Transcoding Settings should have option to “disable” 4K files transcoding.
One movie folder contains:
4K version
1080p
Plex should take 1080p version for transcoding instead of 4K.
4K transcoding needs super power CPU.
Without this option 4K movies must be in the seperate library or must adding 720p version.
For Realz!! Audio Passthru need that too.
With this there should also be an option with the hardware transcoding to only hardware transcode 4k or HEVC files and let H.264 files be software transcoded if need be. That way users can optimize for quality and have the ability to stream HEVC or 4k without bringing their systems to their knees. More customization for transcoding like I described, the original post mentioned, and as cul8rmom1 mentioned audio passthrough would allow us all to tailor our systems even more for our needs beyond what we can do with hardware and codec selection.
As an option – that makes sense in a way that Plex could be asking “from which of these files you’d like to create a version?”. Still, either by choice, or a setting with the fallback, but not as rule to always create a version from 1080p and not 4K or 8K. I mean, some of us are actually want to create 4K H264 ‘Original’ versions from original 4K HEVC MKVs, for example. Even if there’s another 1080p original there.
The point of versions is to optimize streaming and do transcode for compatible players ahead of time. In that case, you may want to have a version for both 1080p AND 2160p originals since you have both for some reason in the first place and do not want to remove one or another.
So “Plex should take 1080p version for transcoding instead of 4K” – I don’t agree that it should, but user probably should have a choice of that: either in settings (automated that based on current hardware, manual that based on limiting to e.g. 1080p), or from the “Optimize” dialog perspective.
That’s exactly what I’m looking for.
I would like to start with HEVC films and series. However, I have over 30 users looking over me and with many the player is not HEVC-suitable and then the server simply transcodes and is of course with 2-3 streams already at the limit. Great would be a message to the user saying, sorry the quality doesn’t work for you, please check out the x264 movies for an executable version.
Voted
have to second this. it’s so annoying that you have all the pieces ready, but plex is doing the other way and doesnt even allow you to take manual control.
There should be bitrate/resolution limits for the transcoder (maybe a option list for ‘Just Video’, ‘Video and Audio’), where it either attempts to direct play/stream if it exceeds it and gives an error message if it’s not possible
Along with this, Plex should dynamically select the version closest to the bitrate/desired resolution, there should be at least an option to enable this server side as the client side version selection is not user friendly at all. If a server has many optimised versions, this allows the server to select the closest one and even direct play it if possible. It’s strange the user has to select the optimized version AND the desired bitrate
Actually 4K transcoding makes zero sense in PMS. Fact is Plex doesn’t properly tone-map HDR so transcoded video looks like garbage. I would love to merge my 4K and 1080p libraries and use versioning, but the fact that PMS seems to think transcoding the 4K version is the way to go it simply isn’t possible.
Plex Media Player uses MPV which tonemaps HDR correctly, every other player however is a different story
Yes, the player does, but the server does not meaning that if you are trying to transcode HDR material to a Roku for instance you will get crap.
That’s why I have them broken into regular, bluray and 4k libraries. Most remote users don’t even get access to the bluray versions because I know they will request a bluray on their phone… (blink) (blink)
I try to keep the main library h264 & h265 and mostly AAC which is played universally. Some devices can’t handle AC3 and a lot can’t handle DTS. Almost none hcan handle the new enhanced and HD formats of sound. This minimizes transcodes.
It means wasted space, but it has allowed me to use a crap, 7 year old i3 mini-Asus PC with win7 as my plex server for 7 years now. And Tautulli shows I average about 20 streamed shows/movies a day. And that little crap box handles up to 7 transcodes simultaneously (I’ve seen three video transcodes at a time, the rest are using sound conversions)
But I completely understand the desire to cap or ban 4k transcodes.
Please implement this somehow. An option to disable the transcoder for a given library would be sufficient, although global transcoder resolution/bitrate limits would be welcome as well.
