Improve Plex Transcoding image quality

[camilo suarez]

I know that this is for the plex forums, but i aleary tried and not even 1 view.

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/113744-improve-image-quality/

i read that you can tweak the server config file and get better image quality for the chromecast or any other device.

i already tried with the settings that you can change on the plex server page, (make my cpu hurt, 1080p 20mbps etc..) but i think they look worst than the original MKV that its playing and i know that the chromecast can give very good quality. so.. i was wondering wheres the plex server config file that they are talking here?

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/104606-my-best-video-setting-for-chromecast-and-android/

thanks for your help!

 

[AleQQ]

Are you trying to stream an .mkv file that has at least a 20mbps stream? Otherwise if you trick plex into playing a 20 and your .mkv is a 10 it would make sense that it will tax your CPU and look like grabage. I just fired up a movie that is definitely 20mbps and ran it for about 15 minutes. Initial load jumped my Pentium G3220 up to about 95% for a minute or so, and then it fluctuated between about 30% and 70%. (1080p @ 20mbps; 5.1 dts hd audio).

If you ripped your video with Handbrake or torrented it then I doubt it's actually a 20mbps video. Usually you have to use a tool like makemkv to achieve a video that high. Even Handbrake's highest quality rip is about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of a makemkv rip

Edit: The movie was good. I watched it all! :P Here's what my CPU usage looked like:

Show

 

[AleQQ]

In the meantime, I have my jail as part of my CIFS share, so I did a windows search in it for "chromecast".

The chromecast.xml file is in \jails\plexmediaserver_1\usr\pbi\plexmediaserver-amd64\share\plexmediaserver\Resources\Profiles

 

[camilo suarez]

Are you trying to stream an .mkv file that has at least a 20mbps stream? Otherwise if you trick plex into playing a 20 and your .mkv is a 10 it would make sense that it will tax your CPU and look like grabage. I just fired up a movie that is definitely 20mbps and ran it for about 15 minutes. Initial load jumped my Pentium G3220 up to about 95% for a minute or so, and then it fluctuated between about 30% and 70%. (1080p @ 20mbps; 5.1 dts hd audio).

If you ripped your video with Handbrake or torrented it then I doubt it's actually a 20mbps video. Usually you have to use a tool like makemkv to achieve a video that high. Even Handbrake's highest quality rip is about 1/4 to 1/3 the size of a makemkv rip

Edit: The movie was good. I watched it all! :p Here's what my CPU usage looked like:

Show

you saw it via chromecast?? or hdmi cable?

 

[AleQQ]

Don't own chromecast. I either watch via the web app built into the server, via Roku or iPad, or via dlna on my smart tv. Last night was the web app.

The issues still stands. How was the movie ripped that you are trying to watch? How big is the file?

Edit: I also use the android app

 

[camilo suarez]

My downloaded movies are around 8gb.. so they are pretty good in image quality, and I’m used to that image quality, that’s why i notice the degradation of the image quality when playing it via plex.


when i watch a movie directly via hdmi cable they look great. now, with the chromecast when i stream movies from netflix they look great too, not as good as the Mkv when i play it via HDMI but they look fine, and that’s why i know that the transcoding in the media server is degrading the image quality of the movie even if i set up the streaming to the maximum quality, 20mbps and make my cpu hurt. I’ll try to modify the chromecast config file with the settings that they are suggesting there to see how it goes.


i want the transcoded movies via plex look at least as good as a netflix movie in full hd. that’s why i want to tweak the transcoding config to see if i can accomplish it.


Thanks for pointing where the file is, that was what i was looking for.

 

[AleQQ]

Let me know how it works. If you still have problems then you may have a WiFi problem. Or, if your cpu is at 100% the whole time then you might be having throttling issues. You should look into a better cpu or a way of streaming that doesn't rely on the server to transcode the stream

 

[camilo suarez]

well replaced the profile with the file that was on the forum and now plex doesnt start again :( i had to reinstall the plugin to make it work again, but im still thinking how to change the file and be able to start again the plugin.

 

[AleQQ]

If the file isn't too big, do a side by side comparison to see what's different. Or Google it.

 

[camilo suarez]

the file have some lines of code changed, (changed some values and erased some lines of code)

(check the first post) changed the green values and erased the red lines.

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/104606-my-best-video-setting-for-chromecast-and-android/

 

[AleQQ]

Well, if it wouldn't start, then something is wrong. General coding practices:
Step 1: make sure the file is in the correct location and has the correct extension
Step 2: closely proofread the file, preferably with an advanced text editor that shows colored tags. It's very easy to leave in an extra < or omit an ". And if plex is super picky that could crash the whole thing

 

[AleQQ]

Also, it's possible that guy isn't using bsd and the file is different. Don't use his file, edit your own.

 

[camilo suarez]

the plex plugin doesnt start again when i change the permissions with set permission recursively from root to AFRK (<- My user) so i can be able to write back the new file of the new config using CIFS share.

i just checked with a fresh install of the plex plugin, just changed the permission and its not turning back on even if i set up the owner again to root.

 

[AleQQ]

Yeah. That seems like a silly reason to change your permissions for the plugin. Reinstall the plugin and access it a different way. Either mount the share on your Windows computer as root. (If you don't want this permanent then change it back once you're done). Our enable ftp and ssh and use filezilla to pull the old file and push the edited one. You can use filezilla to sftp in as root while maintaining your cifs mount as your usual user.

 

[camilo suarez]

how do i mount the share on my windows computer as root?

 

[AleQQ]

Open explorer
type \\your server\
Hit <enter>
Right click the share you want
Click mount as network drive.
In the options choose connect as a different user, use your root login

 

[camilo suarez]

thanks alot finally made it via FTP. i uploaded the file downloaded from the plex forum and it worked perfect, but i didnt gain the quality i wanted :( thanks agian for your help, i think i learned alot tinkering the permission issue with plex hehehee.

 

[camilo suarez]

checking the configs int he Android APP for plex i changed the image quality and finally got the quality i wanted, the image was looking bad because the app had set the image at 768p so when my tv tried to scale it to 1080p it was creating artifacts.

now, when i set up the image to maximun quality the image freeze for about half second every 1 minute (Its not constant, its random), and im wondering if its CPU or a Wireless bottleneck, i dont see any Buffering message, just stuttering for half a second.

My CPU its a intel G3220
board supermicro
24gigs of ECC ram
and 2TB WD Red x 6 Raidz2

 

[cyberjock]

My guess is CPU bound. We tell people not to use the Pentium CPUs when you want to transcode, which is exactly what you are doing. To boot you are transcoding to 1080p and that's going to put serious hurt on the CPU.

It is possible it's the wireless.

CPU bound is easy to diagnose.. go to the command line and look at # top while using the machine. If its still skipping and CPU usage is only 40% then you know that's not the problem. Do look to see if your using a codec that is single threaded (yes, some do exist and you can't fix this except to convert the original to an alternate).

 

[camilo suarez]

Thanks, ill check the "system processes" when playing a movie,

if my problem is CPU Related, wich intel CPU is good for this purpose?