Thank you for the update. nice to know that this is still on the to do list.
any chance we can get a idea of what direction you are headed in as a solution?
a Netflix style just works approach or some new simple controls for server operators?
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Thank you for the update.
@elan at what point does Plex go with an interim simpler option so that we don’t have to suffer through this issue? Asking because I just had yet another 10 minute back and forth with a user about updating their settings for the umpteenth time.
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The solution we’re working towards is actually pretty simple, hence why I was optimistic we could get it done quickly, but unfortunately it became blocked behind some player stack updates and other work. I honestly don’t think there’s a simpler solution which universally works; I know some people want to manually manage their clients’ quality settings, but I don’t think that’s really practical or a good overall experience.
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I meant simpler in the holistic sense.
I think there have been a few suggestions from myself and others (not a chance I can actually find them now) that might not universally work, but should bridge the gap.
Something opt-in (for the admin), and in the advanced settings.
Client side, I’m quite happy with any direction you choose, but please, at the very minimum, can you include an option to apply a max bandwidth override per user? Preferable disabled by default because it’s following the global limit? I’d like to grant access to 4k content to some people that actually care about quality without absolutely tanking my upload bandwidth. We aren’t blessed with the best speeds here in the UK.
Having to manually change the bandwidth isn’t an issue, but changing the global default to max for the sake of 1 or 2 people, that’s a terrible experience. This causes other peoples streams to get a quality boost and ultimately eat all of the available bandwidth and force everybody onto a reduced quality.
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While I do agree with this, I feel it’s still better than having nothing for an unknown period of time. None of my users are using Plex on a mobile device, so neither bandwidth or quotas are an issue. The current status quo is a massive PITA.
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Those users are most likely Server admins. We do have some control from the server side.
I don’t want users to have the ability to impact my server performance.
The rest of our users, family and friends, are the same as Netflix users. They just expect it to work. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation.
As easy as it is to set the client up correctly it still takes several repeated requests. I almost have to hint that if I can’t get people to do it I may have to drop a few users. 
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Perfect is the enemy of good
We could use a good solution/stopgap in the meanwhile 
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how is this not a thing three years later?
Apparently nobody really knows.
The Plex core apparently was not ready for the solution Plex has in mind, so a lot of work (Over a year) has gone into making the Plex core ready. (Some of us throught that would be the case but was assured otherwise)
And thats all fine - considering this thread asked for “Default all clients to max Internet streaming” witch would have taken a developer 30 min to implement we are now on year three for the solution without any new timeline from Plex 
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I think a good solution would be for server admins to have the option to set the default settings for all users on their server.
Users will still have an option to override the default in the settings, so it’s not “forced”.
I get that you want the control to be on the user’s side, but what actually happens in reality (and I’m sure many others will agree), is that people watch content using a 2Mbps default encode because that’s on default, and getting them to change the settings is a nightmare if they’re not a technical person.
So what happens is that in the end, is that the server’s CPU works much harder for unnecessary encodes, while people watch content at a much worse quality for no reason.
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I agree.
Plex’ argument is, users will experience buffering or eat up their monthly bandwidth, and not know to change the setting.
That, however, seems to be an admission that users are NOT generally able to configure their client. Yet that is what they are expected to do today.
It seems to me to be a catch-22: Either users are savvy about the settings in their client/player and can as well set them lower if maximum is too high, as they can increase them if 720p/4Mbit is too low, or they can not.
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Please speed up the implementation of this update, it’s simple, leave the possibility to administrators to manage their user fleets and to indicate the default quality that we want. Or base it on maximum.
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Yeah, I don’t think the monthly bandwidth excuse holds any water. I’d say most clients already have a streaming service that is using more than Plex ever would.
Another angle to this issue is HEVC.
Most users these days have 4k tv’s capable of decoding HEVC and direct playing, but the default forces a transcode.
On top of that, I have a lot of HEVC content that is 1080p 3mbps, but it’s forced to transcode to worse quality AND use more bandwidth.
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I wonder what environmental impact plex team is causing by not fixing this, 10000s of streams that do not require transcoding.
Another “this has to be fixed by now” server admin here.
What’s so magical about 720p 4mb/s as default. Maybe in 2012.
I’ve 35mb/s up and a user to my server has 500mb/s down. Why transcode my 1080p 8mb/s file? Waste of cpu, extra electricity costs.
Somewhere in the code must be a reference to 720p 4mb/s default… Can’t server admins just have an option to modify this so if a file is greater than 1080p and greater than 8mbs transcode else direct play.
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simply increasing the default client resolution to (a lower bitrate) 1080 would instantly avoid millions of transcodes.
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1080 votes in the goal
Another server admin here who has been watching this thread for years. I’ve noticed now some of my users who install Plex on smart tv’s, the settings never stick when they go in and up their remote streaming quality settings, literally the very next time they log in and boom set back to 2 Mbps 720p with crap audio. So it isn’t even a solution to reach out to them to change it anymore because it always defualts back to Plex’s ridiculously low default every damn time they launch the Plex app! Which as everyone has already stated means more CPU impact on my server to transcode and a lower quality video/audio experience for my users. The default remote streaming quality setting in Plex is just absolutely dumb in 2022. Plex please, if not maximum then at least bump up the default to something that isn’t so absurdly low.
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Considering Spectrum increased my FTTH upload speed to 570Mbit I would love for the client apps to default max.
