Is there seriously still no way to force/limit users to a lower setting or even seeing what setting they are using? I am currently at the whim of whatever setting my users set and have no way of even knowing which ones are killing my connection. No way to see what stream speed they are using and no way to limit the misbehavers. I have 6 friends on right now, and no clue how much each is using, nor a way to do anything about it.
Please, for the love of god, someone tell me this is being worked on.
You can lower the quality of the streams being transcoded which would result in a lower bandwith consumption.
Sorry - have to disagree with your disagreement. :huh: My server, my shares and I should have the ability to control how much bandwidth the people I share with use. Just makes sense, particularly for anyone with a less-than-fantastic upload speed.
But, if there is a way to lower the quality of the streams within Plex (I can't find it, if it exists) that could be a solution
You can lower the quality of the streams being transcoded which would result in a lower bandwith consumption.
Second thing you said is what I want exactly, but there is no way to do it server side that I am aware of. Trusting your users to do it right is totally not acceptable. So yes, this needs to be part of Plex and people have been asking for it for years. In interim, if I could even see what each user had their setting to in the Now Playing screen, I could at least contact the offenders and tell them to lower their settings or disable their access. We are operating 100% blind from what I can tell.
In interim, if I could even see what each user had their setting to in the Now Playing screen, I could at least contact the offenders and tell them to lower their settings or disable their access.
This would be VERY helpful! I would love as much information as possible so that I can ensure quality playback on all devices.
What would really make me love the Plex devs even more, would be a server wide setting for 'maximum upload bandwidth' - which would evenly distribute a maximum streaming bandwidth to all my shared users automatically.
For instance, if I have 10Mb/s upload, and 4 people streaming, currently as it is, one user can be using 8Mb/s leaving only 2Mb/s for the other three users, causing issues for everyone. If such a system were implemented, the server would automatically limit the bandwidth to each client to 2Mb/s (10/4 = 2.5 rounded down to 2). This would reduce quality to everyone, but it would at least still work. It'd be great if it were *even smarter* - compensating for clients that have selected a lower bandwidth than the limit would impose. For instance, if I have 10Mb/s upload and 4 clients streaming, two of which have chosen 1Mb/s, there would be 4Mb/s available for each of the other two.
I know this would be complex to implement, but something... anything.. would be super very much amazingly helpful!
Right now I sometimes have to go onto my server and look at the resource monitor (networking tab) and then do math based on what I deem the average usage per IP is to determine who is using too much if people are having problems. Then contact them and remedy the situation. We know the server knows what bandwidth each client has chosen, so it really shouldn't be difficult to at least display that information in the now playing screen. I'd like to be able to at least manually limit each user's bandwidth as well (perhaps showing a notification for the client player in the bandwidth selection area, showing "server limited" or something).
Please at least do us the courtesy of responding and tell us whether something like this is or could be on the roadmap.
Sorry - have to disagree with your disagreement. :huh: My server, my shares and I should have the ability to control how much bandwidth the people I share with use. Just makes sense, particularly for anyone with a less-than-fantastic upload speed.
But, if there is a way to lower the quality of the streams within Plex (I can't find it, if it exists) that could be a solution
Plex is not a QoS software, so sorry not in the business of controlling bandwith. There are plenty of programs or ways of doing this.
Assuming your users use PlexWeb, go to settings, Web, Player, and you should see streaming quality.
you can lower the settings there, this would force transcode the files resulting in lower size files so lower bandwith being used, but your processor would transcode maybe a lot.
Second thing you said is what I want exactly, but there is no way to do it server side that I am aware of. Trusting your users to do it right is totally not acceptable. So yes, this needs to be part of Plex and people have been asking for it for years. In interim, if I could even see what each user had their setting to in the Now Playing screen, I could at least contact the offenders and tell them to lower their settings or disable their access. We are operating 100% blind from what I can tell.
This would be VERY helpful! I would love as much information as possible so that I can ensure quality playback on all devices.
What would really make me love the Plex devs even more, would be a server wide setting for 'maximum upload bandwidth' - which would evenly distribute a maximum streaming bandwidth to all my shared users automatically.
For instance, if I have 10Mb/s upload, and 4 people streaming, currently as it is, one user can be using 8Mb/s leaving only 2Mb/s for the other three users, causing issues for everyone. If such a system were implemented, the server would automatically limit the bandwidth to each client to 2Mb/s (10/4 = 2.5 rounded down to 2). This would reduce quality to everyone, but it would at least still work. It'd be great if it were *even smarter* - compensating for clients that have selected a lower bandwidth than the limit would impose. For instance, if I have 10Mb/s upload and 4 clients streaming, two of which have chosen 1Mb/s, there would be 4Mb/s available for each of the other two.
