# How should I think about remote users, content and transcoding?

**URL:** <https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-should-i-think-about-remote-users-content-and-transcoding/749866>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Tags:** lounge\
**Created:** [October 10, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-should-i-think-about-remote-users-content-and-transcoding/749866 "2021-10-10T22:13:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dbuttric](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/dbuttric/32/225018_2.png) [@dbuttric](https://forums.plex.tv/u/dbuttric)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-should-i-think-about-remote-users-content-and-transcoding/749866/1 "2021-10-10T22:13:52Z")

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I just recently gave my little brother access to my plex server remotely, so maybe I’m going to start to see some transcoding happening, but I’m hoping not.

I try to rip movies in such a way that for my system, they dont require transcoding.

If I have carefully designed my content to not require transcoding, what considerations do i need to make for remote users - assuming that I want to avoid transcoding at all?

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**Author:** ![axemanuk666](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/axemanuk666/32/126759_2.png) [@axemanuk666](https://forums.plex.tv/u/axemanuk666)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-should-i-think-about-remote-users-content-and-transcoding/749866/2 "2021-10-10T22:58:23Z")

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Client compatibility and your upload bandwidth are basically it…

As long as you have adequate upload bandwidth to accommodate for the bitrate of the media, then this particular consideration will not trigger a transcode.

And therefore if your bandwidth is not an issue, you will then have to contend with client compatibility.

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**Author:** ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2021, 8:17am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-should-i-think-about-remote-users-content-and-transcoding/749866/3 "2021-10-11T08:17:40Z")

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Not to forget subtitles.  
If you rip discs, the subs are either in Vobsub or PGS format.  
Both are picture-based and not many client types are able to render them atop the video.  
Which then triggers transcoding.

If you seek better compatibility of subs with the majority of clients, you need to add in SRT versions of the subs. See [Introduction: convert image-based subtitles to SRT with Subtitle Edit](https://forums.plex.tv/t/introduction-convert-image-based-subtitles-to-srt-with-subtitle-edit/636187/1) for one possible way to get perfectly synced SRT subs.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2026, 1:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/how-should-i-think-about-remote-users-content-and-transcoding/749866/4 "2026-04-22T13:59:28Z")

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