I’d like to sync one of my libraries to a couple devices. I thought that I could use optimized versions to help make this task easier. I took all the videos in the library and optimized them. I figured if they were pre-optimized when it came time to sync there wouldn’t be any conversion to do, only network traffic to send the data to the fire tablets. Well, when I synced the first tablet I watched my server and sure enough the transcoder kicked in and started using up most of my processor. Am I not understanding this correctly? I thought the point of optimized versions were so that these videos don’t have to be transcoded in order to sync.?
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I think the purpose is that they don’t need to be transcoded to be used on devices that don’t support the original format - or maybe it is just for remote streaming…
According to the support page:
Basically, the server “pre-transcodes” the content based on the settings you choose and saves that optimized result as a different “version” of the media. When playing that library item, the server and app then work together and use the most appropriate version of the item to give you the best experience.
so looks like it is for any streaming, not just remote.
But, your scenario would make perfect sense and a great feature request if it is not already requested.
https://forums.plex.tv/categories/feature-bug-voting
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Thanks for the reply. I think this actually does work the way I was expecting, I was just using the wrong format. I was optimizing to a predefined “mobile” quality. I created a custom quality called “fire” which was set to 4.0mb 720p. I then optimized all videos in this library to that quality. Once the optimizing was done I set the library to sync to the kindle fires at that same quality and watched as the server used very little CPU but a lot of network traffic as the data was transferred. I would say that this means it was transferring the optimized (already transcoded) copies of the movies.
Not sure that anyone would care, but I like statistics like this. My data transfer rate (as viewed through windows 10 task manager) was between 40Mbps and 55Mbps while the fires were connected to my wireless N network.
Thanks for the follow up and the info on how it works.
A question - You got 40 - 50 Mbps on a Fire tablet? Which one?
That was the transfer rate that I saw from my plex server when I was syncing the library and had no other activity on the server. This was for the the 7 inch fire tablet that they normall sell for $50. Here’s a link
It appears there is still no way to force a sync using a specific optimized version. This is a problem as many sync’s break due to incompatabilities with Plex Player (for Windows for example) when using syncs that convert on the fly. The only way to get a version that works is to download a version previously optimized.
We need the ability to sync 1) based on the current settings (bitrate) or 2) based on a target profile (ie optimized versions).
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Can we have a simpler solution, why don’t they store/keep the “optimised” version the first time a sync is done and that subsequent syncs of the same target/quality use this optimised version.
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+1 this
+1 All for this. I honestly assumed this is how it worked, until i happened to notice it converting again.
Please integrate this