I know this would be complex to implement, but something... anything.. would be super very much amazingly helpful!
Right now I sometimes have to go onto my server and look at the resource monitor (networking tab) and then do math based on what I deem the average usage per IP is to determine who is using too much if people are having problems. Then contact them and remedy the situation. We know the server knows what bandwidth each client has chosen, so it really shouldn't be difficult to at least display that information in the now playing screen. I'd like to be able to at least manually limit each user's bandwidth as well (perhaps showing a notification for the client player in the bandwidth selection area, showing "server limited" or something).
Please at least do us the courtesy of responding and tell us whether something like this is or could be on the roadmap.
Plex is not a QoS software, so sorry not in the business of controlling bandwith. There are plenty of programs or ways of doing this.
Assuming your users use PlexWeb, go to settings, Web, Player, and you should see streaming quality.
you can lower the settings there, this would force transcode the files resulting in lower size files so lower bandwith being used, but your processor would transcode maybe a lot.
I think you are missing the point. I am not looking for QoS. I am looking for a way to not allow users to set super high quality settings so they soak up all the bandwidth. There is NO server side way to force/limit users to a lower quality that I am aware of. Changing PlexWeb only changes your local settings, not remote users to my knowledge.
Edit: For example, there should be a way I can say, no one is allowed to set transcode quality over 4Mb. Ideally we would be able to set per user though, so I can allow my closer friends to choose higher quality settings.
Actually, you hadn't said that when I posted what you've quoted. You've provided absolutely no substantive reason why this suggestion shouldn't be implemented. Please provide such a reason, if you can, in order to further this discussion. Currently you seem to be negative for the sake of being negative. This was a suggestion, and in my opinion, it's a very valid suggestion that merits further discussion of the pros and cons.
I think you are missing the point. I am not looking for QOS. I am looking for a way to not allow users to set super high quality settings so they soak up all the bandwidth. There is NO server side way to force users to a lower quality that I am aware of. Changing PlexWeb only changes your local settings, not remote users to my knowledge.
Edit: For example, there should be a way I can say, noone is allowed to set transcode quality over 4Mb. Ideally would be able to set per user though so I can allow my closer friends to choose higher quality settings.
Really, how about in streaming quality ? remote quality ?
Changes in Plex Web via the admin account forces all the preferences to the users.
Actually, you hadn't said that when I posted what you've quoted. You've provided absolutely no substantive reason why this suggestion shouldn't be implemented. Please provide such a reason, if you can, in order to further this discussion. Currently you seem to be negative for the sake of being negative. This was a suggestion, and in my opinion, it's a very valid suggestion that merits further discussion of the pros and cons.
PMS is a Media Server software, not a QoS software. How was it not clear ?
Really, how about in streaming quality ? remote quality ?
Changes in Plex Web via the admin account forces all the preferences to the users.
If that's true, then many people are unaware of that functionality and there is nothing to imply that it forces it on remote users. I have seen many threads asking for this feature. That would be amazing if you are right, but I am skeptical that's how it works. And still, not being able to set per user is an issue as I don't want to limit my own use, just my users.
Edit: Also, does this apply to people on Roku, etc, which are most of my users?
If that's true, then many people are unaware of that functionality and there is nothing to imply that it forces it on remote users. I have seen many threads asking for this feature. That would be amazing if you are right, but I am skeptical that's how it works. And still, not being able to set per user is an issue as I don't want to limit my own use, just my users.
Edit: Also, does this apply to people on Roku, etc, which are most of my users?
He's absolutely incorrect. It's a per user setting. Changes to the admin account user setting does not affect other users.
If that's true, then many people are unaware of that functionality and there is nothing to imply that it forces it on remote users. I have seen many threads asking for this feature. That would be amazing if you are right, but I am skeptical that's how it works. And still, not being able to set per user is an issue as I don't want to limit my own use, just my users.
Edit: Also, does this apply to people on Roku, etc, which are most of my users?
He's absolutely incorrect. It's a per user setting. Changes to the admin account user setting does not affect other users.
So I had to go and test it, I was partially correct, the setting is transfered to the user but the user has the freedom to modify via the access to the admin interface via settings, player
If that's true, then many people are unaware of that functionality and there is nothing to imply that it forces it on remote users. I have seen many threads asking for this feature. That would be amazing if you are right, but I am skeptical that's how it works. And still, not being able to set per user is an issue as I don't want to limit my own use, just my users.
Edit: Also, does this apply to people on Roku, etc, which are most of my users?
