Transcoding

[antonyb]

Hi everyone

Wasn't sure where to post this question, so please let me know if this is the wrong place!

I'm a very happy user of the Plex for Kodi add-on inside MrMC, on an Apple TV 4K. It works pretty much flawlessly - really amazing job all involved!

However, one problem I do run into occasionally is files being transcoded on my Plex Server when I'm sure they don't need to be. Most of my content Direct Plays just fine, including 4K HEVC content with 7.1 audio. But every so often I get a file thats, e.g. 1080p H264 with AC3 audio, and Plex decides to transcode that 3 ways, from MP4 to MKV, from H264 to H264, and from AC3 to AAC.

I'm not entirely sure which bits of the Plex server log are most useful to help debug this, but here's some things that might be relevant:

May 13, 2018 15:10:11.930 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - (Capabilities) Platform 'Kodi' not matched by plugin platform requirements
...
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.622 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] ERROR - ClientProfileExtra: missing protocol parameter
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.622 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] WARN - ClientProfileExtra: ignoring directive: append-transcode-target-audio-codec(type=videoProfile&context=streaming&audioCodec=ac3)
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.622 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] ERROR - ClientProfileExtra: missing protocol parameter
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.622 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] WARN - ClientProfileExtra: ignoring directive: append-transcode-target-audio-codec(type=videoProfile&context=streaming&audioCodec=eac3)
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.623 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] ERROR - ClientProfileExtra: missing protocol parameter
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.623 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] WARN - ClientProfileExtra: ignoring directive: append-transcode-target-audio-codec(type=videoProfile&context=streaming&audioCodec=dca)
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.623 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] ERROR - ClientProfileExtra: missing protocol parameter
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.624 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] WARN - ClientProfileExtra: ignoring directive: append-transcode-target-codec(type=videoProfile&context=streaming&videoCodec=vp9)
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.624 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] WARN - TranscodeUniversalRequest: at least one profile extra directive could not be read
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.624 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - TranscodeUniversalRequest: using augmented profile Web
.....
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.660 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - Streaming Resource: Attempting to create AdHoc transcode session 4e4c77ff-eed0-45e8-89fe-040713e2bb28
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.661 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - Codecs: hardware transcoding: testing API vaapi
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x32315659 -> yuv420p.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x30323449 -> unknown.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x3231564e -> nv12.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x32595559 -> yuyv422.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x59565955 -> uyvy422.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x48323234 -> yuv422p.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x58424752 -> rgb0.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x58524742 -> bgr0.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.662 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Format 0x30313050 -> p010le.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Created surface 0x4000000.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - [FFMPEG] - Direct mapping possible.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - Scaled up video bitrate to 9228Kbps based on 1.500000x fudge factor.
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: Selected protocol http; container: mkv
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: analyzing media item 58
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: Direct Play is disabled
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: selected audio stream is not the first audio stream and direct play stream selection is not enabled
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/h264
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/h264/aac
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.663 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: no direct play video profile exists for http/mp4/h264/ac3
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.664 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: Direct Streaming is disabled, so video stream will be transcoded
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.664 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: movie_name: no remuxable profile found, so video stream will be transcoded
May 13, 2018 15:10:35.664 [0x7f5a4ebfd700] DEBUG - MDE: Cannot direct stream video stream due to profile or setting limitations
.....
May 13, 2018 15:12:27.510 [0x7f5a7b0e9700] DEBUG - [Now] Device is Kodi (Kodi Add-on (Main-TV)).
May 13, 2018 15:12:27.511 [0x7f5a7b0e9700] DEBUG - [Now] Profile is Web
.....
May 13, 2018 15:19:46.669 [0x7f5a7b0e9700] DEBUG - [Now] Device is Kodi (Kodi Add-on (Main-TV)).
May 13, 2018 15:19:46.670 [0x7f5a7b0e9700] ERROR - Unable to find client profile for device; platform=Kodi, platformVersion=3.6-2 Git:2018-04-25-4528cc1-dirty, device=IOS, model=Unknown
....


Any help gratefully received!

Ant