Server Version#: 1.42.2.10156
Player Version#: 5.93.2 (platform v8)
Quality Suggestions: Off
Local quality: Original
Remote Quality: Original
Allow Direct Play: On
Allow Direct Stream: On
Force Direct Play: Off
Maximum H.264 Level: None
Disable Bitrate Limiting: On
The main reason, I guess, is that the TV’s capabilities are being discovered incorrectly. Plex no longer uses platform profiles but relies on some internal discovery mechanism, which does not work or is obsolete. Considering the app is barely maintained, I can assume both might be true.
My observation is that, after a certain number of streams in a container, Plex wrongfully decides to transcode. Perhaps that limitation did exist on older TVs, but at least on mine (2023), this limit is significantly higher, because forcing the Direct Play always plays those streams that Plex has previously transcoded with no issues. The only case when the audio has to be transcoded on modern Samsung TVs is DTS/TrueHD, and perhaps some really large numbers of streams (30+?).
In addition to that, while transcoding, Plex now destroys multichannel audio. If transcoding AC35.1 to AAC 5.1, that’d be tolerable, but it always converts to AAC stereo, which mercilessly destroys the user experience.
When the total number of streams is smaller (under 20-30), Plex direct plays with no issues, both AC3 5.1 and EAC3 5.1 play just fine, but only if this is the first audio stream. If you change the audio stream to any secondary one, transcoding to AAC stereo happens every time, even if that was AC3 Stereo.
Here is an example of playing a movie with a small number of embedded streams, and when playing the first audio (the default one).
Same movie, but after switching the audio to the secondary one. The playback worked for a few minutes and started buffering because of the Overzealous client error.
Different movie, also playing a secondary audio stream, and Plex is transcoding AC3 Stereo to AAC. Same as the above – played for a few minutes and stuck on buffering with the same Overzealous client error.
Another movie with a large number of streams (17 audio and 34 subtitles) always transcodes audio, disregarding whether that’s the primary stream or not
Another example is when enabling subtitles while the video is being directly streamed. The playback doesn’t break completely, but buffering shows every few seconds.
The truth is – they all play well with the Force Direct Play: On.
Incorrect platform capability detection leads to unnecessary transcoding, loss of multichannel audio, “overzealous client” errors, and bugs while rendering subtitles.
