Plex does not upscale past your quality setting. That value is a cap. It only goes down and can go back up to that level, but not higher. If it was previously increasing beyond the quality setting you had, that might have be the bug and may have been fixed.
@“MovieFan.Plex” Plex wiki says otherwise?
“With auto quality, your video will begin at the starting quality selected in your app’s Quality settings (under Internet Streaming or Home Streaming). After 20-60 seconds, the video will increase or decrease based on your connection speed. If your connection speed changes later, quality will continue to increase or decrease.”
Regardless, Plex doesn’t upscale OR downscale. I’ve tested both.
I still couldn’t find anything in your more recent logs to indicate it not downscaling properly.
Ok here is another set of logs.
SETTINGS/SCENARIO Client: iOS (4.16.2) PMS: Ubuntu (1.8.2.4209) WAN download Speed: 11mbps Internet Streaming Settings:
20mbps (deliberately set higher than the WAN speed so Plex will be forced to downscale to suit my connection)
Play Smaller Videos at Original Quality: Off (to force Transcode) Video info: Les Miserables, 1080P, 14511 kbps
STEPS
Attempt to play Les Miserables at around 6:01pm 4/9/17.
File takes about 60 seconds to start playing. Plays at full 20mbps quality, even though connection is 11mbps. No attempt to downscale is made
File buffers at 3:18, no attempt to downscale is made. Error on client says “Connection to server not fast enough”. Suggesting my WAN speed isn’t sufficient for a 20mbps stream (which is correct). But no attempt to downscale to a lower quality is attempted.
Info on server end shows that transcoding is throttled, so the issue is not transcoder related. When forced to transcode at 4mbps, I have seen 6 simultaneous fully transcoded streams at once. So this isn’t a hardware/transcoding issue.
Summary: No attempt at any stage is made to downscale quality to a level that is playable by my 11mbps WAN speed.
This is the third set of logs i’ve provided. If you can’t find any evidence that auto adjust doesn’t work with the above- can you or @Gregflix, or someone at Plex please try to use Auto Adjust with Linux/Ubuntu PMS? I have tried all kinds of clients, and different versions of PMS/Clients and cannot get it to work.
@Stephen3001 said:
I’m seeing something similar to @FlixNow above. A LAN with a ton of bandwidth not streaming properly when set to orginal quality, however when I access remotely with a restricted stream it works fine.
Logs attached, playback request is around 5:45.
Okay so this is a little weird…
On my iPad I was having problems playing material, taking a long time etc as noted in my previous post above.
HOWEVER…
I changed the iPad from the 2Ghz wireless band to the 5Ghz wireless band and now Plex is as snappy and responsive as ever. Both wireless networks come out of the one router. The 2Ghz network seems to fine on other apps and in the router they are setup the same (except for the frequency).
A strange one I know, not sure why. I can’t see any differences between the two wireless LAN’s, but on 5Ghz Plex is perfect.
@Stephen3001 said:
I’m seeing something similar to @FlixNow above. A LAN with a ton of bandwidth not streaming properly when set to orginal quality, however when I access remotely with a restricted stream it works fine.
Logs attached, playback request is around 5:45.
Okay so this is a little weird…
On my iPad I was having problems playing material, taking a long time etc as noted in my previous post above.
HOWEVER…
I changed the iPad from the 2Ghz wireless band to the 5Ghz wireless band and now Plex is as snappy and responsive as ever. Both wireless networks come out of the one router. The 2Ghz network seems to fine on other apps and in the router they are setup the same (except for the frequency).
A strange one I know, not sure why. I can’t see any differences between the two wireless LAN’s, but on 5Ghz Plex is perfect.
So ummmm yeah…
Your 2ghz band is probably too crowded with your neighbors… On Android you can use “wifi analyzer” app to see what channel would be less crowded, then switch channels in your router.
Also, 5ghz tipically has higher bandwidth but lower range, so it’s normal to get a faster connection.
I am still seeing the exact same behaviour that @FlixNow reported earlier today. Namely, despite Auto Quality being enabled the bitrate never changes up or down, nor is there any indication that Auto Quality is active during playback as it was before.
I tested this again today on two different networks, on two different devices (Android Tablet and Phone), streaming remotely away from home (upload speed 17Mbps).
