10 replies to this topic

[RockStar]

Is there any way of disabeling transcoding on the server? My server sounds like a boing taking off when someone starts to watch something thats being transcoded. Id like to just shut the feature off. Preferably still allowing Direct streaming or whatever its called when you remux for ios without actually transcoding anything.

[Trudge]

Is there any way of disabeling transcoding on the server? My server sounds like a boing taking off when someone starts to watch something thats being transcoded. Id like to just shut the feature off. Preferably still allowing Direct streaming or whatever its called when you remux for ios without actually transcoding anything.

You can delete the transcoder.

Transcoding is lazy, it will only be doing it if it needs to. If you disable it, the people causing it will simply not be able to watching media instead.

[RockStar]

Where I live, getting fast enough internet speeds should be no sweat. Its accessible and affordable. They will manage.

So how do I delete the transcoder?
And will that remux stuff for iOS still work?

[Trudge]

And will that remux stuff for iOS still work?

No. Nothing will work but native formats for each device.

You're not quite getting it. Transcoding is last resort, if your/their bandwidth was enough now, it would not be transcoding - it only transcodes if it *has* to.


*BIG FLASHING WARNING LIGHTS HERE*

Unless you really know what you are trying to do (which honestly, right now, it sounds like you don't quite), this is a BAD idea.

Transcoder lives here -> /Applications/Plex\ Media\ Server.app/Contents/Resources/Plex Transcoder

[RockStar]

I get it. Ive got friends who wanna be on my server, and thats fine, as long as my box keeps quiet.
Ive got 100 mbps upstream so my internet is fast enough. If they still wanna stream my stuff, they will need to upgrade their internet.

I was kinda hoping for a better sollution than deleting the transcoder though. Like some regedit solution just to disable it. Something that could be undone.

[Trudge]

I was kinda hoping for a better sollution than deleting the transcoder though. Like some regedit solution just to disable it. Something that could be undone.

rename it

Ive got 100 mbps upstream so my internet is fast enough. If they still wanna stream my stuff, they will need to upgrade their internet.

It is about a lot more than bandwidth is my point.

[RockStar]

renaming it back will make it work again? Thx alot for the help! much appreciated!

It is about a lot more than bandwidth is my point.

I get that alot of formats wont play on ios etc. Which is why I asked about the remuxing stuff. All my content is mkvs with 99.9% of it containing h264 video. remuxing it would likely work. I get that killing the transcoder will stop these devices from working.

Will still work using PCs, Macs and Samsung TVs though. Ideally, I would be able to pick and choose who gets to use the transcoder and who don't.

[Trudge]

renaming it back will make it work again?

Yes.

Here is a list of things not having the transcoder will break -> http://wiki.plexapp...._really_mean.3F

[RockStar]

thx!

[jemenake]

You're not quite getting it. Transcoding is last resort, if your/their bandwidth was enough now, it would not be transcoding - it only transcodes if it *has* to

I don't think this is accurate, which makes your "You're not quite getting it" comment all that more unfortunate to see. I just tried, from *work*, to watch a movie on my *home* Plex server, and Plex transcoded it and squashed the hell out of it (video was all muddy, and the audio was all swishy). Then, I immediate switched to a web browser, and opened that *same* movie file, directly, through HTTP, and it played, in its native format, without any hiccups. I've always been able to this (watch my movies directly via HTTP through my home's upstream connection), yet Plex has transcoded it into horrible mush both times I've tried using that.

The movie was 500MB and had a running time of about 100 minutes. By my calculations, that's about 666kbps needed to stream it, which is way below my 1.5Mbps upstream bandwidth from my home (which is backed up by the fact that I could stream the in-transcoded movie via HTTP).

So, the fact of the matter seems to be that Plex is *not* making a very good assessment of when it needs to transcode the movie or not, and it would be nice if we could manually tell Plex what our bandwidth is, or to prevent it from transcoding below a certain bitrate.

[Trudge]

I don't think this is accurate, which makes your "You're not quite getting it" comment all that more unfortunate to see. I just tried, from *work*, to watch a movie on my *home* Plex server, and Plex transcoded it and squashed the hell out of it (video was all muddy, and the audio was all swishy). Then, I immediate switched to a web browser, and opened that *same* movie file, directly, through HTTP, and it played, in its native format, without any hiccups. I've always been able to this (watch my movies directly via HTTP through my home's upstream connection), yet Plex has transcoded it into horrible mush both times I've tried using that.

The movie was 500MB and had a running time of about 100 minutes. By my calculations, that's about 666kbps needed to stream it, which is way below my 1.5Mbps upstream bandwidth from my home (which is backed up by the fact that I could stream the in-transcoded movie via HTTP).

So, the fact of the matter seems to be that Plex is *not* making a very good assessment of when it needs to transcode the movie or not, and it would be nice if we could manually tell Plex what our bandwidth is, or to prevent it from transcoding below a certain bitrate.

 

Plex doesn't make any assessment on bandwidth, the bandwidth options are set on the client side, so if it was all squishy and you have the bandwidth adjust the quality up.  If the bandwidth settings are low, it will transcode the media down to meet that bit-rate even if the client can direct play the media.  Check out the server logs, they will tell you why it is transcoding, but transcoding is always last resort.