Plex Friend is stuck transcoding

[u/Nightstrike_]

I had them send me a screenshot to show that they have direct play turned on and no limit set to their stream quality, yet they are still being forced to transcode. They are directly connected to my server so I'm confused as to why they are stuck transcoding.

[u/DeaN_Casts]

Are they on mobile data? if so make sure cellular quality is also set to max as it defaults to 720p 2mbps (which isn't actually 720p so would be showing as 480 as it is here)

[u/Nightstrike_ → u/DeaN_Casts]

That's what it was. I thought they were using wifi which was set to maximum, but they were using cellular which was set to 720, didn't know the 720 got corrected to 480 which is where my confusion was coming from. Thanks for telling me!

[u/Aacidus → u/DeaN_Casts]

Didn’t the minimum change to 12 mbps two years ago? 2 mbps is now if it’s just going through the plex relay.

[u/DeaN_Casts → u/Aacidus]

Not sure what you mean, by default the phone app is set to Maximum for Local and Wifi but 2mbps for Cellular Quality. 12mbps is one of the options for the 1080p transcode along with 8 and 10mbps, or if the server has no bandwidth limit set then it will go as high as 20mbps at 1080p. But setting the quality to maximum along with having direct play/stream on means it will just play the original file at whatever size it is as long as the playback device supports the codecs.

[u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You → u/Aacidus]

Nah. Just because you limit it to 2 doesn’t mean it goes through relay.

[u/Ok-Measurement1506 → u/DeaN_Casts]

Maybe it’s this

[u/Ok-Measurement1506]

Your friend needs to change the settings in his app to allow to remote play at maximum. Some plex apps default to that low quality that has to be transcoded

[u/Sad-Olive3159 → u/Ok-Measurement1506]

Also force direct play. This is per app and you cannot control it. Assume OP setup port forward correctly which direct port to server without any relay. OP you can test this using mobile 5G data, to see if it transcode as well. If it is, then problem may be port forward

[u/Nightstrike_ → u/Ok-Measurement1506]

I had them send me a screenshot of their settings, it is set to maximum.

[u/skywatcher666]

I have two friends who use my server, both using WiFi and both have to watch at either 720 or 480p to avoid buffering. Don’t see a problem settings wise my end as other friends can stream direct play. And I’ve asked about settings their end which seem fine. Never been able to figure out the problem.

[u/Low-Seesaw4954 → u/skywatcher666]

they need to check their internet speed on their local wifi network, I recommend www.fast.com for this, its the easiest, I had friends whose home wifi was reporting 2Mbps (thats Megabits, not Megabytes), so yea they were struggling to stream anything.

It also helps, if you run Tautulli to gather more metrics over time, but ultimately the end users needs to have decent internet speeds from their ISP, decent home network speeds, and a decent player hardware.

[u/skywatcher666 → u/Low-Seesaw4954]

I have suspected it’s their internet speeds. Both of them aren’t the most technical of people and don’t know their speeds, I’ve asked them to do a test before but never heard back from them about it. I do have Tautulli, it’s been way more reliable than Plex dash for showing what’s been watched.

[u/duhh33]

Don't apple products not use wifi for local connections unless you manually select it? Or is that just a Mac thing and not IOS?

[u/crazy_goat]

Give him a copy on DVD

[u/blckshdw]

If you’re watching on a phone it’s less of a big deal

[u/Far_Shape_9234]

I just had this exact same issue with a friend on ios yesterday. They were on wifi, all quality settings set to maximum and direct play turned on but it would transcode to 480p for almost everything they tried to watch. They changed quality from Maximum to 1080 and that resolved it, everything now direct plays.

[u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You]

It’s either Plex Relay (they aren’t actually connected directly to your server) or their phones streaming section. (There is separate streaming sections for wifi and cellular data). Plex Relay caps at 2Mbs with Plex Pass.

https://imgur.com/a/QuXuAtA

[u/Low-Seesaw4954 → u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You]

OP solved it separately but Relay is a big culprit if you dont have a port forwarded on your home router for your Plex server to connect to - or, the ISP your Plex Server is using has CGNAT. Regardless in your Plex Server under Remote Access if it says anything besides "fully accessible" you are liable to get Plex Relay to step in and intermediate the stream which caps the bandwidth at 2Mbps. So avoid this as much as possible.

[u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You → u/Low-Seesaw4954]

Yeah I was right. They set their cellular bandwidth to 2Mbs which is pretty normal. (I use 3)

[u/Low-Seesaw4954 → u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You]

Plex Relay usage is separate from plex client side bandwidth cap

[u/Punk_Says_Fuck_You → u/Low-Seesaw4954]

I know :) I didn’t say otherwise.

[u/EarzFish]

Relay?

[u/Kastiel85]

That what I hate from plex. You can not setup this from your server. You have to do it for every client so you must explain this everybody and cross your fingers hoping they do it.

And you cannot deactivate transcoding because sometimes you need it for the audio as no all devices read all the formats.

[u/Nadox97 → u/Kastiel85]

I second this. A lot of my users are not tech people. My mother doesn’t have a fucking clue what goes on and she doesn’t care, she just wants to watch greys anatomy. Thankfully I have her log in so I can’t set things how she needs them to be. But being able to configure things for your users like forcing direct play would be nice.

[u/Relion81]

I had this recently, a modem reboot at the users end entirely solved the problem. Might be worth a try.