Test 1
Device: Android Tablet
Network: Work WiFi, approximate bandwidth 5-10Mbps, fluctuates.
I ensured that Automatically Adjust Quality setting was still enabled and that the Internet Streaming setting was set to Maximum.
I then started a stream of a film that has an average bitrate of 20.8Mbps - above both the available bandwidth of my local connection and also above the available upstream bandwidth of my home connection. The film buffered frequently and even after several minutes, did not transcode down to a lower more sustainable bitrate. If I opened the Playback Settings during playback, the Quality setting read “Convert (200 Mbps, 480p Maximum)” (even though information overlay showed that playback was at 800p).
Test 2
Device: Android Phone
Network: 3G on the move, approximate bandwidth 0.1-2Mbps, heavy fluctuation.
I ensured that Automatically Adjust Quality setting was still enabled but left the Internet Streaming" setting at the default setting of “2 Mbps, 720p HD”.
I then started a stream of a TV show that has an average bitrate of 3.2Mbps - above the available bandwidth of my local connection but below the available upstream bandwidth of my home connection. The show buffered extremely frequently and even after several minutes, did not transcode down to a lower more sustainable bitrate. If I opened the Playback Settings during playback, the Quality setting read “Convert (2 Mbps, 720p HD)” (even though information overlay showed that playback was at 406p!).
Test 3
Device: Android Phone
Network: 4G while stationary, approximate bandwidth 30-40Mbps.
I ensured that Automatically Adjust Quality setting was still enabled but left the Internet Streaming" setting at the default setting of “2 Mbps, 720p HD”.
I then started a stream of a TV show that has an average bitrate of 3.2Mbps - below the available bandwidth of my local connection and below the available upstream bandwidth of my home connection. The show buffered extremely frequently and even after several minutes, did not transcode down to a lower more sustainable bitrate. If I opened the Playback Settings during playback, the Quality setting read “Convert (2 Mbps, 720p HD)” (even though information overlay showed that playback was at 406p!).
@FlixNow said:
This is the third set of logs i’ve provided. If you can’t find any evidence that auto adjust doesn’t work with the above- can you or @Gregflix, or someone at Plex please try to use Auto Adjust with Linux/Ubuntu PMS? I have tried all kinds of clients, and different versions of PMS/Clients and cannot get it to work.
I’m not sure this is Linux/FreeBSD specific - i’ve just tried exposing the Windows PMS I use for development work to the Internet and retried some of my 4G streams - I got the exact same result as in my previous post.
Plex does not upscale past your quality setting. That value is a cap. It only goes down and can go back up to that level, but not higher. If it was previously increasing beyond the quality setting you had, that might have be the bug and may have been fixed.
@“MovieFan.Plex” Plex wiki says otherwise?
“With auto quality, your video will begin at the starting quality selected in your app’s Quality settings (under Internet Streaming or Home Streaming). After 20-60 seconds, the video will increase or decrease based on your connection speed. If your connection speed changes later, quality will continue to increase or decrease.”
Ah, sorry. I was understanding something wrong and provided wrong info. The quality setting is not a cap, it is a starting point as mentioned in the support article.
Your 2ghz band is probably too crowded with your neighbors… On Android you can use “wifi analyzer” app to see what channel would be less crowded, then switch channels in your router.
Also, 5ghz tipically has higher bandwidth but lower range, so it’s normal to get a faster connection.
Yeah…not quite.
I checked all of that, there is only one other wireless network within range. The WiFi sniffer said that there was no channel clash, short of getting the Spec An out I think we’re okay channel wise.
Did a speed test on the 2Ghz network, showing 54Mb/s throughput, 5Ghz getting 80Mb/s throughput. No apparent errors in the data transfer.
I think I’ll just chalk this down to something weird.
Plex does not upscale past your quality setting. That value is a cap. It only goes down and can go back up to that level, but not higher. If it was previously increasing beyond the quality setting you had, that might have be the bug and may have been fixed.
@“MovieFan.Plex” Plex wiki says otherwise?
“With auto quality, your video will begin at the starting quality selected in your app’s Quality settings (under Internet Streaming or Home Streaming). After 20-60 seconds, the video will increase or decrease based on your connection speed. If your connection speed changes later, quality will continue to increase or decrease.”
Ah, sorry. I was understanding something wrong and provided wrong info. The quality setting is not a cap, it is a starting point as mentioned in the support article.
