To answer your question:
In the web interface, Plex will indicate how many versions of a film/episode there are on the poster (this is not visible in most apps)
If your remote user just clicks Play, Plex will do it’s best to play the file that is most optimized for that remote session. I have had great success with this.
Instead of just clicking Play, you can click Play Version, and you can specifically choose which file to play.
I use Handbrake to compress an SD version of each Blu Ray I have for remote streaming purposes (with 4K I compress the regular Blu Ray) and it works flawlessly for me.
Do note; your remote stream limits will have an effect on which file Plex plays. If you have it set to a higher bitrate, or not set, Plex might still attempt to stream the larger file if it fits within that limit. That might not be exactly how it works, but in my testing I have seen this, and setting the remote stream limit helps keep a cap on things.
My question:
Why would you fake-scale a 1080p file to 4K HDR when the original source is neither 4K or HDR? I am assuming you are talking about Blu Ray rips.
One is a 1080p Blu-ray Disc rip and the other is a 4K Blu-ray Disc remux.
I’ve noticed if I turn off my Wi-Fi (so the server doesn’t know I’m home) and click play, it just tries to play the 4K version.
Is “Play Version” available on the Android app? If not, that’s annoying, because if I have a 4K remux version of a film, my friend will not be able to watch it any more, even though there is a perfectly-fine-for-him 1080p version also.
Named and stored like that - Plex will Merge them into one item, then, IF he selects the version meant for him, that version will play, but that most likely means he won’t select the correct version, so he’ll be playing the default 4K version - or trying to.
The way to really handle that is to create a special 4K library, for all your 4K stuff - and not share that library with him. He won’t even see the 4K version.
I have had repeated success with Plex automatically selecting the lower bitrate file on its own. Setting the Limit Remote Bitrate value in the server settings helps this as well.
@King_Mustard Android should have the Play Version available. On a multi-version file, there should be a … button that you can select, and then Play Version will be in that menu.
Modern developers love hiding important things behind obscure symbols.
Devs: Only techy people click on things like that, trust me, and the options contained within the symbol often aren’t only for techy people. Display more things up-front! People aren’t stupid, they won’t be overwhelmed.
