@DTR is correct. Plex uses at the requiredBandwidths based on the analysis of the file to compare to the quality selection.
Specifically, quote from the bottom of that support article:
How Does that Help with Resource Management?
You can set both per-stream and total internet upload speed limits. The bitrate information from above is used when determining how playback requests fit into the limits you’ve set. Going with that same example file, for instance, if you had set a 4 Mbps per-stream limit, then that “3.5 Mbps average bitrate” file would need to be transcoded, because it turns out that 4 Mbps isn’t actually sufficient to smoothly stream the file.
Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. However, I still think it is super unfriendly for the user. It becomes almost impossible to predict when a file will be transcoded or not, specially with x265. But really, thanks again.
The suggestion is to disconnect the resolution from the bitrate. With newer codecs its very probable to have a high resolution file at lower bit rates. Having the bitrate and the resolution intertwined is no longer a valid approach. As the above tests show, the server is very clearly taking a file that can be direct played and down converting it becuase of the resolution limit not the bitrate limit.
I’m just telling you how the limiter works, as you seem to be missing that the resolution listed is a functional part of the setting. If you think the resolution portion is really no longer needed (and I am inclined to agree with you), you will want to open a Feature Request to make the settings purely bitrate based.
Nope. Thats wrong. Resolution doesn’t matter at all, ONLY Bitrate of the requiredBandwidth is considered for quality transcode decision, as I already pointed out way above and @SwiftPanda16 proved.
I’ve been doing some testing here and I now agree with you. I was wrong.
I was always led to believe the resolutions were limits too. Didn’t we used to have a 1080p/4M and a 720p/4M setting in the player?
I’m using the Plex app for Windows for this since it was easiest to mess around with.
The AV1 file continued to direct play even when turning the limiter down to the 328p/0.7 mbps setting on the player settings.
The HEVC file I picked on purpose – because 720p/2 mbps is one of the player presets. It also continues to direct play, at 1080p, when I set the player for 2 mbps 720p. So there is no evidence of any “bias” here when it comes to h.265 video being treated higher bitrate than it should be. It was just under 2000 kbps and I could direct play it still in 1080p on the 2 mbps/720p setting.
@AmpedSilence Can you provide a sample file that shows your issue with the 800 kbps h265 file being transcoded on the 4 Mbps setting?
I don’t think is a “bias”, it can be more that due to higher compression in x265 the requiredBandwidth will be higher than expected due to more “peaks”. And this could be even more evident with animations. From my side everything is now clear thanks to @SwiftPanda16
So I’m having issues with Plex in my Sony X90K. My PMS is remotr and whenever I play a 4K media, it starts out transcoding and it will immediately give me the option to “switch quality”. After switching quality, it direct plays but the on screen controls will no longer ba available. What I do is to just stop the playback and then play it back again and this time it starts out with direct play. It’s as if the Plex client needs “momentum” to direct play, if that even makes sense. It’s not a bandwidth issue for sure. It’s not happening to my Shield, mobile phone, fire stick that are all on the same network.
Probably you have the Remote Quality configured to “Automatic”, you should change it to “Maximum” if you want to avoid transcoding. In my experience the implementation of the “Automatic” quality is very broken.
Hi everyone!! Nice (long) thread here. As @JaysPlex mentioned, we released a feature somewhat close to this feature request last week. The post above goes to the announcement and here is the support page for this feature: Playback Quality Suggestions. We still have to finish getting this out across the board on all clients, but it will hopefully help to address this issue and once we have that feature rolled out to all clients we will take a look to see if it warrants closing this request out and returning votes back to everyone. If you disagree that it would address this request then please let us know!
Also - I saw mention of some of the settings here possibly having some issues when being set and not working correctly. If anyone is experiencing this we would love to know about it and try and understand what is going on here, so please feel free to let us know and we could start a support thread to properly capture the necessary data and get it on the team’s radar to take a look. Thanks!
While I thank you for your efforts, I hate to be negative, but I think Plex is going in the opposite direction they should be going. The correct path is NO SETTINGS, just like every streaming platform, everything should be done automatically in the background. Instead, we have now not only MORE settings but they work like an algorithm (if this setting is off, then this other settings will be ignored). You are forgetting that we have plenty of users that are technically handicapped and this will probably introduce more headaches. Plex decisions to me look like letting the most technical architect take user oriented decisions. Anyway, thanks again and I hope this works better than I am predicting.
