I wonder if there is a “native” codec/container for a video that needs as little transcoding as possible. (ie. Plex just streams the feed and does not have to do anything else). Just curious.
H264/AAC stereo is supported by almost everything. If you convert all your videos to that, Plex would never need to transcode unless you lower the bitrate.
So, is it the player on the other end that determines this? (Assume Plex player on the receiving end for simplicity sake.)
Yup, the player decides.
So, if you are using the Plex player to receive (any supported platform), H264/AAC stereo would be the thing to use, if you want to use as little server resources as possible?
Yup. I can’t think of a single device that Plex supports currently where that wouldn’t direct play. Keep in mind that h264 has different encoding parameters so those are important too. Profile levels, bitrate, ref frames, chroma sampling, etc. If your encoder has a “basic” target profile, stick to that and don’t try to customize the settings.
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I’d say H.264, Level 4.0 is nowadays safe to use
(except when you have very old Roku devices).
Avoid “variable frame rate”.
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