HA!
Plex doesn’t need PPers. They have MGM, Lionsgate and Bounty - The Quicker Picker-Upper.
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It’s not a question of not listening - it’s a compromise.
Some servers are bandwidth constrained, so low defaults in clients are helpful. Same for clients with data caps.
On the other side there’s server admins (vocal on this thread) who have lots of bandwidth but limited transcoding power, who would like the clients to default to no transcoding.
Somewhere Plex has to strike a balance between these two groups.
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I’ve seen posts about this problem going back to 2017…they’re clearly not listening. How hard would it be to have the quality set original…but drop the resolution down if their internet can’t handle it?
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Users on BW constrained servers will realize soon enough when they experience buffering. Adjust the settings and resolve the problem.
The way things work now, users are starting movies, they are used to sh*t quality from HBO, so they think their 720 stream are just great.
Ideally, transcoding rights should be on the user level, right along with sync etc. And clients should default to max
How can Plex (server or client) know by itself if users have a data cap? It’s not bandwidth that’s generally the problem here, it’s unknowingly eating through a month of data with one movie. I assume the reasoning by Plex has been to just set the default somewhere in the middle, and allows user to either set the max quality higher or lower.
The client can’t, usually, know what the data cap is. That said most mobile phones have warning thresholds and limiters built into the OS so technically these devices can inform Plex what they think the data cap is. That said I don’t think this is possible given current Android and iOS application developer API’s to retrieve this information.
This is however an incredibly bad argument for limiting defaults. Especially hard coded defaults. After all the data cap can be 1 GB, 100 GB or 1000 GB. Hence if you do have a data cap you would wan’t to set an appropriate quality level for your usage.
A 2 mbps stream may be fine if you are on a mobile phone, despite having a reasonably large data cap of a few gigabytes, because the screen is small. On something like an iPad it starts looking bad and on a TV it looks awful. Now everyone that’s not Plex has started to realize what this inherently means for the end user and have decided to adjust the quality to provide a resolution and bitrate that makes things look good enough on your display. Ironically this means that they stream at an ever lower quality in some instances, because on a small screen even 720p is not really needed.
The other thing that’s fairly common on some devices is to check what sort of network interface you are using. WiFi and cabled Ethernet is generally seen as being unconstrained by data caps. This is true for most parts of the world. However if you are using a phone modem of any kind other limits and/or negotiation rules kick in which lower the quality more than the regular defaults. Plex should do something similar for all devices which are implied to be used with a regular connection without data caps. For instance on the various Smart TV platforms, Apple TV, Ruko, Chromecast etc.
This is a different problem altogether. And if your servers can’t handle any form of transcoding you simply disable it. If the issue is the number of simultaneous clients then what you would ideally wan’t is the ability to change transcoding settings on the fly. This can’t be done unless you implement proper quality negotiation between client and server. Even then it’s probably a minor nightmare since you effectively launch another transcoder targeting the new quality level and then somehow need to coordinate the switch on the fly since you lack ready to go files at the various quality levels like say YouTube would have available. However you could do a primitive approach where the server flags a maximum quality for the client which then adjusts the options in it’s list. This is a pretty big counterpoint to your argument by the way. The defaults are just defaults. I can still request a 20 mbps stream from a client that can barely handle 2 simultaneous 2 mbps streams. Me doing so would inevitably duck up things for everybody connected to said server. So by arguing that this lovely compromise is some how the best of both worlds you are really only forcing these vocal server admins to disable transcoding on their servers.
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If someone has a data cap…that’s their problem not mine or plex’s. They shouldn’t be trying to stream movies if they have a data cap in the first place. This is about US being able to run our servers the way we want…not about coddling people with the cheapest internet they can afford.
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This is the point I’m trying to make, Plex is not only catering to the needs of server owners but also to those of clients. Of course server owners are arguing for as much control as possible serverside, screw the clients. There’s just other stakeholders in this too (ie clients who might unknowingly be pushed into extremely high data consumption). And I’m not talking just about mobile phones, hundreds of millions of fixed line or 4G/5G router users all over the world also have data caps.
