@AsphyxNYC said:
You can set what bandwidth stream for remote users but it is on a per user basis.
And only if you know the super secret handshake (Win registry edit or *nux xml file edit)
The three settings in web currently are for just that, only when you’re using web Plex to watch stuff. They don’t control the end user’s client/Plex web.
As for cloud, let’s not even go there in this discussion. I can’t host my TB of media there because 1) I don’t have the upload speed or size allowance to host even a top 25 of my favs thanks to asinine upload limits and 2) laws where I live regarding backups and software used to remove the DRM added in attempts to prevent such backups are usually frowned on when stored in the cloud by any big conglomerate that has any single office in a north american continental or friend there-of city.
First I asked users to disable direct play/direct stream. It was too complicated for most of my family to figure out on their own, and for those that could do it they would inevitably forget to do it on a device or two.
Then I started optimizing everything, and they never selected the optimized version and just played the original.
Thankfully I had set up the optimized versions to store to my second NAS so I created an optimized only library that I then shared. It works, but is just clunky and all of the extra libraries get frustrating when browsing on my ATV.
A mixture of bandwidth control, control over direct play or not, and forcing optimized versions by user if available would cover most scenarios.
First I asked users to disable direct play/direct stream. It was too complicated for most of my family to figure out on their own, and for those that could do it they would inevitably forget to do it on a device or two.
Then I started optimizing everything, and they never selected the optimized version and just played the original.
Thankfully I had set up the optimized versions to store to my second NAS so I created an optimized only library that I then shared. It works, but is just clunky and all of the extra libraries get frustrating when browsing on my ATV.
A mixture of bandwidth control, control over direct play or not, and forcing optimized versions by user if available would cover most scenarios.
I really don’t understand why the hell users get the original file transcoded when there’s an optimized version waiting on the server… So stupid.
As far as I know only the optimized version is taken when the user 100% same settings has as you have set in the optimized version. For me, this feature is therefore completely useless, because I can not control what you enter and also I have a database of more than 100,000 files, this would optimize all take months and cost far too much space.
I stand by my opinion that you can set the server must clear which user can have that power. Respectively best with presets whether with 5.1 sound or 2.0 etc. because many of my users do not have a home cinema, it would be better off to save a few bits and for providing enhanced picture quality.
Perfect it would be if I could say one must to 5000 kbits Send this user and if the file then he just 3000 kbits this streaming directly, but when it 10,000 kbits has he then transcoded this.
Currently I have made the setting, the need to adjust any 720p 4mpbs (but I keep seeing it bypasses this) so simply transcoded everything and it always comes back to bottlenecks that would not be necessary. I actually expect from the server that he realizes what he directly stream can and can not simply transcoded because of the limits it. I hardly think that this can not be programmed, why you did not do this from the beginning is a mystery to me, to the current system is simply not designed to sharen the server, although the most important reason for me to buy the app and to support.
I hope hard that this feature implemented as quickly as possible, it is there for me is just extremely important because I have 12 people who stream over me and normally this would go without problems, but if 8-9 look together is my CPU to the limit despite problems more bandwidth there would be, and I would like to stream the one or the other right but that just does not work reliably. Insert your love Plex Supporter, prioritized this feature so that sharen the server again enjoy!
@JamminR said:
As for cloud, let’s not even go there in this discussion. I can’t host my TB of media there because 1) I don’t have the upload speed or size allowance to host even a top 25 of my favs thanks to asinine upload limits and 2) laws where I live regarding backups and software used to remove the DRM added in attempts to prevent such backups are usually frowned on when stored in the cloud by any big conglomerate that has any single office in a north american continental or friend there-of city.
Well I could see a Cloud Transcoder Service being useful where only files that are being requested remotely are uploaded to the Service for transcoding to the Remote user.
When done it could delete the Original sent to it.
But for me there is no way Cloud Storage is capable of handling my library and thankfully my Upload speed is enough that I can actually send streams direct play if I wanted to for a majority of my Library.
Yeah. Sooooooo much thought went into this (according to the blog post), and they managed to half-ass it anyway . . .
The blog post clearly states that its the first step in addressing these issues, I’m hoping for more eventually, such as forcing optimized versions - but come on.
This week we’ve gotten DVR 3, Cloud, and now this. They are working their tails off, making the investment I’ve made in Plex Pass worth it many times over. No need for an attitude, unless you’ve developed a better option for us to use?
So much thought went into this, yet they couldn’t let us block the video transcoding altogether by putting the value of “0” into the Maximum simultaneous video transcode option.
@jondhoughton said:
The blog post clearly states that its the first step in addressing these issues, I’m hoping for more eventually, such as forcing optimized versions - but come on.
This week we’ve gotten DVR 3, Cloud, and now this. They are working their tails off, making the investment I’ve made in Plex Pass worth it many times over. No need for an attitude, unless you’ve developed a better option for us to use?
I’m just saying - don’t claim that:
There’s so much intelligence in there
if you miss the most obvious thing.
They put options 1 through 20, even got the Unlimited. But they just couldn’t put the “0”.
I’m not being a dick here. I’m just stating the obvious . . .
