One of the biggest drawbacks of having your server set up Plex In a less powerful device, such as , it practically cannot perform a transcoding due to its poor performance, throwing us the error of «This server is not powerful enough to convert video«. Therefore, the ideal is that in all your content, Plex can do direct playbackwithout conversions, and to do this your videos must be in a very specific format.
But first of all, let’s clarify what transcoding is: Transcoding (transcode) is the process that Plex performs when a video is not compatible with the device on which you are trying to play it (for example, on a relatively old TV), converting it on the fly and consuming a large part of the server’s performance. On powerful computers or servers this is not a major problem, but on low-power devices, things get complicated.
The ideal codec for your Plex to avoid transcoding on devices
So that, if you want many users to be able to access your Plex from different devices and avoid transcoding As much as possible, there is a combination of codecs and formats that are compatible with the vast majority of devices: from mobile phones and TVs to consoles and tablets.
Specifically, we are talking about this combination:
- Video
- Codec: AVC H.264
- Profile: High L4.0 (or L4.1) (or Main L4.0)
- Audio
- Codec: AAC (or AC3 or E-AC3)
- Subtitle
- Container MKV or MP4
In itself, it doesn’t matter how many tracks your video may have as long as they all have these codecs. Obviously, if your movie or series includes more than one track or integrated subtitles, the container must be mkv. And the video quality doesn’t matter either, although lower quality will cause your Plex to consume less bandwidth. What you should avoid are 4K resolutions, since that will put a bad strain on the CPU of your small server.
Then, although most modern smart televisions, TV boxes and smartphones are compatible with an infinite number of video files, the combination described above will ensure compatibility on practically all devices.
🛑 Common formats that should be avoided 🛑
Codecs like h265 (HEVC)profiles High10 or High greater than 4.1audios in FLAC or subtitles in ASS (or another format other than SRT) can cause problems and force transcoding depending on which players.
Then, on the sidelines is the use of Plex via browser, which also forces a somewhat strange transcoding no matter what video format you’re playing. It is therefore advisable to avoid using Plex in the browser and instead use the .
How to convert your videos to the ideal Plex format
With Handbrake
There are several converters that allow you to customize the output codecs to get your video compatible with Plex. One of them is useful if you are converting a few things individually.
Upload your video and make sure that in the tab Video you select the video codec h.264 (x264), Fotograms (FPS) Same as source, Encoder profile Main or HighEncoding level 4.0.
In the tab Audiochoose AACO well AC3 or E-AC3 if the original track comes from Surround audio.
Now you only have to convert the video by selecting a path in the field Save as… and giving Start Encoding.
With FFmpeg Batch AV Converter
The FFmpeg software has many variants, among them the one known as which is ideal for converting many videos at once.
Simply drag your videos into the program and click Wizard. Choose Create an encoding video preset and in the dropdown video encoder choose libx264which will reveal several options among which we are only interested Profile high 4 (or main 4) and optionally Preset Veryfast so that video processing is faster.
We move on to Following and generally we will not touch anything in terms of the video filters, although you can take the opportunity to crop or rotate them if necessary.
In Audio Encoder Settings Choose AAC, AC3 or E-AC3 as appropriate and tries to maintain the same bitrate as the original track. If the audio track of your video is already in one of those codecs, you can select “Copy” so that the program keeps it as is and thus prevents it from converting it.
Finally, activate the option Include all file streams and Stream copy subtitle streams to keep all the audio and subtitle tracks your MKV may have.
If you want to skip this entire wizard process described above, you can copy the following command line and paste it in the parameters section, or use it in your version of FFmpeg. This will convert your video to h264 High Level 4 with AC3 audio keeping all audio and subtitle tracks.
-map 0 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -profile high -level 4 -crf 23 -c:a ac3 -b:a 192K -c:s copy
All you have to do is click on Sequential Encoding for FFmpeg Batch AV Converter to start converting the videos. These will end up in the same folder as the original videos, but within their own “FFmpeg” folder and with the tag _”FFB” at the end of the file name.
Additionally, you can save these settings for next time and so you only have to select it from Presets, thus avoiding having to make the settings again from the wizard.
How to convert subtitles to SRT
Another of Plex’s biggest problems is in the subtitles. As we say, the ideal format is SRTwhich are flat subtitles without styles, but in most cases our MKVs usually include subtitles in ASS, SSA, PSG or SUP format, forcing Plex transcoding.
Extract subtitles from your MKV
To convert them to SRT you must first extract them from the MKV using software like , which also allows you to batch extract more than one subtitle file at a time.
Load all your videos into the program and in the right column, select Subtitle Track to extract that subtitle track from all the chapters or videos you have dragged into MKVCleaver. Finally press Extract Tracks; They will be extracted to the same folder (unless you set a custom output path).
Convert subtitles to SRT
Once extracted, you can convert them using the program which also allows batch conversion.
Simply enter the program, click on Tools / Convert batch… and drag all your subtitles that you want to convert. Make sure that in Format is selected SubRip and in Encoder UTF-8 with BOM either UTF-8 without BOM.
It should be noted that although the conversion of SSA or ASS files can be fast, in the case of subtitles such as PSG or SUP, the process can take much longer since it requires image recognition (since this format the lines of text They are actually images). Thus, it is possible that you will find a typographical error in the final result due to errors in the transcription. Keep that in mind!
After clicking on Convert and you will get a copy of your subtitles on SRT.
Multiplex the new SRT subtitles into MKV
With your new subs in SRT, you will have to attach them to your MKV file. For this we are going to use .
Drag your MKV file into MKVToolNix GUI to load it and in the field Source files click on Add files where you will have to select the corresponding SRT subtitle that you just converted.
Done this, in the field Tracks, chapters and tags You can deselect the ASS, SSA, PGS, SUP or whatever subtitle if you do not want to keep it in your MKV. Regarding the SRT, you can select it to change some metadata such as the language or whether it is a subtitle that should appear by default or forced.
With everything ready, all you have to do is click on Start multiplexing for the MKV to start processing. When it’s done, check that your subtitle displays correctly in your regular player.
Multiplex MKV videos and subtitles in batch
Besides, if you have many videos and many subtitles and you want to put them together in batch (for example, if it is a series with all its chapters and subtitles) you can use the program which allows you to multiplex them in a very comfortable way as long as you have the videos and subs in order (they do not need to have exactly the same file name or be in the same folder).
With your MKV ready, you will only have .