Video quality setting got overwritten... was set to Maximum, but mysteriously changed to 20 Mbits

Plex Media Server
1

Server Version#: v1.32.8.7639-fb6452ebf
Player Version#: Latest Shield TV

Twice now, over the last few months, I have had this happen. It causes Plex to try to transcode all videos. The server is not powerful enough to transcode the videos, so the clients pause every 5 seconds wating for the stream. All the clients are Shield TV’s and can Direct Play any video I have. Here’s the problem.

I set the “Video quality” on the “Settings->Quality” to “Maximum”. As long as this is set, The server streams the original quality stream. It takes very little CPU to do this, so the server can handle multiple Direct Play streams at once (as long as it does not try to transcode).

What has happened twice, is that the “Video quality” mysteriously gets set to “20 Mbits”, without my knowledge. I do not know what causes the change… a PMS update or what. In any case, I want to prevent this from happening in the future, or at least monitor it so I know when it happens and can reset it.

Is there a file, or database field or something which stores this setting so I can monitor it with a script and reset it before any users start complaining about pauses in playback? I.e., when I click “Save” on the “Quality” screen, where does it get saved?

2

Please note: On the “Transcoder” screen, I do have “Disable video stream transcoding” checked. But unless Quality is also set to Maximun, it still tries to transcode.

3

Need your server DEBUG logs ZIP file please which captures a playback where it does transcode.

Please do remember, the player has control here on quality settings – UNLESS – you limit the bandwidth to less than the player requests.

The player will also call for transcode if there are incompatibilities.

4

To clarify, are you setting this to Maximum on all devices, or just specific clients? The video quality is a per-client setting, so you’ll have to change it everywhere. If you’re using the web app I could see the settings reset if you clear cookies/site data, especially if you don’t have settings sync enabled, but that’s not something I’ve tested.

Since quality is a per-client setting, it gets saved on the device itself, not a centralized location on your server.

5

From the Plex Web App in chrome, I am selecting “Settings->Quality” for the PMS server and choosing “Maximum” the top menu item on that screen. As far as I understand it, this is a server side setting and would apply to all clients.

There may be some other “quality” setting on each client, but that is not the setting I am referring to.

Note: The remote players (clients) only fail when this SERVER setting is not “Maximum”. Once this is correctly set to Maximum on the server side, the client plays properly with no adjustments to its settings.

To see the setting, in the Plex Web App, click the wreoch in the upper right, then in the left navigation section, click on: Quality (Under “Plex Web”) and you should see a drop down meny under “Internet Streaming” labeled “Video quality”.

If you can confirm that you see and understand the Plex Web->Setting->Quality->Video Quality screen I am refering to, then please let me know if you know where the value for that setting is stored.

Thanks for your help!

6

That is not a setting for the server.
It has a header which says “Plex Web”. A such, the 4 items below it only apply to the actual instance of the web app which you are using.

grafik

As was said above already, each Plex client has its own quality settings.
In the case of the web app, these settings will also be reset to default, if your web browser is deleting all cookies from plex.tv when it’s closed.

As a server setting (server settings appear below the “friendly name” of your server in the same side bar menu) there is only a maximum quality for remote connections, under “Remote Access”.

7

So you are saying this setting applies only to video which I play in the chrome browser itself?

Because the problem went away on the remote client (a Shield TV), and the server sent a Direct Play stream once this was reset to Maximum. As I said, it somehow reverted to 20Mbits, which then caused complaints of pauses every 5 seconds by the remote client user.

So if you are right, then there is some weird coincidence going on…

What do you think?

8

Precisely.

9

Tell the user to disable “Quality suggestions” in the settings of the client.

10

These are the settings the remote user has (and did have at the time of the pausing every 5 seconds):
Under VIDEO:
. Adjust Automatically: OFF
. Home Streaming: Maximum
. Quality Suggestions: OFF
. Remote Streaming Quality: Maximum
. Play Smaller Videos: OFF

I had them check at the time of the pausing problem.

I will have them (the user) double check and get back. I will also set the Web App Quality to 20Mbits and see if I can reproduce what I am saying. It may take a day or two to get the user to check, so I’ll get back to you…

Thanks so much for your help and for clarifying the meaning of the Quality setting. I had no idea… obviously.

11

That should be ON, as its full title is “Play smaller videos at full quality”.

Though I am a bit confused, because “Adjust Automatically” should not even be in there, if “Quality Suggestions” is present. Because the latter has replaced the former.

12

I am starting a new thread for this, as the subject here is no longer accurate. …still getting “No Direct Play” with pauses for remote users. Will post logs in new thread. “Direct Play is disabled (Nvidia Shield TV)”

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