I’m running the player on a Dell XPS 15 9550 laptop with a 4k display. The operating system is Windows 10, latest update with all current drivers and Windows updates. My display settings are set to scale to 200% and while this works fine for most apps, the Plex Player does not seem to honor this setting. The result is that I practically need a magnifying glass because text and other elements in the player are displayed so small. Note that the Web app and Plex Server software do not seem to have this problem.
I realize that the Windows 10 Creator’s Update coming out next month has settings that can override an apps settings for high DPI scaling and that this will likely will resolve the issue then, but does anyone have a solution that I can use in the meantime?
Cayers, thanks for your response. Note that the answer to all of your questions except the last one were in my original posting, but I’ll repeat those details here:
Resolution: As I noted, this a 4k display (3840 x 2160).
App being used: I am using the Plex Media Player app (latest version).
Does Web App exhibit same problem: No, and neither does the Server software.
Why the display is set to scale: Windows by default sets a scaling factor for high DPI screens because without scaling elements on the screen would be ridiculously small. Think of it this way: My small 15 inch laptop screen has 4 times the resolution of a full HD screen. It’s like having 4 1920 x 1080 screens squeezed into a 15 inch display so icons, text, etc. appear super tiny. By default, Windows sets the scaling factor to 250% but I change that to a slightly less aggressive setting of 200%. While most apps handle the scaling factor correctly, some apps do a less than perfect job of this but the Plex Player doesn’t seem to honor the scaling at all so text is super tiny.
In the meantime, I’ve tested this on the latest available build of the upcoming Creator’s Update for Windows 10 and by enabling the option to have the system override the apps scaling behavior it resolves this issue completely. I guess I’ll just wait until April 11 for that update. I was just hoping to have a workaround but for now I’ll just use the Web app.
lcersly, from my testing, it looks like the Windows 10 Creator’s Update should solve this. Last I heard it’s expected to be out about April 11.
To implement the fix, locate the Plex Media Player icon or executable, right-click it and choose properties. Go to the compatibility tab. Check the box that says “Override high DPI scaling behavior” and in the “Scaling performed by” drop-down pick “System”.
I have quite a few programs that just don’t handle high DPI scaling well and this resolves the problems for every program I’ve tried so far on my test system.
