I have two libraries – one with my 4K HEVC movies, and one with everything else.
I need to disable video transcoding on just the 4K content, but allow it on the <=1080P/H264 content.
My plex VM is running on a 32 core box, but I only have 8 cores allocated because of the limitations of the free version of ESXi.
The 8 cores can barely handle a single transcode of a 4k/HEVC movie, but can easily juggle 4-8 concurrent transcodes of 1080p/H264.
Odd request in my opinion as the client is what determines whether or not the server transcodes the file.
The 4k is being transcoded to 1080/h264 because your client cannot play the 4k file back natively.
I too would like this feature. Every 4k movie I have is also encoded at 1080p. A remote user can watch a transcoded 1080p copy if their client cannot natively play the 4k movie. Transcoding 4k destroys my servers CPU but I still want to make it available if remote clients have the ability/bandwidth to natively playback the file.
Put 4K movies in their own folder… boom… done.
Those that can play the 4k choose the 4k folder, all others use the original.
+1 for not an option to only allow direct play/direct stream depending on resolution/birate.
I also have 4k movies and a client reading it with transcoding will use more than 80% and so no one else wil be able to start a transcoded 1080p stream.
This is not yet mainstream but will be more and more a problem once 4k material becomes available.
4k Movies are already in the 4k folder, but I don’t want uneducated users bringing the server to it’s knees by kicking off a HEVC transcode session. Current the 4k library is hidden to everyone but myself.
There are already so many things that will cause the server to defer to transcoding a 4k movie (instead of DP/DS), then you add the additional issue of it (and the client) thinking it has enough bandwidth to support 80mbps over home internet connections.
Example: my dad sees “Movies - 4k” and thinks “WOW those must be better quality” – he kicks off a 4k transcode session on his 10mbps internet and 1080p TV, saturates all 8 cores of the plex VM.
Found this by Google search. Need a way to prevent 4k transcoding. The separate folder idea is fine. > @SiscoPlex said:
Odd request in my opinion as the client is what determines whether or not the server transcodes the file.
The 4k is being transcoded to 1080/h264 because your client cannot play the 4k file back natively.
Obvious and simple request. Some people…
Look, the default settings for Plex apps on 4k devices forces a transcode. People have fiber home connections now and 4k TVs. You need to give us a way to manage this from the server side. Anyone?
Whilst this works, it isn’t really a good solution. It requires:
It creates problems for:
Organisation; Having moved away from managing a RAID solution, I have three external drives connected as M:\ N:\ and O:. Films are spread alphabetically and placed in the root. I imagine many others are in this situation with collections spread across drives. This would mean having to create M:\Movies, M:\Movies4k, and so on. Organising and managing becomes more troublesome.
Browsing films casually; on any client you select the library first so for those of us at home / who want access to both libraries - do we pikc movies? or Movies4k? On larger collections it’s possible to forget what you have in what quality. Yes, I’m aware there’s a search option but casually browsing is something a lot of people do.
Viewing your “movie collection” as a whole; again I suppose this is management - tracking what you have is easier as a singular collection.
If we had the ability to hide 4K content from remote users that’d be perfect.
How about the ability to force no transcodes on UHD content for anyone, on a server by server basis?
My server is a Xeon E5-1650 on a 300mb fiber upload. I had read that this cpu can’t handle UHD transcoding, and my own testing confirmed it. It can handle several direct play streams in UHD, and it can handle many FHD transcoded streams. Unless I’m mistaken, If I share UHD content and someone tries to play it with the default Plex client settings, it maxes out all 6 cores and ruins everything until they give up or the stream fails.
This seems like it will be a common issue as UHD and fiber spread. We can enjoy several concurrent UHD streams on our old Xeon until some dingus tries to transcode UHD. This seems like a simple and necessary feature. Am I wrong?
I would love to have a little control over what transcoding can be done on my server. I have about 50 users currently. I have been building a 4k library but wont give anyone access to it until I can prevent users from transcoding from it. The other big hurdle is that Plex defaults its player settings to 720P?! so I am constantly reminding users to change their default settings on every new device to the max to prevent unnecessary transcodes. I would personally like to disable video transcoding to select users and just allow audio transcodes.
Is there any solution for this yet? We still desperately need to have control of transcoding from the server side.
The latest server versions are so much better with choosing a source. Kudos for the improvements.
However, just this week a user on android used the cast feature to send a video to an old 1080p Chromecast and my server chose the UHD source to compress to 2mb 720p. I assume it chose the UHD source because his phone is UHD capable. That’s understandable. But UHD transcoding cripples my server and I have no control. That, I still can’t understand. Aside from my hardware, if Plex doesn’t translate the colors properly for UHD transcodes still, it has no business doing it ever, on any hardware.
Secondly, an XBox client that had remote quality set to original, is transcoding to 4mb right now. So for whatever reason, it went back to the default setting and now my only option is to make that AWKWARD phone call or text to ask for the setting to be changed. This is just an example, it’s wack-a-mole with this default setting and I am positive that it is a huge nuisance to a many of your users.
When you share your library many users might not be local. They can barely install the app let alone make changes to the settings. For this reason I pre-convert all my movie files to 720p/AAC. And even when I do this and pair them with highbit rate H264 or 4K sometimes Plex decides to transcode the 4K instead of direct playing the 720P/AAC it is very frustrating.
Exactly that. The fact that you make extra copies for this purpose is Plex dropping the ball. And its a shame because no remote client that is on the default setting actually needs it. The worst thing around here is a Spectrum with 100mb download.
Plex has made huge strides in selecting the right version to transcode but we will likely always need an option to fully disable HEVC transcoding.
It could just display a message to the client, “Unable to transcode HEVC source, change your remote quality settings or contact server admin.”
