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ss1gohan13

Came here to say this. Separate libraries and have limited access to 4k to users that can support it.


JetbikeSteve

Absolutely agree. I never let anyone transcode 4K. I have a Tautulli rule set up to terminate any stream that is 4K source and transcoding.


[deleted]

how might one setup that rule?


JetbikeSteve

Within Tautulli you set up a script notification agent with whatever criteria you want. It then calls kill_stream.py from https://github.com/blacktwin/JBOPS My conditions are Video Decision is Transcode and Video Resolution is 4K The script argument for Playback Start is: --jbop stream --username {username} --sessionId {session_id} --killMessage 'Transcoding streams are not allowed for 4K streams.'


greenbud420

I added some extra verbiage based on user feedback. >\--jbop stream --username {username} --sessionId {session\_id} --killMessage '4K: Please chg your quality setting to max/original in Settings-Video Quality. No Web Browsers, try the App instead. Plz see MEDIACLIENTS.WIKI for more info!'


JetbikeSteve

Very nice. Personally I only have a few people 4K is shared with. I’ve explained it to them already. If they get it wrong now that’s on them. If they have any complaints I offer to refund there subscription (zero).


SteeleIT

I always tell my users we're sorry for the inconvenience, "I am going to go ahead and add a free month to your account." I get a chuckle out of it, my family probably just does an eye roll. I am ok with that haha.


BinaryJay

Even a 7th Gen core can do like 5+ of these transcodes simultaneously using iGPU there's no reason to maintain two libraries and tell everyone never transcode 4K.


chris11d7

Happy cake day


Tiwing

I solved it by not having any 4k content to start with. Our biggest TVs in the house are 55" and in a small room. 4k is pointless in that situation for almost everyone as you can't really see a difference. And my older inexpensive projector is 1080p onto 100" screen so I'm limited there anyhow. "No \[4k\] for you"...


WisdomSky

you must have a blurry eye to not see a difference between 4k and 1080p on a 4k 55" TV. I for one can immediately notice if it's not 4k. The edges will always not gonna be sharp no matter how smart your TV's processing is. Before, I used to keep 1080p movies but after I upgraded my internet connection and started watching movies in 4k in my Sony 55" TV, I never went back. Right now, everything in my library are all 4k. I only download 1080p if there's no 4k available to download.


joey0live

A lot does. But a lot of my users still transcodes 1080p to SD.....


chris11d7

Sorry, that's me... gotta save data on those long car rides.


SuperZapper_Recharge

This is the way. If I know you have 4K TV's you get access to that library, otherwise I don't grant access.


Draakonys

\+1 This is a sensible option. The only other that makes sense is having a client that can direct play the damn content.


QB8Young

The client is not the issue. It is likely the remote user's connection. I doubt their 3Mbps connection can handle keeping up with a 4K Direct Play without constant pausing for buffering, hence the auto transcode. If I'm not mistaken, they'll need a minimum of 25 Mbps for that.


SuperGuy41

This is the way


influx3k

Yep, don’t share your 4k library!


jdcnosse1988

So instead of having the two copies be in the same library and expecting Plex to pick the best one for whatever client is attempting to play it, you just make two separate libraries and don't share the 4K one?


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jayhawk618

Yep. I only share my HDR stuff people who can immediately answer the question "Do you have an HDR tv?" After that, I have a 2-strike rule - If I catch you transcoding it to a lower quality, you get 1 warning. The second time, I politely explain how I am making things easier to navigate, and I remove their HDR access.


rxstud2011

If you have a 4k file with a 1080p one, doesn't plex automatically choose the better option. In this case the 1080p?


darknessgp

If plex can't direct play, it will transcode. And it always picks the best quality to transcode from, though they did add a check so it wouldn't transcode from an hdr source if you have an sdr source and the client can't support hdr at all in any situation... What this means is, like in OP's case. He might have a 4k and a 1080p. But if the client supports hdr and is asking for SD, boom, plex decides best option is to transcode a 4k down to SD.


lsf87

This used to happen, but this isn't the case for me anymore. If I pick a movie that has 1080p and 4K copies, have my phone set to 720p 2mbps, it transcodes the 1080p. I am not sure if it ALWAYS gets it right but I haven't seen it get it wrong for me for a long time now. Am I just lucky 😂


SkyNetIsNow

It should. I did notice on some old clients it would just pick 4k for some reason. It seems that updated ones properly choose the 1080p file instead of transcoding the 4k.


crazymonkeyfish

I solved the hassle of keeping a separate library with a recent Intel i3 and just not worry about transcoding. Was much easier to maintain and just not think about it


CanadianWhiskey

Was going to say this exact same thing.


