How to play movies in 4K fluid?

[K_ATA-5G]

I would like to know how to play video in 4k, what equipment to have to be fluid … that does not take long to transcode pass 4k to 1080p or 720, 420

[JoePhelps]

[INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k

NOTE: for 2022 – Plex has come a long way since this FAQ was originally written, HW transcoding has become more available and more stable, and tone mapping was recently added to address the hdr/sdr color conversion issues. The first 4 ‘rules’ generally are no longer as important as they once were, but may still be a good thing to bear in mind. Dolby Vision, is an entirely other mess. THIS thread/FAQ is NOT about DV. DV work is still in progress, and there are no perfect TV’s or external devic…

[K_ATA-5G]

So what cheeses do I need to play 4k fluent movies even more when it’s simultaneous with multiple users

[TeknoJunky]

if you have clients that can direct play, you only need bandwidth

if your clients do not direct play, then you should just play non-4k content on them.

if you have 4k clients that don’t seem to work, then you need to figure out why. if they are smart tv clients, then most likely it is either the HD audio which isn’t compatible (use a different audio stream), or subtitles (turn them off).

[NewPlaza]

@K_ATA-5G

So what cheeses do I need to play 4k fluent movies even more when it’s simultaneous

Bandwidth and/or a very powerful machine.

I’ve done a few tests (60GB, 4K, H.265 HEVC, 5.1 AC-3 on Roku3 5gWiFi from AMD 5Ghz system) and was very pleased at the results on my crappy 720p(non-smart) TV. It buffered 3 times at the beginning(10-30seconds each) then played about 1 hour non stop til I turned it off.