I took a clip of the dashboard and have two people remotely playing 2 different movies. I noticed that the video in both is being downgraded? to SD from 1080p and audio is being transcoded from HE-AAC 5.1 to AAC.
Neither user is complaining but I am trying to understand what is going on here and if I need to worry about it. The server is an older windows box running server 2012.
Just looking for some info and suggestions and i will go do the research. I will be honest, i have not been paying much attention to the server because it just works and I never have issues but I did add a couple more family members to it and i want to make sure i have the settings correct and I am providing a quality streaming experience.
You cannot deduce much from this screenshot. Only that for some reason the bitrate is getting reduced.
Now why this is happening can have a variety of reasons.
It could be that:
the user has requested the movie only in this quality, by setting it as a preference in the setting of his plex client
the bitrate has been reduced automatically by Plex due to a bandwidth congestion. Either in your internet upload or the user’s internet download speed.
you have defined an upper bitrate limit for streaming to remote clients in the settings of your server (Settings - Server - Remote Access)
your server is only reachable over a relay connection, which is capped at 1mbps for normal users and at 2 mbps for Plex Pass holders