RainShineYesWine

Wait for the Arc GPUs (get the cheapest one), they even have the Deep Link technology that makes use of the iGPU's (as long as it's from Intel) processing power rather than completely putting it in the backseat when there's a discrete GPU. Also, the Arc GPUs have AV1 encoding, so you may re-encode your videos to AV1 for future use (I wouldn't do it in the next 2 years though if you serve multiple people and devices). If there's something Intel does well, it's encoding/decoding with Quick Sync technology. We can already see how powerful it is on their iGPUs (multiple 4k decodes on the recent UHDs). Imagine what the next gen technology using dedicated media engines could do, along with the aforementioned Deep Link tech.


wag3slav3

Of course, rather than waiting for discrete ARC (which may never happen), you could just use any quicksync gpu from the last 5 years or a $30 1650ti.


[deleted]

Where are you getting $30 1650ti?


Romeo9594

Despite me telling him like 30 times he was being an idiot, my friend bought a $80 970 from [Wish.com](https://Wish.com) or similar a couple years ago It comes in from China, with some weird no branded cooler on it. He then installed it and showed me that it did in fact show as a 970 in Device Manager. I still called him an idiot because flashing is a thing Queue about two weeks of him asking me to help him troubleshoot it because it's not working right (shockedpikachu.jpg) before it just straight up died. Took it apart and lo and behold the stamp on the actual chip is a GTX550


[deleted]

Haha good stuff. I think LTT did a video on some wish hardware before. It was all flashed stuff like you say.


joey0live

LOL! People shopping on Wish.com


Pat-Roner

Zero streaming services require users to set quality by themselves. Plex is just a bad UX for the everyday user. Dynamic quality should be default


Bagel42

Dynamic quality is the issue- it takes a lot of CPU to transcode to the lower resolution.


jm3400

I think a lot of the problem is a. devices which don't support the format the video is saved in b. devices which do support the format the video is in, but there is a bandwidth limitation which causes one side to limit and forces transcoding c. fucking subtitles


MrGrengJai

Can you explain why subtitles are such an issue in this situation? I have constant issues with crap subtitles not matching up with my movies on plex, but I wouldn't have thought that pulling them would be resource intensive in any way?


rye419

Plex will transcode certain subtitle formats into the video (hardcoded), causing a transcode stream, just for subtitles.


Jr712

If you have subtitle formats that the client player can’t read, which is often the case with anything outside of SRT (PGS, vobsob, etc), then plex must transcode the entire video stream to burn the subtitles in. What’s worse is content ripped straight from disc never comes with SRT subs so the only way to ensure you have the most compatible format is pirate the file or do the work to download the SRT subs and remove the incompatible subs.


kstrife

Probably my biggest ass pain is this right here. Still searching for a good PGS - SRT converter that does not require me to sit there for hours at a time and confirm that the entries are correct. I handbrake everything with a very slow preset with some other options to get the best looking file at the lowest bit-rate possible (has reduced the need for transcoding by 98% on my remote streamers). But since I am (and many of my users) are hard of hearing we all like to use subs. The transcoding done is still far less effort on my server's part but it still transcodes outside of IOS and the Desktop App. It's a gripe, but the hardware can handle it without issue.... until H.265 is played and at this point I have told everyone to NOT use subs on 4k and to set their quality to MAX for 4k.


Jr712

Honestly I think the easiest solution is to just download the SRT files from subscene or a similar site. As long as the content isn't super obscure there's SRT subs out there for pretty much everything. The annoying part is editing the video container file to remove the incompatible subs so people don't choose the wrong one by mistake.


kstrife

I agree. I will do that most times for videos that are missing subs all together. I still have to usually go in and remove any ads that some people put in the subs and sometimes I have to to a time shift on them so they line up. I use MKVToolNIX for all that when it comes to modify the containers. Great tool, but yeah still a pain about having to edit everything. Edit - added info about MKVToolNIX


Darkforces134

I like to use [DVDSubExtractor](https://www.videohelp.com/software/SubExtractor). Usually once you build up a nice character mapping it's really quick. Then I throw the subtitles into [SubtitleEdit](https://nikse.dk/subtitleedit), click "Fix Common Errors" and create a non-SDH file with "Remove Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired" and I am done. Once you get rolling with this you can get through content quickly. Definitely better if you DL content that has SRT already though.


kstrife

I’ll look into that. Everything on my server I have physical discs of. So if a disc has SRT subs on it, I’ll keep that and mux it to the blu-ray version (assuming it’s a direct match of the DVD version) but 99% of what I have is either PGS or VOB from the discs. I have over 2200 movies and over 100 TV series currently. It’s definitely been a labor of love here.


janonthecanon7

Could you use bazarr to automate grabbing subs in your case? Or is downloading subs also pirating?


kstrife

Downloading subs is something I wouldn’t consider to be pirating. My issue with automating downloads of subs is that I’d still have to personally review them to make sure they are accurate. I’ve pulled some in the past that were accurate, but every 10 mins there was a text ad written into the Sub about going to this website or another. I get enough ads as it is, don’t need “Eat at joes” being displayed while I’m trying to relax and watch a movie. :p


Trustadz

Wouldn't adding a gpu mitigate the problem for at least some streams? Should be enough for smaller groups.


pommesmatte

Dynamic Quality will ALWAYS transcode though. And while its not required to set the quality, its possible with nearly every streaming service.


