with no issue. If I have “convert automatically” selected and try play something (which doesn’t work), and then change to a specific quality setting in the playback settings, it plays fine. If I then change it back to “convert automatically,” it’s hit or miss – sometimes it keeps playing, sometimes I get the spinner again.

For reference, I’m running the linuxserver docker image (version 1.28.2.6106) on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on an Intel 11th gen NUC (i5-1135G7 processor) with 16 GB of RAM.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Some additional details on my server settings in case it helps:

  • Transcoder quality is set to automatic
  • Hardware acceleration is enabled (and I do see the “hw” in Tautulli when transcoding)
  • Background transcoding x264 preset is set to “very fast”
  • HDR tonemapping is enabled
2

At first glance your topic reminds me of the prerequisites for something similar:

Automatically Adjust Quality when streaming | Plex Support

Does that cover your issue?

3

I’ve read through that page as well and it sounds like it should just work as it’s dependent on the player and not the server. But no luck for me. :frowning:

I did find one post asking about the same issue but the OP didn’t get any responses: “Convert automatically” not working with PMS Shield Pro 2019

4

If a Plex Pass is not needed, then grabbing a server log might be the next step.

5

That setting makes everything transcode and the version you are on has a problem with HDR. You could disable it till they release a version that works.

You are on the early adopter track with 22.04 and Arc gpu so have you checked your logs to make sure the transcoder isn’t exiting when it tries to initialize?

6

Good idea, I’ll download the logs tonight.

Interestingly, the “convert automatically” setting works when I’m connected to the local network but not when I’m remote… “Normal” transcoding when remote streaming (by selecting a specific quality) works fine.