@Monsters_Grin ~ care to explain your exact use-case for that? You can set the advanced/hidden preference of TranscoderCanOnlyRemuxVideo to 1/true if you want to only allow remuxing in general.
So much thought went into this, yet they couldn’t let us block the video transcoding altogether by putting the value of “0” into the Maximum simultaneous video transcode option.
@jondhoughton said:
The blog post clearly states that its the first step in addressing these issues, I’m hoping for more eventually, such as forcing optimized versions - but come on.
This week we’ve gotten DVR 3, Cloud, and now this. They are working their tails off, making the investment I’ve made in Plex Pass worth it many times over. No need for an attitude, unless you’ve developed a better option for us to use?
I’m just saying - don’t claim that:
There’s so much intelligence in there
if you miss the most obvious thing.
They put options 1 through 20, even got the Unlimited. But they just couldn’t put the “0”.
I’m not being a dick here. I’m just stating the obvious . . .
Unless you’ve got a perfectly optimized library for every type of device that would be connecting, at the bitrate which is ideal for your connection, I would think that disabling transcodes would cause you more pain than anything. Heck, neither direct stream or direct play work 99% of the time with my FireTV due to limitations of the device.
@elan said: @Monsters_Grin ~ care to explain your exact use-case for that? You can set the advanced/hidden preference of TranscoderCanOnlyRemuxVideo to 1/true if you want to only allow remuxing in general.
Does it really have to be explained? If someone wants to just avoid spikes in CPU load and block the transcoding altogheter - the option should just be there. To me it looks like Plex treats transcoding almost like a religion and avoids any reasonable discussion about that. Same thing was with my comments regarding syncing FLAC files to Android. Would you like a link to that?
As for the “hidden preferences” - where is this documented?
@jondhoughton said:
Unless you’ve got a perfectly optimized library for every type of device that would be connecting, at the bitrate which is ideal for your connection, I would think that disabling transcodes would cause you more pain than anything. Heck, neither direct stream or direct play work 99% of the time with my FireTV due to limitations of the device.
Look at the low-power servers - a lot of them barely hold together, let alone being able to transcode multiple 1080p streams.
I don’t see pain in getting a message that something can’t be played instead of starting the movie and wait 15-30 seconds for my NAS to boil and then get the message that my server is “not powerful enough”.
And I’m personally convinced that Plex’s profiles are overly restrictive when it comes to deciding what can and can’t direct play.
@elan said: @Monsters_Grin ~ care to explain your exact use-case for that? You can set the advanced/hidden preference of TranscoderCanOnlyRemuxVideo to 1/true if you want to only allow remuxing in general.
Does it really have to be explained? If someone wants to just avoid spikes in CPU load and block the transcoding altogheter - the option should just be there. To me it looks like Plex treats transcoding almost like a religion and avoids any reasonable discussion about that. Same thing was with my comments regarding syncing FLAC files to Android. Would you like a link to that?
As for the “hidden preferences” - where is this documented?
@jondhoughton said:
Unless you’ve got a perfectly optimized library for every type of device that would be connecting, at the bitrate which is ideal for your connection, I would think that disabling transcodes would cause you more pain than anything. Heck, neither direct stream or direct play work 99% of the time with my FireTV due to limitations of the device.
Look at the low-power servers - a lot of them barely hold together, let alone being able to transcode multiple 1080p streams.
I don’t see pain in getting a message that something can’t be played instead of starting the movie and wait 15-30 seconds for my NAS to boil and then get the message that my server is “not powerful enough”.
And I’m personally convinced that Plex’s profiles are overly restrictive when it comes to deciding what can and can’t direct play.
If that’s the case, you should really just pretranscode your video files, either using handbrake, Plex Optimizer, or @cayars script… no transcoding required after that. Or don’t share your library. Or use Plex Cloud when it’s out of beta. No need for the rudeness.
@Monsters_Grin said:
Look at the low-power servers - a lot of them barely hold together, let alone transcode multiple 1080p streams.
I don’t see pain in getting a message that something can’t be played instead of starting the movie and wait 15-30 seconds for my NAS to boil and then get the message that my server is “not powerful enough”.
And I’m personally convinced that Plex’s profiles are overly restrictive when it comes to deciding what can and can’t direct play.
I’ll resign after this comment, because this obviously isn’t going to go anywhere, but:
You’ve been given an option for disabling transcodes. It might not be fully documented, but I’m pretty sure its an unusual request. A few of the main benefits of Plex is watching your media in many formats, on any device, from anywhere, on any (well most) connections. I don’t see how thats possible without transcoding.
No doubt, your hardware must be sized appropriately to what you are trying to do with it. I don’t think anyone would argue with the fact that underpowered hardware will cause you problems if you try to do multiple 1080p streams to devices that can’t handle the native format of the file. I bought one of those WD Passport drives with Plex on it - and I’ve got to put some effort into getting the media into a format that works well (well Optimized versions within Plex makes it pretty easy), but its a battery powered hard drive that can serve as a mobile plex server while my son and I take a train ride across the country. Its incredible for what it is, even though it takes a little effort!
Regardless, this is an awesome community and an awesome product. There is a forum to make requests for features, and if I’m way of base and there are many people out there who want this functionality I’m sure it will be added eventually, but you’ll get further with your request using a little tact.
. . .