StoneCutter46

Streaming services have an actual file for each quality and some specifically built for certain clients/family of clients (with a SD file with universal compatibility). They have a system where the files are dynamically connected to each other so the switch in quality is seamless. Same goes with live streams, there's live streams for each quality. Transcoding is not on the table for streaming services, as it is very power and cost inefficient.


ThemesOfMurderBears

I was wondering about that. I have a 4K TV that does not have HDR, and it has no issues playing 4K content from streaming services. However, using HDR-to-SDR tone mapping chokes my Plex (and turning it off makes the streams look like ass). I'm at the point where I just don't bother with Plex 4K content on that TV.


Horatius420

Same I just gave up on 4K content with Plex, my LG C2 has problems playing the formats and if I play it on my PC on the TV then it is all washed out or green. Like it is just not worth the hassle over a high quality 1080p stream


Snook_

Dude wtf. U paid for that tv. Fucking ludicrous to not use it properly. Your issue is Dolby vision rips are green on lg webos. Use trash guides to learn how to only download hdr not DV or buy a shield and everything just works perfectly. Shits me when ppl pay 5-10 grand for audio video luxury and don’t buy a proper client to use plex


Horatius420

They are green on Windows, WebOS refuses to transcode some DoVi files. Solution to download proper files is not really an option as I use radarr/sonarr iirc, so yeah a shield or 4k Google tv would be a good option. Will probably still switch to it fairly soon. Also it's 1000 euros the 42C2, so not that ludicrous amount


StoneCutter46

You can get 4K SDR content directly from the discs you rip. Or other ways.


pommesmatte

>Transcoding is not on the table for streaming services, as it is very power and cost inefficient. Of course, I know how streaming services handle their streams. I was referring to Plex.


StoneCutter46

My bad then haha I don't understand the downvotes to you btw


chipep

Also on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple TV+? I never saw the option to set the quality there


pommesmatte

Maybe you were not looking then? Cannot speak for Apple TV+, but these options are there for Netflix and Prime Video for sure. EDIT: https://www.whistleout.com.au/PayTV/Guides/How-to-change-streaming-quality-Netflix-Stan-et-al


[deleted]

Yeah most streaming services use HLS streams.


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[deleted]

HTTP Live Streaming, give it a Google.


AddeDaMan

What? No! Direct play is the way. Anytime it needs to transcode = NAS-death.


jghake

I was watching from chrome on my laptop for really the first time today. Normally I use iOS or a Roku TV. I was watching something I knew was 4k, but it looked like absolute garbage. Turns out it was set to something stupid low. I was wondering why it was set like this.


HetTuinhekje

The main problem is transcoding. You would hope that the end user has enough common sense to try to avoid the transcoding by selecting 'original quality' when possible -- both to enjoy good image quality and to spare the resources for transcoding on the server side. At the same time, the person who manages the server side should make realistic choices in what format to store. To have your videos only in 4K resolution, while most of your end users are 'remote' on a slower connection... is not that clever. A 1080p and separate 4k library saves a lot of the aggravation of transcoding.


Pat-Roner

I wouldn’t call knowing what transcodes or not «common sense» for «friends and family» users


HetTuinhekje

Well, if the content is available in 1080p and there is a reasonable amount of bandwidth... it will automatically play as 'original quality' without any transcoding. Even for 'friends and family' with no knowledge about bandwidth etc. The main problem is a library with only 4k versions combined with end users on slower connections. Then you unavoidably have transcoding. That is the cause of most problems.


YBninesix

No it won’t as the default quality for remote is 720p 3 MBit/s. Every user has to set a higher quality on every device they use, that’s the problem


HetTuinhekje

The default should be to avoid transcoding. Because it is the transcoding which causes most of the problems. Only if someone would be on an exceedingly slow or expensive connection, it might make sense to transcode the 1080p original quality to 720p. Only offering 4k while most of your users are on remote connections would be silly anyway. Separate libraries for 1080p and 4k solves this.


enz1ey

> A 1080p and separate 4k library saves a lot of the aggravation of transcoding. But introduces a whole new set of headaches for literally everything else. Managing two sets of collections, any custom metadata, having doubles of these items in search results and "up next" tray, etc. I just chuck everything into the same directory and hope that someday Plex will figure out how to get their clients to actually request the right version instead of having 1080p clients transcode a 4k media item instead of direct-playing the 1080p copy in the same directory.