I’m checking your logs now.
Thanks @“MovieFan.Plex” , appreciate it. How did you go looking at the logs?
@FlixNow@KJKingJ@Stephen3001 We have a Plex Media Server release (1.9.0 for Plex Pass) coming imminently that contains a bunch of improvements to Auto Quality. We’re hoping that it resolves the 1.8.1-1.8.2 regression that you’re seeing with Auto Quality Preview on iOS/Android.
@FlixNow
These logs are helpful, particularly the Plex Transcoder Statistics.2.log log. I can see the mistake that the server is making during bandwidth allocation. Can you re-test on 1.9.0 when released and let us know? If it still has issues there, providing the same logs would be very helpful for us.
Note, one usage recommendation:
The default starting quality in your client’s global settings should usually be lower than your connection speed, allowing Auto Quality to scale up after starting. While we support the scenario where you start too high and then allow quality to decrease, the smoothest playback behavior is going to come from starting at a lower quality (such as the default of 2 Mbps 720p) then allowing Auto Quality to increase quality over time.
It sounds like you were hitting issues with that scenario, too, but just wanted to clarify the optimal settings there. In your iOS playback from the logs, the client is downloading at very close to the 17.3 Mbps starting quality, but with fluctuating bandwidth that ultimately ends in a stall.
Hi @Gregflix thanks for the info and taking the time to look into the issue. Much appreciated.
There has been some confusion around the quality setting being a limit or a starting point. Good to know it’s purely a starting point, and will set the starting internet streaming quality at 2mbps.
Will retest when 1.9 is available and will post my results.
@Gregflix said: @FlixNow@KJKingJ We just made a configuration change. Could you restart Plex Media Server and let us know if ABR has restored?
Looks to be all working now! From the outset the quality setting was on Convert Automatically, with the default 2Mbps bitrate, after ~30 seconds it upgraded to 4Mbps and later on to 5.9Mbps (this is over 3G, so about what i’d expect).
Thank you very much for looking in to this and fixing it
The default starting quality in your client’s global settings should usually be lower than your connection speed, allowing >Auto Quality to scale up after starting. While we support the scenario where you start too high and then allow quality to >decrease, the smoothest playback behavior is going to come from starting at a lower quality (such as the default of 2 Mbps >720p) then allowing Auto Quality to increase quality over time.
So I set 4Mbit/s upload in my Server Settings and in Client Settings 2 Mbit/s and over time it increases Quality to 4Mbit/s.
What when someone starts a stream then? Does Quality decrease again to 2Mbit/s and both share the about 4Mbit/s upload?
That would be nice!
What happen if the Client changes his Settings to 4Mbit/s or to max?
What when someone starts a stream then? Does Quality decrease again to 2Mbit/s and both share the about 4Mbit/s upload?
This type of load balancing has been added in the upcoming release. Auto Quality users will share bandwidth between each other as you describe.
What happen if the Client changes his Settings to 4Mbit/s or to max?
If the server doesn’t have a global bandwidth limit set, it will allow the user to disable Auto Quality and select 4 Mbps in this case. If the server does have a global bandwidth limit and the rest is being used by other users, it will prevent the user from forcing a quality higher than the user’s existing reservation (2 Mbps).
I think more controll in PMS itself would be nice. Like a Setting no Client can “overwrite”
What nice to set then:
Let´s say I have an upload from 10Mbit/s
In PMS I set it to 8Mbit/s
If one Client streams he will get full 8Mbit/s
if two Quality decreases to 4Mbit/s
If three the one who streamed first gets 4Mbit/s and the two other 2Mbit/s
and if four Clients are Streaming they get 2Mbit/s.
This order is set in the PMS Settings or it is automated by manually set it to " How many Clients can stream max"? = 4 Clients in this case.
And to reverse if someone stopps Streaming the First (8Mbit/s) get his 4Mbit/s (from 2Mbit/s to 4Mbit/s). This is because he was the first who Begins to stream!
And all this is simply with Setting ALL Clients to Auto Quality and NO Client can overwrite it! This is important!
Because this is my Server and the CLient has to take it or leave it!
Auto adjust now works when using main user, but doesn’t work with managed users?
I can see that “Auto” isn’t an option when looking at quality options for Managed Users. Either in the main Quality Settings or Playback Settings during file playback.
