# Android TV App Ignoring Optimized Versions For Remote Streaming

**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/android-tv-app-ignoring-optimized-versions-for-remote-streaming/816298
**Category:** Plex Players
**Tags:** android-tv
**Created:** [October 27, 2022, 6:25am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/android-tv-app-ignoring-optimized-versions-for-remote-streaming/816298 "2022-10-27T06:25:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![trogle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6f9a4e/32.png) [@trogle](https://forums.plex.tv/u/trogle)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2022, 6:25am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/android-tv-app-ignoring-optimized-versions-for-remote-streaming/816298/1 "2022-10-27T06:25:36Z")

</div>

I know there was already a thread on this exact issue here:

> [@Plex for Android TV picks wrong file version when limit remote stream bitrate is defined](https://forums.plex.tv/t/plex-for-android-tv-picks-wrong-file-version-when-limit-remote-stream-bitrate-is-defined/698978):
>
> Hello, I have some movies available in two different qualities: 4K highly compressed H265, usually with ~5Mbps bitrate 4K “remux” 4k blu-ray with ~50-75Mbps bitrate The first one is designed for remote access and the second one for local access. My Plex media server has “Network”\>“LAN Networks” configured with proper subnet and “Remote Access” \> “Limit remote stream bitrate” is set to “25Mbps (4k)”. The Windows media player works as expected. It picks the highly compressed file in mobility…

However, I do believe this HAS to be a bug for Android TV and NOT an intended feature. If everything, the web app, the ios app, the windows app, probably the roku app, prioritizes direct playing an optimized version solely because of bandwidth limits over transcoding, then there’s something wrong with how Android TV ignores optimized versions for bandwidth if the higher bitrate is also direct playable. Also no, it didn’t matter the order of the files. It also didn’t matter if the client limits remote streaming or if there was a limit on the server side. Android TV still picks the highest bitrate, decides it can’t direct play it, and transcodes without even looking if there was an optimized version instead.

Can anyone confirm this is happening?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![trogle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6f9a4e/32.png) [@trogle](https://forums.plex.tv/u/trogle)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2022, 5:13am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/android-tv-app-ignoring-optimized-versions-for-remote-streaming/816298/2 "2022-11-10T05:13:46Z")

</div>

Just confirmed Roku tv picks the lower encoded file if there’s a bandwidth limit. Also like I said, limiting remote stream from the Android TV app results in the client trying to pick the highest bitrate file then transcoding down to that bitrate rather than playing the optimized file that is already in that bitrate range. If one of the reasons to have an optimized versions is:

- You have limited upstream bandwidth and don’t want people streaming from outside the network to need your server to transcode. Again, make optimized versions that can be served without transcoding.

Then there’s something seriously wrong with Android TV as far as the logic for picking an optimized version is.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2023, 5:14am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/android-tv-app-ignoring-optimized-versions-for-remote-streaming/816298/3 "2023-02-08T05:14:06Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
