Hello,
I installed a TrueNas Scale on a pc to make it a Plex server. Everything works great but I have one problem.
My SurfaceBook on which I play Plex connect to my TV can’t read 4k films (“This server is not powerful enough to convert video”).
I can on my desktop computer, on my mobile, on my iPad but not on my SurfaceBook…
Actually I can uses the windows app to watch films also in 4k, but videos also lights ones jerked on reading. So I use the web interface which work perfectly without any problem. Except I can’t read 4k films…
Every drivers are up, I can read these 4k files directly on the laptop or TV but not by Plex server and only for that device.
Your Windows App of Plex is probably unable to direct play → your CPU has to transcode → your CPU is not powerful enough since 4k transcoding is no easy task for any CPU.
Try to not transcode. Maybe default 720p setting that Plex for some stupid reason used to have back in my days when I used Plex years ago?
Is your SurfaceBook Windows Go?
Either way you will probably have better chances asking that in the Plex forums.
Two reasons. Not sure if 1 is still true.
1: They don’t want you to share it with too many people, that is why they used to set the default to 720p. that way you have to instruct all your users to please set their client to max quality.
2: Your client does not support the format, the codec, the level, hdr or anything else and thous the file has to be transcoded. That is different from you just opening a file from SMB with VLC.
Playing via SMB is playing without transcoding - and if it plays without buffering, that suggests that the network connection between your SurfacePro and server has sufficient bandwidth.
So I suspect that what is happening is that Plex is starting off by asking for a transcode to a lower resolution and is then getting buffering and mistakenly believes that this is a lack of bandwidth rather than the real-time transcoding not being able to keep up.
There is probably a client setting to define the default resolution requested and set that to native.
Sara - I can read 1080p blu-ray without any problem.
I searched for adding codec to plex without success for now.
Protopia - Playing from the shared folder is playing without transcoding yes, but I also pay plex without transcode.
I already checked if it was a bandwidth problem but it isn’t.
Settings for native resolution are already set too.
I don’t know if it help, I have episodes of shows in light 1080p that I can’t read ether on my big computer in ethernet but which work great on my laptop. And when I active the transcoding it’s reverse, work on desktop but not laptop…
It’s enigmatic.
Actually, what’s your pc hardware?
Maybe, the problem is excatly what the error say: your server is not capable to transcode for your surface.
Maybe can be helpful try tautulli, for view some detail analytics when you run Plex.
Do you have the PlexPass? From what i read at time i start use Plex, the hardware transcoding is less resource hungry. This is one of the result but is well explained on plex site too
If you’re using Plex via a web browser, that’s your problem: web browsers have very limited number of codecs they support, especially surround sound audio codecs, so practically all movies and TV-shows have to be transcoded – there is no magic around that.
If you don’t want transcoding, you’ll need to use the native Plex app.
It very much is. I can play a 4K HDR movie with hardware transcoding to 1080p SDR with my server being…a 4-core Intel Celeron J4115, a 10W CPU, when using hardware transcoding. Intel’s QuickSync is just fabulous for that.
Yeah, i read of people transcoding to 3 device with my same CPU (i3 7100t, another power monster ).
For the moment i don’t have the pass, so i’m actually just stream… but i’m really curious about that and on how it can improve “overall experience”
@Florent_Dufour there are so many codecs and levels and other factors, that ends up in a million combinations. So no, it is not enigmatic
Try this:
Try to play a file that hangs
Then you go to the Plex Dashboard. There you can see if the file is direct played or not (probably not).
download mediainfo
scan the file with with mediainfo
past the JSON output from mediainfo in the Plex forums with your Server OS and Version and you player OS and Version and ask why the file can’t be direct played.
or:
only use 1080p, h.264 level 4 or lower, AAC audio, mp4 files. These files can be direct played on almost anything, even your browser.
Thanks for all your answers but I it’s not helping.
I’d love use the windows app instead of browser but it suc*s so…
Plex server is install on an i7 nvme 12gb ram.
I do direct-play for performances, I’m alone to use it and no distance play.
I know I can read a 1080p, this is not a solution, my problem is I want to play 4K on my … 4K TV ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I will add a button to launch films from plex interface to VLC and that’s it…
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