How to stop playing 4K

Plex Players Smart TVs
1

Hi Everyone,

There are two of the same movies in the one folder on the PMS with the following specs:

1080p 9.3Mbps Bitrate and 2160p 15 Mbps bitrate.

As all of my 4K Movies are over 10Mbps I limited the remote rate on the Sony X90J Android TV to 10Mbps, thinking this would stop the TV from playing 4K.

However the Plex Client on my friends Sony TV still tries to play the 4K Movie above and other 4K content.

Is there a better way of stopping my friends Sony TV from wanting to play anything that is 4K? I’m trying to get away from using separate libraries for 4K and other.

My PMS does not have the resources to transcode 4K, but 1080p transcoding is fine.

TIA

2

Yes, for your friend to limit Remote to 8Mbps in TV app settings or put 4k Titles in there own Library and don’t share that Library. I have 1080p copies in my standard Movie Library to Share.
This is my choice of solving this issue.

You could try altering this setting if you only share to 1 friend

Screenshot 2025-04-16 at 5.34.33 pm
Screenshot 2025-04-16 at 5.34.33 pm988×392 31.3 KB

I call the Library UHD Movies and add to my Home Page so it stays present of mind, not perfect but a solution.

Cheers

3

Thanks for your reply. However the Plex Client is still trying the play the 4K Movies with a Remote Limit.

4

Well then there is only one way, UHD Library and not share.

Then again you didn’t just use my settings.

Make it 8Mbps

Screenshot 2025-04-17 at 1.03.56 pm
Screenshot 2025-04-17 at 1.03.56 pm852×388 32.7 KB

5

Thanks for your reply again.

As my PMS is a Remote Server this will also limit me playing 4K. Yes/No?

Yes, this fixes the issue with my friend not playing 4K.

However, it does give my another issue. I use PlexKodiConnect (PKC) as my Plex Client and having two Libraries with the same Movies/TV Shows puts 2 entries for each in PKC. Like this:

6

Yes it will limit you remotely

7

If I may suggest ?

  • You want to limit others from playing 2160p content.

  • You have your movies (1080p and 2160p) colocated

  • Presuming upload bandwidth at the remote server is not a factor -

Recommendation (which is what I do)

  1. Create a “1080p” directory and a “2160p” directory
  2. Move (not copy) the movies into the new structure.
  3. Grant permission for your friends to access the 1080p content
  4. DO NOT grant permission for your friends to access 2160p.
  5. You, as owner, have access to everything

I have ‘movies’, ‘movies2’, and ‘uhd’ directories as my solution
– movies = current 1080p
– movies2 = older 1080p
– uhd = bluray ripped from the disc.

8

@ChuckPa - Yes, perfect solution except for one thing.

I get double banners in PKC when there are two Movies and TV Shows with the same title and different resolutions. See screenshot above.

9

You’re showing “Movies”. This is where you’re seeing the dupliction.

Does Kodi deduplicate on its own?

I suspect it doesn’t. Plex & Plex clients do.

I suggest:

  1. Create “4K UHD” section pointing to ONLY the 2160p movies directory
  2. Confirm you see only the 2160p files in it.

If this is true,

  1. EDIT “Movies” section pointing to ONLY the 1080p movies

This is how my library sections are defined:

Screenshot from 2025-04-17 18-19-02
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Screenshot from 2025-04-17 18-18-38
Screenshot from 2025-04-17 18-18-38739×537 23.2 KB

There is no cross-contamination from one library section to another.

IF YOU DO have cross-contamination , CONFIRM the library section has been upraded to the new agents on the PMS server

1 Like
10

@ChuckPa - Thanks for your reply.

Your suggestion above gave me an idea. This is what I did and meets all my requirements.

Movies only but should work with TV Shows to.

Make a 1080p directory, add it to a Library and share with friends.

Make a 2160p directory. Make a Library containing both the 1080p and 2160p directories and only use that Library in Kodi/PKC. Do not share with friends.

No more duplicates in Kodi/PKC and I have the option to play either the 1080p or 2160p versions.

11

Glad to see more doing this segregation of resolution with UHD

My Library is called UHD Movies, what is awesome most of the UHD posters are available to complete the Library.

Cheers

12

@gregeeh

If you look at my “/vol/media” directory (on the RAID volume), here’s how it’s broken up. Makes backups and media management easier for me

[chuck@glockner media.2007]$ du -hs ani* mov* tv* uhd
1.7T	animated
4.5T	movies
4.1T	movies2
8.8T	tv
14T	    tv2
1.4T	tv3
2.4T	tv4
5.9G	tv5
38G	    tv-nodata
20T	    uhd
[chuck@glockner media.2008]$

tv = current
tv2 = classic series
tv3 = cartoons
tv4 = cooking
tv5 = temporary / test series

animated = animated features
movies = current / semi-current movies (1080p)
movies2 = classic 1080p movies
uhd = all movies I’ve ripped from the BluRay disc.

1 Like
13

I see cooking is a big part of your life
 LOl :rofl:

Have a similar arrangement on my Drives with Alphabet ranges for TV and the Major Genrefor Movies

14

Making a Library with both 1080p and 2160p Movies as mentioned above has changed the Date Added date for the Movies for some reason.

No way to fix this?

TIA

15

See here how to solve this: Video Nodes and Skins · croneter/PlexKodiConnect Wiki · GitHub

16

Thank you @croneter I will take a look at this.

17

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