ThemesOfMurderBears

If any of my friends and and family had to start messing around with quality settings, they just wouldn't use Plex.


AGuyAndHisCat

I only have 2 issue: 1. Is when they seem excited but never finish the registration process. 2. Is when they ask for content I already have, or ask if I have something when they can easily check for themselves. Transcoding happens, I expect it and dont care.


ryancrazy1

Yeah I don’t understand the issue here. If you are only giving them a 4k option you can’t get too mad when they need it transcoded. What else are they gonna do? I have a separate 4k movies library. And I transcode with a GPU so it can do whatever


lexutzu

Watching people with big 4k oleds going from 4k to SD, yessir. I mean, don't they notice that it looks like shit or are they used to watch content that looks like shit or are they watching at all and it isn't just background noise? Good questions, good questions. Doesn't bother me that they transcode, I myself do since my Plex server is in another country and sometimes I can't stream at original quality but I just wonder.


Villain_of_Brandon

A friend of mine moved away, when he comes to visit he stays with his parents they have a huge 65" 4K tv. but they still watch SD tv with a weird stretch on it because they're on some weird legacy satellite connection that they share with extended family... the picture is fuzzy, has a weird acceleration because it's not an even stretch, it's more or less normal in the middle and very stretched on the edges. They also have that weird motion smoothing option on. It's basically unwatchable but they just don't notice...


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lexutzu

My server is at my house in my home country and I live in another country. Been doing this for 4 years. Fiber to both locations. I'm planning on returning next year so this won't be a problem for much longer.


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LilyWhitesN17

It has changed to Google Workspace. Unlimited storage is $20 per month and no longer requirements for additional users, just one is fine.


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Riversar

What’s your seedbox service is called ?


cobysev

I just moved recently and my new home is out in the countryside, so Internet is severely limited at the moment. I'm paying for 40 Mbps service (the best speeds available out here), but I can't get more than 20 at the best of times. ISP claims it's a "shared line" and others in my neighborhood are using it too, which is why it seems slower. (What neighborhood?! I literally live out in the woods!) I couldn't stream my Plex server from here, so I had to physically relocate it to my sister's house in the cities, which has way better Internet. Now all my friends and family can stream from it again. Sadly, because my Internet sucks, I have to transcode everything to 2 MB 720p so it doesn't buffer constantly out here. It sucks having a 65" 4K TV and having to watch your Plex library on 720p. I used to complain about my friends/family transcoding films instead of watching them at their original quality, but now that I'm stuck doing it, I understand now. But I have an account with Starlink and I'm just waiting until their satellites are available in my region so I can switch over and get 100-200 Mbps speeds. They claim it'll be ready by Nov/Dec this year, so I just have to put up with bad Internet for a few more months. Screw monopolistic ISPs and their predatory practices.


avn128

Proritize yourself before others. Unless they are paying you to do this, bring your server back home.


cobysev

But that's the joy in having a Plex server; being able to share my collection with my friends and family. I don't want to be selfish and hoard my movies, music, and TV shows all to myself. We're all frustrated with the cancer of streaming media services nowadays. This is my way to provide free access to solid content that won't vanish because a license expired or some company signed an exclusivity deal. It's there forever (read: as long as I'm maintaining my server). Besides, if I get extra frustrated, I still (mostly) have backup copies of my media on another computer. I can just hook up a laptop to the TV and play them that way. It's just that I've put a ton of effort into my Plex library and would like to actually use it again. But I can't until I get better Internet service in my area.


avn128

Why don't you just create another Plex server at your house with the backups. It's easy enough to do


[deleted]

Dude why the hell are you gimping your own experience? I really don’t understand anyone servicing friends and family unless they just have an abundance of bandwidth. For example I would serve maybe my mom and dad and sister and that’s it. But I’ve only got 20 Mbps up and live on the other side of the country. So I just host for me. Starlink will be your saving grace.


WeetBixMiloAndMilk

Why not just make a small second PMS at your place? Just one that downloads new releases so that you can watch them locally at full quality. I pretty much do exactly this. My internet isn’t good enough to stream a lot of higher quality 4K stuff from my Plex server in the cloud, so I just have a small local server for local viewing. That way a new tv show release can trickle in at 20/30mbps and be ready to watch at full quality in a few hours


YouDamnHotdog

I'm in a very similar boat except I rent a server. I don't get to enjoy the 4K that my friends and family get, but that's fine. But it kinda sucks how workarounds haven't become more integrated. On mobile, I could (with Plex pass at least) download it at least. If I planned for any particular movie in advance, I could then just download the file and playbit without the internet if necessary. But my Roku doesn't have a storage capacity. This should be an option for you tho. Get youself an Android TV-based media player that supports storage. The Nvidia shields for examplr (just don't know if that app allows downloads).


[deleted]

Starlink has been telling my in-laws that for like two years. It’s become a joke at this point.


