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Hi
Does anyone know if there is a way to disable transcoding for a library? I’m trying to allow only direct play/stream for my 4K movies. Transcoding 4K puts a lot of load on the processor and PLEX will not automatically transcode from an optimized version if available.
Thanks
Short Answer: Not possible.
There are many threads on this subject. Search for “disable transcoding” or similar if you want the details.
The approach many are taking is to keep 4K material in separate libraries (ex:“Movies” & “Movies 4K”).
If you share libraries with remote users do not give them access to the 4K libraries unless a) you have sufficient uplink bandwidth from the server, and b) they have sufficient downlink speed and 4K capable equipment that will play the media without transcoding.
Thanks, I’m already doing that 
. I was hoping for something that will make sure I don’t have transcodes from 4K. While searching the forums for answers I came across something which kinda solves my problem. I turns out that PLEX is transcoding from the first version you add to the library so if I add an 1080p version first and then the 4k the transcoding for non-4K devices will be done from the 1080p version. I just have to remember to add the movies in the right order and for the ones which I already have I’ll just add the 4K version and I’m good to go. I think this is more of a bug than a feature 
but as long as it works…
Good to know. Hadn’t seen that.
Still, keeping 4K in separate libraries alleviates the situation. Play the 1080p version and that’s what Plex will transcode, if necessary. Does not matter if there is a 4K version, because it is in a separate library.
Also cuts down on admin overhead. You don’t have to remember which version came first, shuffle movies in/out of Plex to keep the insertion order correct when you update things, etc.
I went down this rabbit hole over a year ago. I upgraded EVERYTHING and you have to direct play 4K or have a monster GPU that Plex will actually work with. In the end I switched to Emby which worked better for me until Plex decides to focus on this problem. Buy yourself a nVidia Shield as well which will direct play many formats. The other option is to use anything that will run Plex Media PLAYER like an old laptop or a Nuc or whatever.
Was a surprise for me too. Tested this morning and it really works this way. Actually I would have less admin overhead because I would have to set up an optimized version anyway which would have to be saved in the second library so that the movie would be available on all the devices.
I hear you. The thing is I’m trying to keep the setup as simple as possible. I have a anti-technical wife and “technologically challenged” friends and any additional HW will start a small riot. Kids won’t have a problem though
Emby is not an option yet as their Samsung client is released just for a few countries and it’s not available here. PLEX for Samsung has its own set of neverending problems especially on my KS TVs but at least it’s mostly functional and they got used to it.
I know we’re never going to find a system that works flawlessly so I’m just trying to find a setup with the smallest set of issues 
This is why I support Emby AND Plex
Not sure if this will work as I’ve not tried it myself, but where you set your LAN IP addresses, could you not just put 0.0.0.0/0? If that doesn’t work, try putting in “0.0.0.0/1,128. 0.0.1/1”
This will basically put every single client as part of the LAN and reduce transciding as much as possible.
Probably it won’t but it’s not about the network, it’s about device capability as not all of them are 4K capable.
Yes, we learned that my relatively new Samsung Q9F had a limit in terms of data “chunks” if you will from the transcode process and buffered. I was trying to play Bladerunner at 120fps. The TV choked on that but the Nvidia Shield was able to play no problem.
Yeah, not sure if we’re ever going to find the perfect device 
Emby works awesome for me at this point and the more I get familiar the better it is. Sometimes competition needs a kick in the ass to work harder for that easy money.
I’ll try it once it’s available on my Samsung
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