I have plenty of bandwidth, but w/ the processing overhead, I don’t care to have my box hosed by misconfigured Plex clients requesting a transcode (even with 2x 2630 V4). If friends/family can get their 4K/HDR direct play working, great, if not, don’t care. No transcoding for you.
This still isn’t implemented? Baffling. Should be able to exclude libraries from transcoding. Right now there are scenarios where 4k will transcode on the LAN, like playing it via a browser… and it trancodes right to the original quality. Go figure.
Please enable this feature!
Hitting this as well. Less concerned with the 4K aspect and more concerned with the fact that Plex always blindly chooses the 4K HDR version to transcode from, even if the client has no HDR support, which results in completely jacked colorspaces.
Either adding a setting to force Plex to prefer transcoding from the highest quality version of the movie that most closely matches the client resolution, or simply adding HDR detection to the clientside and having the server prefer non-HDR sources when transcoding for non-HDR displays would solve this for me.
Yes, please!
Separating 4k from the rest of the library is kind of a pain, and not very unified. I much prefer a single Movies library that has all versions of the same movie nicely stacked, and an option to disable 4k transcoding. Then include some saved filters/views that you can pin like regular libraries to bring back segregation ability.
Physically dividing libraries by resolution to prevent 4k transcoding for remote users isn’t a great solution. For the remote user it’s nice, they get access to one unified library and they don’t have to fumble between multiple libraries to playback media. For the primary host of the media its a pain. Toggling between multiple libraries is such a waste. Everything needs to be consolidated in 1 folder, it simplifies everything. Plus, having 2 libraries disrupts any tags or custom posters and other changes that are manually made to the movies metadata. So, if I have 2 libraries with the same movie, and different resolutions (4k & 1080p), I have to edit tags/metadata/posters in both libraries…
I know people like to separate libraries to isolate specific parts of their library: 4k/comedy/westerns/horror… because filtering takes extra steps. It is easier to pop into a separate library than it is to go in and filter a library.
I think a better way would be the option of creating a filter that you can save and then pin like an ordinary library. So create a view/filter for 4k/comedy/western/horror and add that to the home screen instead of creating a totally separate library and pointing to a completely different physical folder on your network. That way one can have a single folder with ALL movies and design views based on filters and or collection tags and pin those custom views to the home screen for a easy way to dive into specific subsets of the overall single library. As long as there’s an option to disable 4k transcoding this would be ideal! I bet the primary reason people even segregate their media is to prevent 4k transcoding for remote users… I can see this also being really nice to customize things. Being able to save a filter and add it as a new HUB would be awesome. So, just like the hubs for recently added TV or recently added movies, one could create their own filters/hubs for a query of their choosing 4k/documentaries/WWII/action/Movies starring Will Smith… That list could go on forever.
Emby handles this way better
Ability to have merged 1080p/2160p libraries
Only shows a single image to resume rather than both
Can limit users access under a merged library to only specific paths
It will auto-choose the best resolution for the display, ie 1080p if the tv only supports 1080p.
Transcodes are then triggered from that copy.
Please make the transcoder auto-choose the best matching client resolution to transcode from, I hate having to have separate libraries for 4k versions to avoid this when the fix is so simple.
If I have a 4k remux and a 1080p remux of the same movie in my library why is Plex choosing to try and transcode the 4k file on my iPhone to 1080p when it could just play the 1080p file direct? Really poor decision making.
That or just make a config switch to never allow a 4k file to be video transcoded so it would force it to try a lower resolution file.
It’ll be very usefull to have a way to disable / limit all re-encoding in some way, even if it’s only with an error message saying “XXX encoding disabled on this server”.
This or some variation really needs to be implemented, I spent the time to split my libraries but plex keeps choosing 4k hdr content to transcode down to 480/720 and it’s stupid. Talk about waste of my power as it pegs my CPU out for no reason considering I have a 1080 version of everything in the 4K HDR folder.
I had always assumed that’s what’s happening and people were only setting up 4K libs as a way to filter out 4K for low-end clients and creating versions isn’t their thing…
Guess TIL… wow…
Talk about priorities…