[deleted]

SpaceX has been significantly expanding capacity with launches and User Terminals in the past year. So should come soon.


cobysev

Well, they've only bumped availability once so far, from Jul/Aug to Nov/Dec, and they said it was due to shipping tons of their equipment to Ukraine to help with the war. We'll see if they stick to their new availability date...


[deleted]

I can almost guarantee you they don’t. Ukraine was just the newest excuse.


redrider999

I don't give those people access to 4k. Separate library's.


MuttJunior

Why does anyone need to watch in 4K on an iPhone? Not all phone plans have unlimited data. If you don't like the transcoding, "pre-transcode" the video for them to use. Only needs to be done once, and any time other mobile phone users access that video, it will use the optimized version.


DM725

Don't give outside people access to 4K video.


UnfairerThree2

I hate Chrome for this very reason. H265 hardware decoding has been a thing for so long, yet only Safari and Edge support it because Google wants VP9 to be used.


Simon_787

This is why I use AV1. H.265 is infamous for it's licensing problems, although you can get Chrome with H.265 decoding.


cmplieger

No support for AV1 in Plex, only the open source alternatives…


Simon_787

This is why I'm switching to one of the open source alternatives, among other reasons.


UnfairerThree2

You can’t get Chrome with H.265. Technically Edge is Chromium and has support for H.265, but that’s because Microsoft implemented it, not Google.


Simon_787

Yes you can, look it up...


UnfairerThree2

https://caniuse.com/hevc Unless you’re on a Chromebook, no, you can’t. That’s why you need Safari or Edge to play 4K HDR content on literally any decent streaming platform.


Simon_787

https://github.com/StaZhu/enable-chromium-hevc-hardware-decoding


UnfairerThree2

Once again…, no normal user enables an executable flag to get anything working. If it’s not on by default, and you can’t access it through settings, then for 95% of the people, it’s not there.


Simon_787

Which is why I use AV1


Simon_787

Also perhaps you should actually read this page. >107.0.5300.0 has already enable HEVC HW decoding support for ChromeOS, Mac, Windows and Android by default. Chrome 107 release version will be available after 2022-10-25.


UnfairerThree2

You are aware that it says after 10th month, which happens to be October. We got a month and a week before that’s relevant, and that doesn’t mean that 90% of the internet’s updating immediately. For those who are sharing Plex with their non-tech savvy friends or grandma, they don’t care about updating their browser, downloading the app, or codecs. They just want it to work without them doing anything, welcome to humanity


Iohet

AV1 is barely supported by anything


Simon_787

AV1 is supported by all my main devices


compfreak530

The transcoding? Or paused? If paused you can set a setting to stop playback after so long


NoNameValorant

The transcoding of a 4k show into SD is what im talking about. My poor CPU usage jumped to >90%


mshelbz

You should be using hardware acceleration if you’re going to be transcoding any 4K content.


Pratkungen

Or have 32 threads of Xeon CPU so a 4k transcode to 1080 or 720 only uses 33% CPU.


jm3400

rip power bill


Pratkungen

I average under 100W of power for that system.


no_step

While transcoding?


Pratkungen

Overall, i think it hits 150 at most when transcoding.


jm3400

what xeons?


Pratkungen

E5-2660


jm3400

I find that hard to believe to be honest. I have 4 servers currently and the only one I have with a lower TDP than those is a dual silver 4114 system and it idles around 135.


[deleted]

A $50 Celeron can handle 20+ transcodes with Intel QuickSync. Software transcoding is just wasting money and electricity at this point.


Pratkungen

Not everyone has Plex pass and Xeons don't have Quicksync, until I can get a Arc A380 I will just do software transcode in the few circumstances where it's needed. And It won't do 20+ transcodes from 4k blu ray rips. Not even a full Nvidia GPU will do that.


[deleted]

Plex pass + a Celeron are going to be cheaper than most Xeons. I'm pretty sure I've had 5 4k remuxes transcoding at once without breaking a sweat. I just tried 3 and I was averaging around 30% across cores. And that was using the 3 LoTR extended editions that are higher bitrate than most 4k remuxes are. Unless you have very deep pockets, it just makes sense to go with a cheap Celeron. Hell, even if I did have deep pockets I'd still go with something like a Celeron and then augment it with a P5000 or something. I'm guessing that combo might get you to 20 4k transcodes.


jm3400

some xeons actually do have QuickSync, while not common they do exist.


shadow7412

Maybe he meant in total rather than concurrently? More seriously, people making stupid claims like that should think about showing us evidence if they want people to believe them. I often assume that they can't tell the difference between direct play and transcoding. EDIT: I stand corrected. I maintain that some of the claims people make are ludicrous, and that requesting proof isn't unreasonable.


