Better automatic Movie Version Selection in Plex Apps

[derekakelly]

I started another topic, and after discussion with others in the forum, I closed my thread and copied my post over to here.

TL;DR Plex shouldn’t play 4k content on a 1080p screen when there’s a 1080p version available, even if it’s in another directory.

This feature as is, works about half the time for me.

I’ve tested this with a fire stick, the windows desktop client and the webui in chrome. Each of which is configured to play Maximum quality. I tried to Use recommended settings and that didn’t affect my results.

For testing purposes, I have several TV Series in my library with both 4k and 1080p versions. I also have several Movies with both 4k and 1080p versions. 4k and 1080p versions of each are in separate directories within their respective libraries.

I have read the following article.
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200381043-multi-version-movies/
Although I know my setup does not conform to that 100% because the article says both versions need to be in the same directory. However, Plex still does combine the two versions from different directories into one listing, automatically.

But it does not always play the correct version when playing on a 1080p screen. Quite often i find it’s playing a 4k version, or even worse transcoding from the 4k version to 1080p, when there’s a perfectly good 1080p copy already associated with that listing.

At first I thought it might just be for TV shows, but then i started testing it and found Movies behaved similarly.

Expecting my clients to know how to go in and play the correct version is unreasonable, this should be automatic. I shouldn’t have to seperate my 4k content if i also keep a 1080p copy along side it in the library. Even if it’s in a separate directory.

Thank you all in advance for your time and I hope this is an easily accomplished feature request.

TV Log

TV Logs - Pastebin.com

Movie Log

Movie Log - Pastebin.com

Windows Client Logs

Windows Client Logs - Pastebin.com

@Volts

I believe that the current multiple version support is similar-or-identical for Movies & TV Shows. In both cases you can manually Play Version ... , or Plex will choose one to play.

That’s more of a workaround than a solution. When playing a series for example, it will autoplay the 4k version after watching the previous episode in 1080p. Forcing you to close the video, go back to the series page, then to the correct season, then to the episode’s listing and choose the correct version for every single episode

@Volts

I haven’t looked at the logs, but out of curiosity - did you provide all of the versions, or were any created by using the Plex Optimize feature? I wonder if the behavior is different. (Also, maybe that’s a better question for the other thread … I’ll go read it …)

These are not created with the Optimize feature.

This is line #1942 in my windows client log

URL: https://1-2-3-4.a2bcd5ae2eae4e5c8d22b41e2e568ae5.plex.direct:32400/library/parts/153/1617335301/file.mkv?X-Plex-Session-Identifier=7diu920oy4wkn7zkwtoen2u2&X-Plex-Product=Plex%20for%20Windows&X-Plex-Version=1.31.1.2262-74fdc6b7&X-Plex-Client-Identifier=qawd5l6gdykdvs3ua6qn9cwl&X-Plex-Platform=windows&X-Plex-Platform-Version=10.0.19042&X-Plex-Sync-Version=2&X-Plex-Features=external-media%2Cindirect-media&X-Plex-Model=standalone&X-Plex-Device-Name=ROG-Gaming-PC&**X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=1280x1519%2C1920x1080**&X-Plex-Client-Profile-Name=Plex%20Desktop&X-Plex-Token=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&X-Plex-Language=en&Accept-Language=en

To me, X-Plex-Device-Screen-Resolution=1280x1519%2C1920x1080 implies the client is asking for 1080p