I fully understand all the arguments that server owners make, and defaulting to max would definitely make their life easier. And if Plex decides to cater more to server owners and less to clients, then they’ll implement it. So far they’ve struck a balance.
Yah, I feel you have misunderstood this thread a bit by just simply reading the title alone without the other context in the discussion because the attitude and suggested approach is not at all a “screw the clients” one. It is very far from that, so if helpful, I’ll re-explain here to help guide back on topic in my view and wish the title / topic could be modified slightly… Because I feel this is a fair and balanced approach to this.
First of all, I think we need to recognize that users rarely take a look at their actual settings, so they will most often keep the defaults. The default setting that Plex has taken, in my view, is a dated one that doesn’t take into consideration the nuance that it should: that there is a sliding scale of preference here amidst their users. Both the needs of the users and the needs of the owners are not fairly taken into account. The current approach is a static one that defaults them to a lower SD quality option that, in my case, my users actually would prefer not to have. My users are not aware of this and just think the video quality sucks. They have to be individually coached, often PER DEVICE, in order to remedy this. This default puts unwanted stress on my CPU to keep up with what is both unwanted and unnecessary transcodes (again, my users want original quality and just don’t realize). Again, users are used to streaming platforms like Netflix or Hulu where these sort of things are not available to them at all… Now I’m not suggesting we remove choice from the client at all, it would be ignorant to do that imo, but there needs to be a mechanism that is more dynamic that respects that there is a sliding scale of preference within the Plex community.
The recommendation here is to implement a new server-side setting for Preferred remote stream bitrate, which could be added right next to an already existing setting called Limit remote stream bitrate on the SETTINGS > Remote Access page. This would provide a mechanism in which the client and server can have a dynamic negotiation. The default client setting would be set to the server’s preferred remote stream bitrate as a Plex admin knows both their users and the constraints they can operate in; however, a client would still retain it’s independence so that it could be configured as the user wants for their own device.
When introducing this option for the first time, Plex could set two things so that what currently stands as the default would be preserved for users that upgrade:
- The server’s default for this could be to preserve the existing hard-coded default that used to reside in the client.
- All client devices’ default could be set to an option that could read
Owner's preferred remote stream bitrate.
So with this approach, I do feel that a proper balance has been struck that is dynamic for a variety of needs from all plex users, both users and owners. Users can configure their clients as they need to and admins can set a sensible default based on their constraints and their experience with their users. In my view, the current approach just unfairly picks one end of a spectrum ignoring any of the nuance to it. In fact, in my situation, it hurts both my users and myself as the owner.
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I used to follow this thread hoping it would change, but am going to have to unfollow. Such a sense of entitlement. They “should” do this. Why? Of course I hope they do, but if they don’t I’m not going to complain and tell them what they should do other than voting that it would be a nice change. If it means people leave Plex and/or cancel their pass, then fine. If something doesn’t work for you don’t use it. Yes, it’s a tiny inconvenience sometimes to have users change settings, but honestly how long does that take? A phone call or video chat for a few mins? If it’s so bothersome then don’t share your library.
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I created a pre-roll with instructions on setting the remote quality setting and people still play movies in 720p 
Seems like this would be such an easy adjustment to make for the plex developers. This setting doesn’t do anything for the server owners except overload their systems unnecessarily. If server owners need to limit bandwidth, they have settings to handle this. Devs should be more concerned with the needs of those running Plex servers. A shared user, rarely goes beyond the libraries.
It should always default to the original and then if a user has an issue, they can turn it down.
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To make this issue even more frustrating, I have to some users whose configuration frequently gets reset to default, presumably when their client updates. They’re using plex like normal, they were never logged out, but suddenly requesting 720p transcodes again. When i speak with them, they tell me they didn’t change anything.
It can be a challenge walking someone through these settings who isn’t tech savvy. Having to do it over and over and over and over just shouldn’t happen.
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What if the user doesnt have the connection speed for the full quality?
I’m 100% being implemented however we need maybe an option in the buffering message to say switch to “Auto adjust”, or something along those lines?
