High quality photo and image viewing settings and resizing algorithms

I love that Plex allows me to have all my digital photos from over the years in one place to view on all my devices. I keep them on my Plex server in original resolution high quality JPG files. However, the image quality when viewing the photos via any Plex application is terrible. They appear to be low resolution, blotchy, and just look quite poor on all my devices. This includes, 5K iMac screen, 4K TV screen, iPhone, and a laptop screen. I am using the latest Plex apps on all of them. As such, it appears this is a system wide issue, not just an issue with one device. It would be much appreciated if there was a setting on the server and the devices to choose the quality of photos displayed, both when on the same network as the server and when connected remotely. In addition, I wonder if the resizing algorithms need to be updated? When looking at the same photos through the Apple Photos Application across my Apple devices, the photos look excellent. Perhaps the whole photo library quality settings and back end could be updated and modernized? Thanks in advance for your assistance and consideration!

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Just another feature that Plex has done nothing to improve on in well over a year. What is frustrating is they never seem to finish anything - they get it just functional and then give up on making it better.

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I think this must be the problem I’m seeing. I have 45mega pixel photos, I have an 8k TV, if I view the photos via a USB they look fantastic, but via PLEX they are but a shadow of their full glory. Clearly PLEX is enforcing some sort of lower resolution, I had guessed 4k, but given the above maybe it’s lower than that even. However, on https://www.plex.tv/en-gb/your-media/photos-videos/ there is a very clear claim " Original quality in any format" then ā€œAdd and manage your photos and videos (in any file format) without sacrificing quality.ā€. So either there’s a setting somewhere that we need to know about or the statement on the PLEX website is a false and misleading. I so want PLEX to give me my full resolution, if that means buying Premium then I will gladly, but given the guys above seem to have paid their dues but still not have to sacrifice quality then that is not going to happen.

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cryptoplank you are describing the exact problem I am having. Yes, I am a lifetime Plex subscriber. It is amazing to me that Plex can do such a great job transcoding video to fit any screen resolution and the software still does a terrible job transcoding a still image! You would think some of that technology could spill over!

Plex folks, please, please, pease listen to our issue!!!

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As an all be it very new plex user it is somewhat surprising of itself but given their statements on their website it is nothing less than misleading which I would argue is misrepresentation under UK law, which they should be very wary of being.
I don’t know if they read these exchanges but if I could actually find a way of submitting my comments to Plex directly then I’m more than happy to do so. For me this is a deal maker/breaker, if it works as advertised then I’ll very happily become a subscriber
but without it I will keep my money and seek a solution elsewhere.

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That’s the problem with Plex: everything is half done, take it or leave it.
I had a Pass subscription and gave up, because there’s not a customer support when you have problems. If there’s a feature ok, if there is not, or it’s half done, you don’t have alternatives. :frowning:

I should give a real chance to Emby, just to see if it’s now better than Plex (but I’m lazy). :slight_smile:

Unfortunately you don’t appear to be alone with this sentiment. I wonder if there is anyone from Plex reading and responding to posts in these forums?

There are great team members answering posts and trying to help. But they’re not Plex developers so can’t help with technical problems (unless it’s something depending by wrong use from user).

This topic is really important to me. I have terabytes of photos that I want to have available for viewing quickly, easily and in HIGH QUALITY. Why can’t Plex figure this out? Please make this an important issue!

Does anyone know if PLEX has made any updates to photo quality since this thread started?

No.

Quality photo: Emby = Plex :frowning:

Today Plex haven’t High Quality photo, and Plex support don’t reply on my ticket(

Unfortunate to hear that Emby isn’t any better than Plex.

It is very disconcerting that Plex has made many improvements to the quality and speed of video and audio, but nothing to something as simple as photo.

Is there really no way to get a message to Plex other then these forums which don’t seem to do anything?

New user here. I have been very surprised to note that old images in my library taken on a Canon Ixus 400 show superior quality to others taken on a Nikon D1X at the same time. A quick check in Photoshop revealed the fact that the originals had not mysteriously degraded and saved me from having a near heart attack.
As I have a 4K screen on my computer, I presume the limiting factor is my Synology 1812 NAS and the Plex algorithm that is processing my images before playing them via the server (I have a gigabit wired network). However, viewing my files directly from the NAS shows them in their original glory, so it looks like it’s down to Plex.
This is, to say the least, unfortunate, as not only has (is, my library is quite large) it taken a long time to process my files into Plex, my reason for doing so - to be able to view them on my large TV - seems to be negated.
As this appears to have been a problem from time immemorial, to judge from online posts, it might be time for the Plex guys to have a look at their internal processing. Compression algorithms these days have become quite sophisticated, so this shouldn’t be rocket science. If this feature is not on the road map, then it should be made clear that the program is largely unsuitable for viewing modern still photographic images, just video.

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Another life time member here…I left PLEX because of crap video playback on my Playstation, and moved to EMBY which was way better. After getting a new TV I was able to run all my apps dire4ctly on the TV except EMBY so I tried PLEX again, the issues I was having with PLEX were no more, and I have gone back to PLEX.

Then I decided to add my high res images to the PHOTOS library, what a MASSIVE waste of time as once again PLEX creates ā– ā– ā– ā–  out of gold. Image quality is truly pathetic, nothing less. Plus, it makes their statement on their website " Original quality in any format" a complete and utter lie.

Video transcoding is WAY harder than simply putting an image on screen, so why the hell doesn’t it work in PLEX? Whenever I select an image it takes a few seconds to display and shows a spinning circle. It is clearing resizing the image on the fly down to LESS THAN MY TV RESOLUTION of 4K. WTF??

As for PLEX not replying to anyone here or actually fixing it, they need to remember it is us PAYING members that deserve software that does what it says it will do, so PLEASE will you fix this?!

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And for the record, I just tested EMBY with photos and it is perfect on computer and my TV via NVIDIA Shield! Images load really fast in full resolution. Seriously PLEX people, do something about it ASAP please?

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There should be an option which image to display - original or processed.
by the way, this flawed functionality is old many years. They’ve known about this since at least 2013, probably more. They keep adding less important obscure functions, but disregard some of the key features like photo quality and the ability to zoom/pan images.

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I completely agree. Totally frustrating that the photo features and quality are ignored while other features are added!

I was excited to use Plex server to display pictures. wow, found out the quality sucks, looks like 480p or even lower. Why video quality is great while pictures suck!!! dont understand… disapppointed.

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Check Transcoder under settings. Sometimes the images show better with ā€˜Make my CPU hurt’ setting selected.

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