Allow a max transcode bitrate setting

Feature Suggestions
1

Server Version: 1.41.2.9239-0b158cae0 (HEVC Preview)

Currently I have an AV1 file with a average bitrate of 2.9 Mbps, however when playing the file on a device that does not support AV1 decode and thus forces transcoding. However, the bitrate that the file is being transcoded/streamed as is averaging something like 30 Mbps. All of this is to say that if a file is being transcoded a setting to limit the max transcode bitrate or to not exceed the original files average bitrate would be extremely useful as I would still want to allow direct streams for higher bitrate files but to make sure that transcoded files do not have some insane bitrate bloat.

Currently player setting are set to use original quality while streaming…

Also please note that while I am using the HEVC preview I noticed the same transcode bloat when turning the option to use HEVC to off so it apparently exists on AVC transcoding as well.

2

That doesn’t make sense.
If the source codec is more efficient, it needs less bitrate to transport a certain visual quality. The target codec can be less efficient and thus needs more bitrate in order not to degrade the quality, despite the transcoding.
On top of that, with HEVC as target codec, Plex uses hardware transcoding, which is less efficient and also of lesser visual quality at a given bitrate than a pure software encode. Thus, in order to preserve quality, it makes sense to use a higher target bitrate. Which one that is, can be defined

  1. in the settings of the client, often separately for local and remote connections
  2. in the settings of the server for remote connections specifically

Original Quality is not original bitrate. Each transcoding is lowering the overall quality. In order to preserve the quality despite the transcoding, one should use a higher target bitrate.