I have 720p h.264 MKV's with AC3 audio. On my PC, when I play them back they look fantastic - no digital artifacts and blacks look inky black. But when I play them on my Xbox One via the Plex app on a 720p plasma, the video quality seems to have a lot of digital artifacts and blacks look blocky. Video is being direct streamed, so there shouldn't be any transcoding that would affect video quality, correct?
Is there a way to edit the video transcoding settings on the server side?
go to the server side and on transcoding change it to "make my cpu hurt" I would recommend you use mp4tools and change it from MKV to mp4 and it will direct play.
MKV is not supported on "Plex" only on microsoft video app so it has to transcode it!
What Zerolim1t said. MKV is a killer for many clients (even though it should not be).
Your best bet is to get into the habbit of only adding MP4 to your collection and remux/transcode any other container.
Otherwise you will always be fighting the "system" one way or another.
I agree! and also! almost every player plays MP4 without a problem!
It really amazes me that so many "experts" and "experienced" users swear by MKV containers. Sure in theory it may be better but not every device support it while the MP4 container is supported by EVERYTHING.
I honestly can't find ANY REASON to use MKV in the real world over MP4. I run several different system (Plex, Media Browser 3, Subsonic/Madsonic) and every single one of them has far less issues with the MP4 container. Also if you are anything "Apple Centric" then MKV shouldn't even be part of your vocabulary. :)
Carlo
It really amazes me that so many "experts" and "experienced" users swear by MKV containers. Sure in theory it may be better but not every device support it while the MP4 container is supported by EVERYTHING.
I honestly can't find ANY REASON to use MKV in the real world over MP4. I run several different system (Plex, Media Browser 3, Subsonic/Madsonic) and every single one of them has far less issues with the MP4 container. Also if you are anything "Apple Centric" then MKV shouldn't even be part of your vocabulary. :)
Carlo
I agree! I use mp4 container for everything! works great with everything! XBOX, PS4, Smart TV, Roku3, Amazon Fire Stick, ChromeCast all with direct play no problem at all. With MKV its a hit or miss! and it takes seconds to use mp4tools to change it. Not sure why everyone fights it!
MKV will Direct Stream to the XBOx one.. changing the container to MP4 should not affect the video quality. It's my understanding that MP4 doesn't support DTS or chapters. Also, can you have multiple subtitles and audio tracks with mp4?
MKV will Direct Stream to the XBOx one.. changing the container to MP4 should not affect the video quality. It's my understanding that MP4 doesn't support DTS or chapters. Also, can you have multiple subtitles and audio tracks with mp4?
That is INCORRECT! MKV will not direct stream. It is not supported by Plex! Only XBOX Local Video player
MKV will Direct Stream to the XBOx one.. changing the container to MP4 should not affect the video quality. It's my understanding that MP4 doesn't support DTS or chapters. Also, can you have multiple subtitles and audio tracks with mp4?
Plex should direct stream this to the xBox One but I'm seeing cases where it doesn't and decides to transcode instead. But simple remuxing to MP4 fixes the problem. If this is true then it's not an XBox or container issue but a bug somewhere in Plex's code that is used to determine direct stream vs transcode. Keep in mind that theoretical vs reality aren't always the same. :)
MP4 can have DTS and chapters in them. I have both in mine.
That is INCORRECT! MKV will not direct stream. It is not supported by Plex! Only XBOX Local Video player
While this doesn't always happen it should. Any time you can remux the file from MKV to MP4 and it direct plays then Plex should have been able to direct stream it without transcoding. This only makes sense since the difference between direct stream vs direct play is a remux step done by the transcoder during playback. Direct stream should be doing nothing but repackaging the the file on the fly. If this doesn't happen it's probably a bug in Plex's code and not specifically a problem with the files.
Carlo
Plex should direct stream this to the xBox One but I'm seeing cases where it doesn't and decides to transcode instead. But simple remuxing to MP4 fixes the problem. If this is true then it's not an XBox or container issue but a bug somewhere in Plex's code that is used to determine direct stream vs transcode. Keep in mind that theoretical vs reality aren't always the same. :)
While we don't have access to the MDE (Media decision engine) on the Xbox One app, you can look at the system profile included with the server.
With that DTS is not supported so if that audio stream is selected it will need to be remuxed into another format.
For h264 even though it is supported it does have limitations that if any are hit the file will be transcoded instead of direct streamed:
So from that the file must have the header with no compression. It has a max bit depth of 8 (I really only have seen Anime that falls in the 10 range) and the video cannot be anamorphic or have the scaling matrix.
And it should be repackaging to mpegts on the fly since there is a lot of problems with trying to goto mp4 on the fly.
That is INCORRECT! MKV will not direct stream. It is not supported by Plex! Only XBOX Local Video player
It does direct stream.
Want to know how I know? Because it does on my Xbox One.
As long as the .mkv file contains a .mp4/h.264 file and has aac audio it will direct stream...
http://i.imgur.com/d6xnhTD.png
MediaInfo: http://pastebin.com/vf4Qeh1L
I just love how everyone ■■■■■ on MKV.
