Hi all, I have a problem: All the movies I play from my laptop, which is located in my summer home, are suddenly getting transcoded, when I try to play at home! The server runs on a Core I7 processor on the laptop, which is connected to the Internet via a network cable (Fiber @100Mbit/s) My Home computer is also connected directly to my Fiber (100Mbit/s)… I used to be able to direct-play all the content on my Laptop, but I am not anymore… I have PlexPass, and the latest version of PMS installed… I think something has happened to my Server or my settings… (I have it on the port-forwarded port 32400, and it appears green)… What can be wrong, it transcodes even some low-bitrate .mp4 movies, without any subtitles! There is no problem when I play my media at home without Internet streaming, on both my computer, my TV Samsung Q7C55, or my Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2017). I am running the same version of Plex Mediaserver at home as I run at my summer-home, and all the devices I use (Android Phone, TV and the Nvidia Shield are connected to my home network by wi-fi, except my computer which uses a wired connection)
I can also add that all of these clients have the remote streaming quality set to the maximum (original quality)
I’ve attached the PMS Logs from the Laptop @ my summer home:
Actually, the logs shows you transcoding for all those devices as well
You can check the Plex Transcoder Statistics logs to see
Do you have subtitles set to “burn in”? This will trigger a transcode every time
Also, check your settings for Remote… Local defaults to Original but Remote is usually set lower
You have quite a few database errors. I recommend doing a database optimization. Using the web client, click on the three dots next to the Libraries text and select optimize database.
After you do that, close the Plex Server application, wait one minute, restart it, wait two minutes, then try to play something that has caused transcoding in the past. After that happens, wait 30 seconds, then go to the Plex server settings -> help, click download logs, then attach them here so we can see what is going on.
Here is a screenshot of me directplaying a high bitrate .mkv located at my home plex mediaserver, on the same Nvidia Shield TV, with subtitles enabled (.srt)… Just so You can see that my client is setup correctly…
I don’t see any files being played in your logs. Please repeat the process (close the server, restart it, etc) and then play a file, then grab the logs again.
I’ve played Paula S01E01.mp4 again…
(I also deleted the logs directory before I restarted PMS, so everything in this log should be from the file “Paula S01E01.mp4”
Here is the info on that file:
Files
G:\My Videos\TV\Paula.S01.SWESUB.WEBRip.x264-P2P\Paula S01E01.mp4
Media
Video Resolution 720p
Duration 51:23
Bitrate 2800 kbps
Width 1280
Height 720
Aspect Ratio 1.78
Container MP4
Video Frame Rate PAL
Web Optimized No
Audio Profile he-aac
Has 64bit Offsets 0
Video Profile high
Part
Duration 51:23
File Paula S01E01.mp4
Size 1.01 GB
Audio Profile he-aac
Container MP4
Has 64bit Offsets 0
Web Optimized No
Video Profile high
Codec H264
Bitrate 2700 kbps
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Color Range tv
Color Space bt709
Frame Rate 25 fps
Height 720
Level 3.1
Profile high
Ref Frames 4
Stream Identifier 1
Width 1280
Codec AAC
Channels Stereo
Bitrate 100 kbps
Profile he-aac
Sampling Rate 24000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
I heard on reddit that another user can have his quality settings in his client(s) set to transcoding, and that would interfere with my settings, is that a maybe a possibility?
Each client is configured independently from the server and each other, so if a client is set for a max bitrate of 1.5mb, then no matter what you have set up, that client will pretty much request a transcode for everything.
I got busy at home tonight so I didn’t get a chance to look at your new logs. I’ll check them tomorrow and report what I see.
I had a quick peek at your logs. Are you editing them at all before you upload them? Do you have debug logging enabled? I just don’t see anything in there. If you don’t have debug logging enabled that would explain it. Make sure debug logging is enabled, but do not enable verbose logging and make sure you do not log your Plex media server tokens.
In your server settings in the general tab, click show advanced, then tick the box next to “Enable Plex Media Server debug logging”, and remove any check marks next to “Enable Plex Media Server verbose logging” and “Allow Plex Media Server tokens in logs”.
After you enable debug logging, repeat the shutdown/startup/playback again. One last time should do it, haha.
I was looking for ‘Direct Play’ on my Shield, but I couldn’t find it, but what I did, was to enable ‘Adjust Automatically’. which I had disabled… And that helped! Now I could Direct Play all of my videos, even with subtitles! (I have them set to burn in only for image formats…)
This was very strange I think… It should have been the other way around i.m.o. as this setting is for people with slow networks, so that they still can get a smooth video playing, at least that was what I thought…
But as I said, it’s working now, I can Direct Play everything on my Laptop!