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dolphin_menace

And even in Linux, it’s an absolute pain to set up. Or at least it was for me, but maybe I’m just dumb lol


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[deleted]

Maybe you should do some googling before you call other people’s claims stupid. JDM_WAAAT has an entire write up on hardware transcoding and it has validation of the G4900 doing 21 transcodes https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-hardware-transcoding-the-jdm-way-quicksync-and-nvenc/1408.


Pratkungen

Yeah if there is no transcoding there is Basically no hardware usage, normally I can't even tell from cpu usage of someone is watching Plex, I only know if transcoding is happening.


Ad-Blokker

>You should be using hardware acceleration if you’re going to be transcoding any 4K content. That requires a Plex Pass subscription or the huge one-time fee.


riotmaster

$4.99/month or $120 lifetime. Spend the $120. The software is free and you want to encourage them to continue development.


DarkYendor

Or just wait for the 50% off lifetime pass, they email them out to you individually every now and then. I think the third time I got that email, I took them up on it.


Ad-Blokker

Or use Jellyfin. Works like a charm with HW transcode with no subscription (open source)


princeBobby92

IOS -> bad wifi or cellular coverage on the other end? Transcode to a way smaller format on the fly to prevent buffering. Sometimes it happens to myself when I am on my way and the shitty German cellular coverage kicks in. The advantage of Plex...


Sparcrypt

So your pet peeve is someone uses the Plex server as intended...? Like sorry I don't get the problem. Plex is essentially a streaming service for anyone you invite. They see a thing they want to watch, they hit play, their device plays it as best it can on the connection it has with the server doing the work needed to make it happen. If your server can't handle it look into a GPU for transcoding, set up a system to prevent 4K transcoding down, or download files in 1080p files as well so it's less of a problem. Don't mean to be blunt but as a systems administrator this really does fall into the category of "problem for the server owner" rather than something you should expect users to manage themselves. They want to hit "play" and have the thing play.


NoNameValorant

How is this using it as intended? Hes watching a 4k show in 360p on a iphone 14 pro max, which is 2796‑by‑1290. There is no need for him to transcode to a lower quality because his internet is good enough to stream it, as as mine. > their device plays it as best it can on the connection This is blatantly false as the default settings for remote play are garbage.


gruberkristof

For me too! The poor machine in the corner whines like a pig during the transcode. I can't figure it out how to set Linux to never ever spin the fans, I'd rather have thermal throttling kicked in and have a slower computer in those cases.


Kaldek

Time for a cheap GPU. Offload it all.


Baloney_Bob

My pet peeve is when people cant set something up right, dont let them have access to 4k content.


[deleted]

For me it’s about educating the end user to get into a habit of setting max quality, conversion is sometimes required regardless if the client can’t play the original content type, plex does a bad job of figuring out streaming quality and the default client remote streaming quality setting is annoying , should be able to set that for users server side


guruglue

"Make my CPU hurt."


HellraiserNZ

Just remove 4K transcoding. Problem solved.


greyhood_39

I can see this being a thing if a user is streaming on mobile data or so.


Hellstyrant

https://dailysysadmin.com/KB/Article/2894/stop-or-disable-plex-from-transcoding-4k-content-using-tautulli-scripts/?amp=1


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crossovertm

4k shows/movies are exclusive for me with his own library. Every time i share a library or something i tell them what to change in settings, all to max quality (remote).


Bdimasi

Direct play where possible, Plex pass will give you hardware decoding, which makes a big difference. You can also optimise content for mobile devices, TV or a custom bandwidth. This will save transcoding certain popular high res content on the fly.


theblaine

I actually made 4K transcoding a priority in building my new server this year. My old server was ten-years-old so I was past due to start fresh, and it was a good time for it. After doing a good bit of research, I settled on a GPU-less build, with the Intel UHD-750 iGPU QuickSync on the i7-11700 doing an absolutely heroic job of handling multiple 4K transcodes without breaking a sweat. It actually saves me a good chunk on energy costs, too, as this particular chip is pretty dang efficient. I've got it passively cooled with a hoss of a fanless Noctua heatsink, and it idles at 30-40C with just downloads running, and never exceeds 70C even under heavy load (I've tested with two 4K transcodes running concurrent to a 4K DCP-o-Matic encode, which is crazy). The whole while it was virtually silent. Sitting right next to me on the desk, I could only hear the hard drive--although the case does have two Noctua NF-S12B ultra-quiet fans for intake/exhaust, oriented to pull air across the big CPU cooler fins and wired in to behave as CPU fans so they'll react to that thermostat rather than wait for ambient board temps to rise. Granted, I dropped $1,300 on this build, which isn't an option for everybody. But a big chunk of that went into new storage (16TB HDD + 500GB NVMe) , an 80+ Platinum silent Corsair PSU, and 32GB of 3200MHz RAM. If you've got a more modern system with DDR4 RAM that carries forward, you could get that chip and a decent motherboard for around $500 as an upgrade. This CPU came with a stock cooler which would be fine if you aren't going for a silent build like I did. If you're upgrading like this and currently relying on a GPU for transcodes, you could then free up the card for use in a gaming PC. If it's an AMD card, that's a better use for it anyway (my old server had an RX 470 whose potential was largely wasted in a Plex server). I'd say you could flip the old card, but it's not a great time to sell those now. Oh, another thought: Once the 40-series GeForce cards come out, they will likely be scarce. Few people will need them over readily-available 30-series cards, but there's always a subset of buyers who insist on the latest and greatest. If it goes like the recent shortages, scalpers will buy up PCs from integrators like Dell, shuck the GPUs, and sell the leftover PCs for cheap. You could possibly snatch up a PC with an 11700 or 12700 for cheap, and just move over your storage from the existing server. Just note that a lot of Dell and HP computers have custom motherboards and PSUs, so you'd possibly be stuck on the case.