I have m4v Containers only. They play really great ob Xbox One.
But selecting any Subtitle will end in transcoding 
My NAS is almost capable to do the job (E7600), but may stutter regarding the file size. So i just installed a second PMS on my iMac with the same content (network shares on NAS). The i5 in my iMac does a much better job 
I don't know how this thread turned into an MP4 versus MKV shitstorm, but you people just need to stop. For starters, MP4 is seriously just NOT AN OPTION. GODDAMN. I can't deal with 2-channel stereo audio in my films and anyone who settles for that is missing out. For chrissakes I've been enjoying multi-channel surround since the early 90's!!!! MKV with AC3 5.1 audio blows any piece of ■■■■ MP4 out of the water.
So back to my issue: looks like changing the server settings to "make my CPU hurt" is the only option. Thanks for that, Zerolim1t. That said, MP4 sucks ass, and yes - the Xbox One does playback MKV just as long as it's h.264 being contained. Plex will just remux the video on-the-fly.
Anyway, thanks for the input everyone.
*EDIT: for the MP4 fans, please note how this MKV is Direct Streamed (the MKV h.264 container is transcoded) directly to my Xbox One....
And uh... don't judge my film taste.. :D
So you think MP4/M4V is 2-channel only?
Lol
So you think MP4/M4V is 2-channel only?
Lol :-)
Majority of the time people don't use multi channel audio on mp4 files. They use standard AAC 2.0 audio since it is compatible with everything.
I don't know how this thread turned into an MP4 versus MKV shitstorm, but you people just need to stop. For starters, MP4 is seriously just NOT AN OPTION. GODDAMN. I can't deal with 2-channel stereo audio in my films and anyone who settles for that is missing out. For chrissakes I've been enjoying multi-channel surround since the early 90's!!!! MKV with AC3 5.1 audio blows any piece of ■■■■ MP4 out of the water.
Sorry to tell you, MP4 can have AC3/DTS/and multichannel AAC. Don't gripe so hard when you are obviously not fully aware of the capabilities. Guess what container type Plex is remuxing your mkv into.....thats right, MP4.
And this coming from an MKV user/proponent. If you going to argue for the container, at least do it for the right reasons so you don't look foolish.
Guess what container type Plex is remuxing your mkv into.....thats right, MP4.
Close, but it is remuxing into mpegts:
Feb 18, 2015 11:47:58 [0x80ac3b800] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing video part 342646: mkv/h264/aac/
Feb 18, 2015 11:47:58 [0x80ac3b800] DEBUG - MDE: selected video transcode profile: hls - mpegts/h264/aac/
While we don't have access to the MDE (Media decision engine) on the Xbox One app, you can look at the system profile included with the server.
With that DTS is not supported so if that audio stream is selected it will need to be remuxed into another format.
For h264 even though it is supported it does have limitations that if any are hit the file will be transcoded instead of direct streamed:
So from that the file must have the header with no compression. It has a max bit depth of 8 (I really only have seen Anime that falls in the 10 range) and the video cannot be anamorphic or have the scaling matrix.
And it should be repackaging to mpegts on the fly since there is a lot of problems with trying to goto mp4 on the fly.
Great post.
What is ironic however, is that many of the MKV files will direct play if remuxed to MP4. However as you pointed out when transcoding it uses TS and not PS which is probably a good thing.
But concerning your last line. I wasn't aware of this (learn something new everyday!). Got any links or anything I can read up on this?
Carlo
But concerning your last line. I wasn't aware of this (learn something new everyday!). Got any links or anything I can read up on this?
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/mp4parser-discussion/e7yg6clATHc
This one is from the beginning of 2013 but it is basically the same problem. Long story short, MP4's have internal markers (atoms) that contain information about the media, one of the markers is information about file size. Because during transcoding we don't know actual file size we can't properly create this marker.
There are a couple of alternatives, the easiest one is to remux into mpegts which is done on most applications simply because it is one of the most universal formats.
The other option is to use fragmented mp4's. My understanding on those is that they are very hit or miss for support. And even with support can still cause issues with reliable playback mostly with random dropouts.
I am not really an expert on it, a lot of the research I was doing on it was with trying to get a workaround for the FireTV as it only supports surround natively through mp4's which with the above you can see as a big problem.
So you think MP4/M4V is 2-channel only?
Lol :-)
Sorry to tell you, MP4 can have AC3/DTS/and multichannel AAC. Don't gripe so hard when you are obviously not fully aware of the capabilities. Guess what container type Plex is remuxing your mkv into.....thats right, MP4.
And this coming from an MKV user/proponent. If you going to argue for the container, at least do it for the right reasons so you don't look foolish.
LOL - you guys... the Xbox One will not playback MP4's in anything other than 2-channel stereo. Did I say anywhere that the MP4 container couldn't handle multi-channel audio itself? Nope. Sorry. If I gave you that impression, my bad. ;)
Yes, h.264 MKV's with AC3 5.1 are still the way to go, friends - for the Xbox One.
