i will provide the best answer:
server owner decides what is his preferred quality. in the end, it is the server providing the service not the other way around.
clients can decide if they wana use server rules or it’s own rules but it should always default to server preference.
plex should use best version of the file. 4k file on a 720p device while 720p version already exist? use filesize when you decide which version to transcode. check client codec and decide which file to play.
It seems they have to do a global change that is perfect or not all, so things like this that don;t make them money don’t happen. Surely an option in the admin settings wouldn’t be impossible.
Oh my gosh - how is this still not at least “partially” remediated by now??
I’ve been following this thread for a couple years now - I even setup its own email inbox rule that sends the notification reply emails to a folder for later reading.
This is baffling and a little embarrassing for Plex, to me. I’ve actually been using Plex less and less because items like this make it unstable and a poor experience for users.
Anymore - it’s better quality and less headache to just play files locally when needed, and direct remote family members to real streaming services for their media and content needs (because serving up my own personal media is unreliable and variable - mainly from this setting).
Stability and the user experience should be everything for Plex. I went from ardent supporter, to barely using it - and the complete stonewalling of issues in this thread was a large part of it.
Since Plex is so concerned about the user’s experience, they should fix this ASAP since I just had a few users get new devices with the default set to 2mbps, and then they played 4k HDR media which had to get transcoded.
Needless to say, this severely impacted their experience, as well as my other users, for the negative, since my server wasn’t able to keep up.
I come back here every few weeks to check this thread and at this point I’m literally speechless
It’s not even the completely lost plot of prioritisation for this entire product that gets me; it’s the:
In order to fix something we shouldn’t be deciding for you (the server operator or the user) in the first place, we are going to release, at some point in the indeterminate future, an overcomplicated different way to force those decisions onto you
Not to mention, like, how hard does Plex management actually want to bluff about understanding where their users come in from?
Like, throw your server operators a meagre bone once in a while; resentment is how you permanently lose people regardless of the quality of alternative products
I think they just don’t really care about us… They’ve probably already got a lifetime membership out of most of us, and it seems thats exactly how they are looking at it unfortunately.
And again 6 weeks passed since the last feedback and still no solution in sight.
I would be really interested to know what the reportedly 100 engineers who are employed at 100% are doing all day. The changes of the last months were really not great that the really can be busy.
Default Remote Streaming Quality to Maximum and Direct play to On. Or server decides. Doesn’t matter. It has to be done… We install and maintain servers so we know how to set it up. Regular “netflix user” wants to press play only…
Every single Roku on my user’s accounts reset their quality setting this week. So now I have to go and deal with calling every affected user, and fight with them to change their settings again. And I have to fight with them because this happens so frequently, and it’s annoying.
Definitely still the case… Any update on any of this? I honestly don’t understand why this stuff isn’t being made a priority. The only thing I can think of is Plex is only focused on trying to please investors.