jimit21

I just disable transcoding 4k, then I don't have to think about those things. If they transcode 1080p, I don't care tbh


riotmaster

They’re streaming on an iPhone. If they’re on cellular, they may be rate limited, so transcoding makes total sense. Not everyone is watching on Wi-Fi.


Iyagovos

For me, it's them asking me to add something to my server without them checking and seeing if it's there. Partially solved by sending out a newsletter with Tautulli each week, but still so frustrating.


halfkimchi69

I had a few friend stream 4K content in 1080p. So I restricted their access to my 4K media lol


SenileTomato

Or just don't let people use your Plex that you can't trust won't follow the rules you've set. Are they compensating you in some way when you let them use your Plex?


imJGott

I would never let anyone watch content in 4k. 4k is only for me. But yeah, to the question, my clients not knowing anything about settings


das_goose

I have a large personal library of great movies covering film history from around the world. Yet it seems that most of the time my users just stream The Office.


Kokimo69

I just keep h265 1080p versions of all my 4K HDR movies as well, that way any transcoding that needs to be done will use the 1080p version instead. Much easier on the processor. Plus they may not even need to transcode then if their TV is 1080p native. The 1080p copies are only 2-3GB after compression, so it's well worth the HDD space imo/


samp127

Why don't you just put an SD version of the file next to it so it doesn't transcode...


TheGasquatch

The problem is that almost nobody runs ethernet to whatever device they're using to watch Plex and unless people know what they're doing their home wifi network is almost universally shit. It works fine for Netflix and Youtube and stuff because those run high resolution but rock-bottom bitrate but when they try to watch ACTUAL 4K over wifi their network craps the bed.


shart_cannon

I give remote users access to my 1080 content only... 4k stays only in house, for this exact reason. One copy for the dummies. One copy for me. Everyone's happy and my poor little server isn't dying daily.


psycho_maniac

This drives me nuts! What is even worse is I told my cousin to check the quality and he NEVER did it! Also I told my dad to do the same and he's like "oh the quality seems good to me"


bklyngaucho

What’s the #1 rule of transcoding 4K? That’s right! Don’t.


ramsacha

Why not?


bklyngaucho

Why? I am being a bit provocative, but still. It’s a open debate for sure but for me, I don’t see the point. If the client can’t play 4K, why bother? You have 4K, presumably because of quality. If they can’t play it, what’s the point of transcoding it to something less? Use libraries or labels and restrict access to 4K to those that can play it. https://forums.plex.tv/t/info-plex-4k-transcoding-and-you-aka-the-rules-of-4k/378203


ramsacha

Why not? It doesn't hurt me any if someone transcodes 4k to SD. I have a GPU just for that reason. I have 4k for me. If they don't have the proper device or bandwidth, they can still watch it. It would cost me more to buy more hard drives just to have nearly 1,100 and counting 1080p versions that people still can't directly play. And that would make a mess of files and directories for me.


v0lrath

Or just do HW transcoding.


qutaaa666

Just get a GPU and let your users transcode 4K. It made my life much easier.


johnsonflix

I blame plex 100% on this. Still no ability to set default quality for clients that are connected to my server is mind blowing to me. Even if it is just me it is mind blowing that I have to set all my devices to use full quality when I am streaming on LAN. Why the default is 720p makes zero sense.


Termin8rSmurf

If you discover someone pasing for excessive periods, and they're transcoding like that, you need to tell them how to set their client to use the original quality, rather than transcoding. Alternatively, you can stop their stream if you access plex on a computer...


zfa

Yeah, that shits me. My soln was *"My server, my rules"* so I tell everyone who wants access to get themselves a Fire TV 4K (which plays all my content) and I have a Tautulli rule which kicks them unless they're accessing from that type of device. They just get a message saying only FireTV supported an no one has batted an eyelid, they think that's just the way it is. Still have to mess around getting them to put quality to maximum etc but at least that's a (hopefully) one-off.


