Trying to find this answer but no luck so far via search on google.
Does the Plex Media Player for PC use internet to play local movies (4K or any other) or does it use local bandwidth?
I am currently using chrome browser then connecting directly to the PMS via the 192.168.**/port so I know that is completely local.
With my 4K movies, using the browser to watch on PC now is just buffering nightmare so I tried the PMP and it works wonderfully with direct play. Chrome browser won’t offer it to me.
With the Plex Media Player, I don’t know how that determines internet or local since there isn’t a way to set that option.
It uses over whichever connection it can reach the server with. If there are both connection types available, it will prefer the local connection of course.
That is not necessarily true.
The address in your browser’s address bar only shows you from which address the Plex web app was loaded into your browser.
It does not indicate whether the connection between the web app and the Plex server is local or remote.
If you click on your server name on the left side, it will actually show you which connection type it is using at the moment.
A web browser cannot play 4K. Simply because almost all 4K content uses the HEVC video codec, which web browsers are not supporting. So Plex Server will start transcoding when you play such a video with the web app.
The PMP client on the other hand does support HEVC.
awesome TY!!
I’m really worried on the internet usage since I have comcast and we’re only allowed 1TB a month, anything more and then we have to pay per 100GB used.
That doesn’t help many users, unfortunately. Because Edge also has a bug which makes it impossible to use secure connections with server in the same local network.
And then there would have to be another special rule be implemented and tested, just for the Edge browser. I’m not saying that this will never get implemented, but it may take a while.
As it is now, Plex considers web browsers in general as not HEVC-compatible.
you rock!