I would love one or both of the following options in PMS:
If an optimized version of a movie exists, only provide that version to clients.
OR
If an optimized version of a movie exists, default to that version in clients.
Either way, when a person goes to a movie in a client and hits Play, the optimized version will automatically play.
Compare that to how it currently works: in the Roku client for instance, the user sees a Play button. If you don’t know about optimized versions, you’re just going to click that and get the original quality. The choices for “Play Version” are hidden in a menu, so people won’t pick up on it unless they already know all the nitty-gritty stuff about Plex.
In my case, I have created optimized versions already with the subtitles burned in, so there should be no reason for people to mess with Play Version in the first place. When they hit Play they should just get the optimized version.
I would like more control over the versions people play. Transcoding to burn in subtitles for a 1080p movie can take 60% of the cpu, while playing the optimized versions barely registers cpu-wise and plays perfectly.
I read other feature requests about having the optimized version replace the original files, but that’s not what I want at all - I want the originals to stay. This is just about what the server tells the client.
What I’m suggesting may have implications for the client design which would make it difficult to implement quickly, so the easier approach would be to only allow the optimized version if it exists, and send the client the video with no subtitles. That would require no changes to clients.
