How can this be controversial when it is clearly one of the highest requested features of Plex? 
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The Plex developers will NEVER change this setting. Ever.
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Any updates on the new feature/beta test @DaveBinM
I don’t particularly mind if that’s the case either. But in my case, nobody but myself watches on a mobile device.
I’d be curious on what the stats are on Fixed Internet devices vs mobile devices.
An experimental feature for this would make sense
Another vote - just finished reading the entire thread to see if there were any progress, but it doesn’t look promising. 
My take is, I don’t really care about the transcoding - the server can easily handle them. (Well, except if it’s 4K HDR and tone-mapping is enabled - for some reason it buffers with ONE of those :-/). What I care about is the users that don’t even know they are watching a poor, 720p copy of a beautiful 4K movie, because why would they? The default assumption is, you’ll get the best quality your internet can handle.
With that in mind, while a good quick fix would be to raise the default to maximum, and either let users change it, or ask them during setup if they want a different setting, the BEST solution would be to get the variable bit-rate stuff working correctly. Of course, it’s not trivial to do, and not everyone is Netflix and has enormous resources to make the streaming experience all but seamless. Which is why the quick fix to me seemed sensible. If users can be expected to change a setting, that must go both ways?
Still I hope we get SOMETHING in the near future. I can only agree that not many of the last updates have been of particular excitement. The Skip Intro feature and the Collections stuff is probably it for last year.
To whoever at Plex:
Plex really needs to get their head out of the sand. Its not the first time i’ve seen the attitude from Plex that shows complete arrogance thinking you are smarter than their customers or that what the customer (customer! we PAY for this ■■■■!) is less important than what Plex wants to do. This particular issue is a great example of letting ‘perfect’ get in the way of ‘great’. While you spend years (years!!) on this grand scheme that seems to be vaporware, you need a stop-gap to ease a pain point that has gone on for way too long (years!).
Its pretty simple, allow each server to set a default. Each client will use the setting from the server it is playing from. If its different from one server to the next, it will use the setting from the server its currently playing from. Each client needs 2 settings for quality, 1)server default, 2)manual override, with the first being the default, and the second allowing manual selection as it is now.
Put that in place first. If Plex still deems it to be an imperfect solution, circle back and spend years more building whatever grand scheme that is supposedly better. The only wrong option is making paying customers wait years (years!) to resolve a major pain point for many because you think you can do it better.
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Just disable transcoding altogether and use Tautulli to let only specific users do it. ie the ones who have slow internet.
That’s the current workaround.
Just disable transcoding
That’s truly throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There’s nothing wrong with transcoding when needed (because of bandwidth, codec issues, etc…).
The issue is pointless transcoding. A majority of folks here can’t justify turning off possibly the best feature of Plex in order to fix this issue that inexplicably still exists.
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The only reason to transcode video is if your internet is slow. Tautulli can handle this by allowing only certain users the right to transcode given certain IP address. Otherwise fix settings.
Tautulli can also set rules based on the type of video etc. Really it does what’s needed already.
If you have any inkling to set it up correctly it works.
Audio will still transcode regardless.
Tautulli can handle this…
Tautulli, Plex Pass, and a python script. Just adding for clarity.
Not sure if I’m missing something here, but if the player doesn’t support the codec or container it needs to transcode.
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Or if the codec isn’t supported, subtitles need burnt, screen resolution is too big, video bitrate/level is exceeded, color depth isn’t compatible, or the video is live …
You hint at this with the rest of your comment. 
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We have all been wanting this feature (at least as an option) for a long time. Could we maybe get a response from a member of the Dev Team. Any updates? Is this in the pipeline or never going to happen.
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while i don’t agree with changing the default at the client, i do agree that it should be easier to up the quality at the client end.
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That’s grossly oversimplifying. I use transcoding myself when I’m watching a movie or show on a train, and the cellphone network is poor. It’s honestly one of the best features of Plex, that it will make sure video just plays in 99.99% of cases. I also built the server to ensure transcoding wasn’t a problem unless a LOT of people start transcoding 4K/HEVC content. (Both hex-core CPU and a Turing nVENC GPU).
The problem isn’t transcoding, and the solution isn’t to disable it. The problem is people transcoding who have no reason to - and in many cases might not even realize they are watching a deliberately down-graded version of a movie or show.
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You are failing to see that Tautulli can already force a user to play at specific settings given certain circumstances without disabling transcoding completely.
You can wait years for Plex to implement automatic bit rate adjustment across the whole platform, wait for never for them to increase defaults or implement something right now that helps. Your choice.
You don’t want people transcoding 4k content based on specific circumstances or only let specific people do it? Set that rule in Tautulli.
Tautulli is a dumb solution to a problem that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
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Care to elaborate on your claims? Because from my own personal experience, it’s not possible to limit the quality that a person is able to stream. You can however set a global limit through Plex. The only thing you’re able to do in Tautulli is force stop their stream and display a message telling them they can’t stream in that quality and that they have to change their own settings in the app, which is not user friendly. If things have changed on that front, sure I’m on your side, but if they haven’t changed, your argument is invalid because 3/4 of the argument here is over making it user friendly for our users. If we were happy to force our users to manually change their settings, this request wouldn’t be so popular?
This workaround may work for English-only users who don’t need subtitles. But for others it won’t work. Or if you have users who want to see it original with subtitles of another language. Too many players struggle with subtitles and that’s the only reason it needs to transcode and burn in.
I have been trying to implement this workaround for a long time. Is simply not possible with 60+ users with different requirements and wishes. Since I would have to adjust the settings every few days.
Either the players need to get better by finally being able to handle all subtitles or a better solution is needed.
The Android player, for example, is currently a disaster. Unbelievable bugs in it and if you don’t have the Shield Pro that can handle all subtitles, hardly anything works without transcoding. Why Plex can’t do it is a mystery to me, because Kodi manages to support all formats, but the Plex repo is a graphical disaster and not really usable, but at least it plays everything.
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