So how can you solve this issue? Let’s have a look at various options. You can read about what video codec support is available for various browsers from HTML5 video - Wikipedia. Since the Web browser doesn’t support that video codec, the movie won’t play in the Web browser. In this case, the server won’t transcode the movie file, and will instead send the move as is. This can easily cause the server CPU usage to spike to 100%, which can cause buffering on the client if the server can’t transcode fast enough.Īnother issue can occur if the server has disabled transcoding. If you try to play a H.265 video file, then the Plex server will need to transcode the file before sending it to the Web browser. That is because only a small number of Web browser have support for that code. If a video file that you are trying to stream is encoded using HEVC (H.265), then most Web browsers won’t be able to play the video file natively. The Web browser, though, only supports a specified number of video codecs.

Any modern computer will have no issues playing most, if not all, video formats if the proper codec is installed. When playing a video file from Plex through a Web browser the main thing to consider is the video compatibility with the Web browser. When it comes to streaming a video file to a computer, the software used to stream the video file also plays a role in how well the video file is played. The same can be said for a Plex player – what hardware will be used? More specifically, what CPU is going to be installed.

When building a Plex Media Server, the main concern comes down to what hardware to include in the server. The main issue is not related to the hardware of your computer, but the software that is trying to play the move: your Web browser. You can have the latest PC parts in your computer, but for some reason the movie being streamed from a Plex Media Server won’t play. There could be several issues, such as too much buffering or the movie won’t play in the browser at all. You may run into the issue where a movie can’t play in a Web browser when it is being streamed from Plex.

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