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If they don’t have the speed, then they shouldn’t be streaming. If they still want to stream, then they should know to change the settings. I think you’ll find that there are more people adjusting their remote quality up. Than there would be people adjusting it down if the default was changed. The majority of us all have decent internet speeds now.
I agree with your suggestion though, once this is implemented, a message should be added for when people are buffering excessively. Perhaps on a timer, say after 20-30 seconds of buffering, a message pops up that suggests adjust your video quality.
Plex developers should be more concerned with the server admin’s needs, than a random user’s. In all likelihood, the server owner is the only one who’s paying for a Plex pass.
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You would think the main priority would be the people ACTUALLY running the servers…however this isn’t the case with the Plex staff. On top of that I’m getting tired of people making excuses and recommending “workarounds”…especially when Plex could easily implement these features. Then again who am I kidding…its not like I’m paying for a service or anything.
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Sorry I don’t agree with your first point. I don’t mind people transcoding if they legitimately can’t get a fast enough connection to stream in original quality, it’s the people who have a 350Mbps line who are transcoding down to 2Mbps that annoy me.
I’m glad we’re on the same page regarding the warning message though, I think a lot of these problems could be solved with a but more education for the users from the Plex apps themselves.
Maybe the client could automatically start at original, and if there’s a certain buffer limit hit, it changes to “auto adjust” if the client supports, or lowers the quality for that stream only.
I completely agree, people that have limited bandwidth should be able to watch a transcode. Hardware transcoding is one of the main reasons i purchased a lifetime plex pass. I do not want to disable transcoding, i just want it to be used only when truly necessary.
I am frustrated mostly because several of my tech-illiterate friend’s configuration keep getting reset to 720p. Even after i walk them through changing the setting, it changes back after a while for some of them. I have a lot of 4k drone footage, and I have a library dedicated to this, it’s extremely taxing on my server to transcode 4k to 720p.
There is an automatic option available in some clients, but not all of them. Even those clients still have the feature disabled by default.
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The Automatic setting isnt a great option. Selecting automatic will not direct play anything. It will transcode everything and adjust quality according to bandwith.
Defaulting to max really is a no-brainer. The current 3 mbps / 720p default is just ridicilous. Most clients support direct play of pretty much every video format nowdays. And the average internet speed everywhere outside of Africa is 100mbps +
The current default just makes no sense.
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I completely agree with this.
Plex already has cellular settings, so we’re really just talking about remote settings over the internet. If people have data caps with their home internet that would be affected by this then they honestly shouldn’t be using any streaming platforms. Also I really don’t understand why Plex wouldn’t default to catering to plex server owners over users as server owners are way more likely to have plex pass subs. Users typically just pay the 1 time fee.
I have yet to meet a user who wasn’t happier with the service once I showed them how to change their settings to direct stream, so I can’t imagine the vast majority of plex users wouldn’t prefer that as an option.
If nothing else why can’t there be a simple toggle for users to choose if they would prefer to default to direct streaming remotely? That way I can just tell them to do that instead of having to figure out how to explain it to them based on whatever random device they’re using. Another issue here is that most users have no idea if they’re direct streaming or not, it’s really not that easy to know unless you have access to the server dashboard to see.
At this point I’d even accept changing the default remote option to the lowest 1080p option. At least that way it would cover the majority of content for most people by allowing that to direct stream.
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This is on point. There’s always some response/suggestion that doesn’t really align with reality “Just send your users a diagram, post a video, send a power point, try smoke signals” etc on how to tackle this issue/address the problem with each of your users and the reality is most won’t bother or can’t figure it out (least my users). After a couple minutes they go “hell with it” and play it at whatever settings.
Setting the default play settings on the clients is something that should’ve been tackled by now but it’s not going be. We’re just not going to get that level of admin control as it doesn’t align with the way they see plex being utilized in the future (the root of this I suspect is they dont see our shares as our users, but their users). It’s frustrating, especially when you try another software and see how well it works and the headaches avoided but it is what it is.
*Plus even if you can get your users to do this, one Roku update wipes it out.
