Is there a good reason to keep a seperate 4K library any longer? (Dec 2020)

Plex Media Server
1

I wanted to get people’s experience on a question I’m looking to resolve.

Is there a reason to separate 4K content inside of plex any longer?

I currently label all 4K movies and they are stored in a separate path so that two copies appear in the library. The 4K versions are filtered on accounts used for remote streaming. The reason I did this originally was older versions of Plex would attempt to transcode from the 4k copy instead of the 1080p or 720p copy. I read a while ago that Plex Server is smarter when selecting which copy to transcode from. Does this work as expected? Do people still separate 4K content and if so what’s the reason to do so?

Plex Server Version 1.21.1.3766

2

I use tautulli and through it I run a custom script that prevents people from playing 4k content, forcing them to choose the 1080 version instead.

3

Is that necessary? According to the v2.50.0 release notes, it says: “Avoid transcoding of 4K video when another version is playable” I already have Tautulli set up, can I ask more about your script?

4

Interesting, I missed this. I have two libraries with one for 4K for the same reason. I might give it a go later and see.

5

Just to chime in on this. The feature of Plex selecting the most appropriate file has worked flawlessly over the last few months.
I merged my libraries because of it.

6

I use these python scripts to stop 4K transcoding as well as I have a custom script to cancel multiple streams and displays a custom message.

7

That’s good to know, I’ve just tried it with a single movie and so far so good.

1 Like
8

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.