Like the subject line says. I would rather not have this need transcoding as it does tie up the cpu a fair bit on the server, and I don’t follow why on the lan transcoding is being forced for hdhomerun connect devices.
Kodi uses a custom player, but Plex relies upon the default player on the device. So, if the default player reports it can’t support a container or a codec, then the Plex Server has to transcode to a container/codec that the player does support.
The only plex client (streaming device) that natively supports mpeg2 TS interlaced/progressive video is the Nvidia Shield.
Android client that is.
I don’t follow that. In advanced setting I can select ‘Use external player’ or another pick is ‘use android media player’ . So what does it use if neither is selected?
Oh, and neither is selected by default.
ExoPlayer is default player we customize a bit. it is made by Google
“Android Media Player” is whatever very generic media player that comes on device. the videos your phone takes with camera would be played in this for example when in the generic photo app.
Both of these require the device to have the codecs needed
External Player means use some other app that is not Plex to play the file. Like mplayer, kodi or something. These players use their own software decoders to play the file.
To be clear basically all Plex apps on any device use the codecs available on device. Like an Apple TV cannot play DTS as it is not supported by AVPlayer which is the internal player on Apple TV. So the server transcodes to AC3 or AAC5.1 so it can.
So I assume it is complex to include codecs with ExoPlayer.
And thank you for a very clear answer.
Ok I did some reading,
https://google.github.io/ExoPlayer/supported-formats.html
So I am guessing things like vlc and kodi use ffmpeg as a software decoder. It would be nice to have the option.
I can’t say how “complex” it is. I am not a developer myself. It is certainly not trivial
@SiscoPlex said:
The only plex client (streaming device) that natively supports mpeg2 TS interlaced/progressive video is the Nvidia Shield.Android client that is.
Yet the TS files recorded by Plex PVR will not play back via the Plex Client on my NVIDIA Shield - I have to use SPMC (Kodi fork) to play them - I use the Kodi addon for Plex to give me access to the Plex features such as Mark Watched etc. PMS 1.7.6 really screwed things up for me…
Blueskies, Paul
@paulblueskies said:
@SiscoPlex said:
The only plex client (streaming device) that natively supports mpeg2 TS interlaced/progressive video is the Nvidia Shield.Android client that is.
Yet the TS files recorded by Plex PVR will not play back via the Plex Client on my NVIDIA Shield - I have to use SPMC (Kodi fork) to play them - I use the Kodi addon for Plex to give me access to the Plex features such as Mark Watched etc. PMS 1.7.6 really screwed things up for me…
Blueskies, Paul
I have Semper loaded as well on my Shield and my fire TV’s.
What tuner do you have?
What previous PVR software did you use or is your server the shield?
What OS is your server(if not the shield)?
@paulblueskies said:
@SiscoPlex said:
The only plex client (streaming device) that natively supports mpeg2 TS interlaced/progressive video is the Nvidia Shield.Android client that is.
Yet the TS files recorded by Plex PVR will not play back via the Plex Client on my NVIDIA Shield - I have to use SPMC (Kodi fork) to play them - I use the Kodi addon for Plex to give me access to the Plex features such as Mark Watched etc. PMS 1.7.6 really screwed things up for me…
Blueskies, Paul
it should only need the server to remux into a different container. the mpeg2video video and audio streams should still direct stream. a remux is not CPU intensive at all. thing playing below is mpeg2video with ac3 5.1 audio. do you have direct stream enabled in settings?
@SiscoPlex said:
What tuner do you have?
What previous PVR software did you use or is your server the shield?
What OS is your server(if not the shield)?
I have the HDHomeRun Connect tuners and my server is the Shield so I run both PMS and the Plex client on it. Everything worked fine when they were using MKV containers, and it broke in 1.7.6 when they brought back TS.
@BigWheel said:
it should only need the server to remux into a different container. the mpeg2video video and audio streams should still direct stream. a remux is not CPU intensive at all. thing playing below is mpeg2video with ac3 5.1 audio. do you have direct stream enabled in settings?
If I select “Transcode” in the “CONVERT VIDEO WHILE RECORDING” of the PVR Settings, it will play with the Plex client, but the transcode process squashes the 16:9 aspect into 4:3 in the final video.
Blueskies, Paul
BTW, when looking for the Direct Stream setting in Plex I couldn’t find it. I’m sure it was there and I am 99% sure I had it set to direct stream, but I can no longer find the setting???
@paulblueskies said:
BTW, when looking for the Direct Stream setting in Plex I couldn’t find it. I’m sure it was there and I am 99% sure I had it set to direct stream, but I can no longer find the setting???
that setting doesn’t exist anymore sorry. i was thinking of an older version too. What do you have the 4 video quality settings at. put Home streaming at Maximum and try again
If I select “Transcode” in the “CONVERT VIDEO WHILE RECORDING” of the PVR Settings, it will play with the Plex client, but the transcode process squashes the 16:9 aspect into 4:3 in the final video.
That setting preconverts the stream from mpeg2video ( or whatever it might be ) to h264 in the resulting TS file. should not change aspect ratio. Would like to get logs to make a bug report. that should have info on original stream characteristics and might explain why it doing that. (might be an issue if original stream is anamorphic)
@BigWheel said:
@paulblueskies said:
BTW, when looking for the Direct Stream setting in Plex I couldn’t find it. I’m sure it was there and I am 99% sure I had it set to direct stream, but I can no longer find the setting???that setting doesn’t exist anymore sorry. i was thinking of an older version too. What do you have the 4 video quality settings at. put Home streaming at Maximum and try again
It is at maximum and has been all along. I did upload some logs below for @kegobeer-plex to look at, but they obviously have not had time to do so:
If I select “Transcode” in the “CONVERT VIDEO WHILE RECORDING” of the PVR Settings, it will play with the Plex client, but the transcode process squashes the 16:9 aspect into 4:3 in the final video.
That setting preconverts the stream from mpeg2video ( or whatever it might be ) to h264 in the resulting TS file. should not change aspect ratio. Would like to get logs to make a bug report. that should have info on original stream characteristics and might explain why it doing that. (might be an issue if original stream is anamorphic)
I’ll set it for Transcode and do a recording tonight and upload the logs here.
Thanks and Blueskies, Paul
OK, so something has changed since the last time I tried (I am now at PMS 1.8.0.4109) and the transcoded output has the correct aspect, but the original output file was about 3.4GB in size and the final transcoded version is 11.6GB. That’s going to fill the disk rather quickly - I should be able to play the original TS file instead!