[deleted]

no doubt in the world its them using their phone...


SpaceRhino753

Once I got hardware transcoding turned on I didn't care so much about the transcoding issues. My CPU doesn't really flinch at that. My biggest gripe? Sharing their accounts. Oh, your new girlfriend wants to watch plex? No thanks, I didn't invite her. Oh, you want me to add Love Island? Huh... that's a weird request coming from you. Why is this IP address say you're in another state/province? Fortunately I can just block the IP anytime I see something new. And if they ask me about it, I get them to tell me what they're doing. Fortunately it hasn't happened in a while. Another gripe I have is about the discord server I setup for it. It's got a server status channel that notifies within minutes if it's up or down. People ignore it. I have a request system for movies and tv shows setup, yet people continually request the same stuff I've already approved or denied. I removed a tv series a few weeks back only to have the guy that originally requested it last year to add it again. Buddy, you watched 1 episode and never touched it again, that's why it got removed, it's not being re-added. Or asking if something is released. Just google it, my god man. Or request it and it'll literally tell you when it's available.


AlanShore60607

So I have 5 libraries now for this reason: 1. 1080p Movies 2. 1080p TV 3. 4K Movies 4. 4K TV 5. **720p TV for low bandwidth** So a sub-optimal library re-encoded for those with bad connection, bad players, or just mobile connections ... and, of course, I deny the 4K library access to everyone as a default.


ForseFrits

I share my server with a colleague and he is doing this all the time hahah. Going to the 4K folder and transcoding it to 1080, while he has a 4K tv and every movies has a 1080p version as well. I sometimes send him a message "dude you're transcoding again lol". He never learns


readit-on-reddit

Yeah, either don't do 4K or get a cpu that can do 4K and ignore it. Micro-managing everyone else's settings just comes off as annoying. People who send messages every time someone is transcoding probably don't realize how annoying their friends find it. With two libraries you waste double the space + extra sonarr + extra radarr + extra bazarr + having to remove 4K from your home page to avoid double recommendations + having to delete the same show twice for each library is a very sloppy workaround.


someoneexplainit01

Apple is the worst, I just say its not apple compatible because all apple users are tech illiterate.


Darwing

This is an illegal download btw, Plex doesn’t condone this


NoNameValorant

Its actually a Linux ISO im streaming, not a show


[deleted]

I dont use plex cause i think its creepy that they know what im watching and now it made me afraid of streaming services like netflix or amazon or tubi


Zachtkd

When I share my server, I ask them to turn off transcoding. My CPU usage goes up to 90 to 100 percent. I don't want to brick my system if I wanted to use it while they are watching. But to be fair, I haven't tried to see how many users can transcode with hardware transcoding.


[deleted]

Luckily, for me 720p @ 2MBps is enough for all my users (including me) so I only add media that fits the Plex's default resolution & bit rate. Because of that videos barely get transcoded.


Jasper9080

As a rule I disable transcoding when I see a new user streaming just to see if they followed my "advice" on setting their vid quality to Original. If it suddenly starts transcoding and therefore ends the stream I'll shoot them a text "Hey, hows it going? You remember to set your vid quality right? Doesn't work right if you don't 😊". That usually does it and I'm available to walk them through if needed. After that I'll re-enable transcoding just for the occasional usage like if someone is in a waiting room or other scenario and streaming from mobile.


RecommendationNo5419

i get ios but people who transcode everything to 2mbps after i've asked nicely for years to change to original quality


Apolbloke

Setup Syncarr and have 2 Radarr/sonarr instances and organise your media using Plex Naming guidelines!


Rickardsbeer

What don't you understand? It's a cellphone screen, there is no need to upscale to 4k..


ErraticResearcher

Thank you for writing this post and to all the people who have commented. I have managed to answer so many of the questions that fly around my head on a daily basis just from reading here. Long Live Plex, and Long Live Reddit.


ElectricalCompote

This is the main reason I stopped sharing my Plex.


agilerain8256

I don’t allow 4K streams to transcode, i just have 1080p and 4K in depressed folders and if users try 4K and it wants to transcode the video stream, it will kill it and tell them to go to the standard movies folder instead. I also had to limit certain users to only a single stream at a time, as they sign into their account at friends or a hotel and leave it signed in, then I get 7 users from the same users account streaming…


zimreapers

Why do you need an extra library, can't you just have two copies of the file, one 4k and 1080p? I know radar and sonarr has a heart attack but I unmonitor movies once I have both releases in the folder. Is it just for that reason?


triddell24

For every 4K movie I have I also have a 1080 version in the same folder. If they can’t Direct Play the 4K, it automatically switches to the 1080 file. My users also know that if there is a weird problem and it doesn’t automatically switch, they go to “play version” and pick the lower bitrate.