Hi all,
I have HD and UHD versions of the same movie and presently I split and add a UHD label to the 4K so friends only see the HD version.
I then have two versions appearing in the Plex Clients.
Is there a better way to do this so my friends only see the HD movies and I don’t have 2 copies in the Plex Client?
TIA
I separate the 4K and HD in different subfolder. Both 4K and HD movies are named the same. Both 4K and HD folders are in a Movie library. Plex will then add one movie title with both versions under that title. Plex will select the version that most closely matches the TV resolution. If Plex has to transcode for remote users or lower resolution, the lower resolution file will be selected.
What is typically recommended is to create a 4K Library separate from the 1080p or lower library so if there’s ppl that you share your library with that don’t know the difference, you can just share the regular library with them like below:
Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, that would work but I would still see multiple copies of the same movie. The 4K and the 1080p. Or, am I missing something.
Only when you search. If you go to the movies Library, you will only see the movies in the movie Library that was added to the Movie Folder. You would have a completely separate 4K folder that would be assigned to the 4k Library. so if you only share the Movie Library with someone, when they search or browse, they will only see or find movies in that specific Library/Folder.
Hi,
Thanks for your reply. I’m confused, so let me expand on my question.
I have 2 folders Movies & Movies 4K. Also 2 Libraries Movies and Movies 4K. I share only the Movies Library with my friends so that don’t see the 4K Movies.
But, on my Plex Clients I have access to both the Movies & the Movies 4K Libraries so don’t I see the same Movie twice?
Thanks again.
OK. Got it now. Yes, if you search you will see both and under specific circumstances you will see both. Typically for me, I see both when I start playing one that I have both versions and then the home screen will show both versions.
So you will see 2 but people you share only the movies folder with should only see the movies stuff. I hope this is clear enough.
I fail to understand why people insist upon separating 4K files out when you have the same movie with lower resolutions. It will transcode down if your player does not support 4K. So, yeah, you take a little CPU and memory hit but if your server is built right, it is not a big deal.
People act like 4K is some sort of resource hog. It isn’t. If your equipment supports it, it is just a file transfer. Last night, I was watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife at 4K using 112MB/s throughput. My network supports it. The server CPU and memory were barely breaking a sweat and the only reason they were was that I had two remote sessions reducing a couple 1080p files down to 720p because the remote user only had 4MB/s of bandwidth.
Why tie up the disk space? Each 1080p duplicate you have can take 20-40GB of space, depending on the title. Just keep the 4K 50GB - 100GB (IT Chapter 2).
You do best if you do not compress the files. Compressing the files with something like Handbrake, causes memory and CPU spikes.
I’d be willing to bet most server owners rigs are not up to this task for sharing out files and transcoding. Mine wasn’t until I pulled a massive upgrade this year. The glory of Plex is that you can pretty much use any beat up PC laying around to do the work because at 1080 and under it’s absolutely not a resource hog.
Even with my monster rig, I’m not sharing out the 4k stuff. Three to four 4k transcodes and it would totally bog down.
This is exactly why. I share with a ton of friends and family and even the ppl that I share the 4k library with and that is a very small subset, they occasionally try to use a device that will not play 4k content, and then it forces transcoding. if i have 3 or 4 4k transcodes at the same time, my server would definitely start complaining. There is also the fact that not everyone has the bandwidth to deal with 4K so i just dont share that with them.
Last point is that I have the space to host 2 different versions for efficiency so its not a big deal to separate and it makes troubleshooting remote players easier.
This exactly.
@kahilzinger My server can’t handle HDR->SDR transcoding.
My route for managing 4k files is for all my 4k HDR movies I also put an SDR version with it (either 720p or 1080p). So multiple versions for the same movie in the same library.
The clients have been doing well these days of picking the “right” version for someone to playback. If they don’t have 4k HDR setup they are fed the 720/1080p as default version to playback. I don’t have lots of externals hitting my setup but so far this has worked well for folks using Chromecast, Roku and Firestick with various levels of 4k/720/1080 support and haven’t had an issue.
So it appears there is no way to have 2 versions (1080p & 4K) of the same movie and stop my friends seeing the 4K and only have the 4K version show in my Plex Clients.
Is my understand correct?
TIA
I haven’t tested it out but you can try this:
Plex should now hide all movies with the label “2160p” from this user.
Hope this helps! 
Yes, that does work and stops my friends from seeing the 4K movies
BUT
I can still see two versions of the movie in my Plex Clients and not just the 4K version.
I already explained how to do it. Yes you can do this as I have my system setup to do this. You have both 4K and 1080P under a single title. When your friends play the movie the 1080p version will be selected automatically for remote users and non 4K TVs. If you add a 4K later and the system adds it as a new movie, then your older 1080p version is using the older version of the meta data engine and you will have to manually refresh the old movie using the new engine.
It’s odd to have the admin of the server not see all items on the server so restricting your own view as an admin is an odd thing to try to accomplish.
What you can setup though is a different ID from your admin account - maybe a managed user - and use same function you’re using to keep other users from seeing the 4k versions to set this new “personal viewing” account to see only 4k versions. Then when you’re watching stuff you sign in with that personal viewing account and when you’re doing admin work you sign in with that account. Just a thought.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me, again. As this is a hosted PMS and I too like my friends would be classed as a ‘remote user’ does that mean I will get 1080p by default rather then 4K?
Unfortunately I have not messed with a hosted Plex server. If your hosted server has enough bandwidth to serve you 4K movies what does it matter if your friends view the 4K video? If they do not have a 4K tv then the 1080p would be sent or transcoded if a lower resolution is required. Just make sure you are actually getting the 4K video/audio direct and not transcoded.
@Alucard1 - Thank you again.
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