Since the last update, I’m having an issue with the way Plex is filtering my shows or, at least, I’m having trouble understanding why it’s filtering them like it is.
Previously I would go to my TV Shows Library, select Library from the top tab, and then from the three drop-down filter options (default seems to be All - TV Shows - Title) I select ‘TV Shows’ from the middle drop-down, then ‘Resolution’ from the left drop-down and it presents you with the available resolution options. For me this was always ‘4K’ and ‘1080p’. If you have other resolutions, they’ll show up there. However, now - with no change of media - it shows ‘4K’, ‘2K’, and ‘1080p’. I’ve got no issue with that, as long as I understand (and upon testing it seems to be the case) that 2K = 1920x1080 and 1080p is something less than that height but still FHD (shows with black bars that aren’t present in the file, so 1920x800 for example). However, the problem is that the 2K shows also show up as 1080p shows, so there’s huge overlap. So if I want to change the few hundred files to match 2K, I basically have to cross reference the two to work out what’s ‘only’ 1080p.
It’s quite messy, so I’m wondering what the change is here. Unless this is a bug, and you put the 2K in there for 1440p videos (like game capture, and what not), as I think the standard definition for 2K is essentially 2048 x 1080p. Maybe it’s coded height being above 1080p = 2K. Any ideas?
Interesting. As 4K video came out, it caused some confusion, changing from describing a more-or-less widescreen 16:9(ish) video by the height resolution (1080p) to an almost arbitrary number (4k, which is apparently the width). 4K is 4 times the pixels of 1080p (so why ‘K’ instead of ‘X’?) because it is twice as wide, and twice as tall as 1080 (could be seen as 1K?).
That was all pretty dumb (to me), and movies can be all kinds of resolutions that don’t quite conform to particular numbers, but it’s what we’re stuck with. So how do we define each category? Well, before today, I hadn’t even HEARD of 2K, but it seems that it is a kind of measurement system, but it’s so hilariously close to 1080p (1K?) that I think the definitions break down.
I saw a pretty useful article here that might have clarified it for me. The text in particular (the article is pretty short anyway) is:
Full High Definition (Full HD) TV refers to a vertical resolution of 1,080 pixels. It’s written 1080p with the “p” standing for progressive scan. 2K resolution refers to cinema resolution, which measures 2048×1080 pixels. The 2K refers to the horizontal resolution. In the beginnings of TV, transmissions used 720p. Cinema has always used 1080p, which is why when you watched a Hollywood film on an old TV, parts of the picture were “chopped off.” Since TVs moved to using the same resolution, cinema, TV shows, Netflix, YouTube, and Blu-ray DVDs now look the same.
Is there any way to actually get in contact with somebody from Plex or are they another one of those companies that hides behind FAQs and Consumer help forums?
They do respond here, but it can be hit or miss on getting a reply. If you find one of their names, you could “poke” one of them in a reply here to get their attention. try @BigWheel
Ah, then how come all of my 1920x1080p files are now 2K? Is it (mistakenly?) using the ‘coded height’ as listed in ‘info’? And how come they are also listed under 1080p?
can you look at the Plex media info xml for one of the files. I don’t have any files like this myself so hard to tell what might going on. (unfortunately there are not any server devs around at the moment I can ask)
Sure. Just for clarity, I have 10303 episodes of TV. 154 of those are 4K. That leaves 10149 of non-4K. 9637 of them are ‘2K’ and 10141 are ‘1080p’. Obviously there’s some substantial overlap of things that are both 2K and 1080p. I think all 2K are listed as 1080p but not all 1080p are listed as 2k.
I’m going to upload (EDIT: Can’t upload it via this window, so will have to be external) two xml with this reply, one is 1080p but not 2K and the other is 2K and 1080p. Hopefully they’ll be of some use. I think the issue is that it is now not using the video resolution as the thing that sorts it but the coded width and/or height. It’s basically 'if there’s no black bars, it’s 1080p, if there is black bars, it’s 1080p and it’s 2K in the filter)
The one that is not 2K has a coded height of 920 codedHeight="960" codedWidth="1920"
the one that shows as 2K has a coded height of 1088 codedHeight="1088" codedWidth="1920"
I think coded height would in the files embedded metadata when it is read in. why it would ever be larger than the actual height I’m not sure. some ripping software like handbrake does allow for padding and margins I believe.
Indeed, though the 2K still shows as 1080p. With the same files it was 4K and 1080p only in the previous version (now 2 versions ago). If these 3K version weren’t coming up as 1080p versions also, and are still listed as 1080 10 bit HDR, it wouldn’t be so irksome. I just don’t understand why it has started acting this way and why it has changed. I asked a friend to check his and one of his 1080p videos is listed as 2.7K, and I thought ‘I’m not touching that with a barge pole’.
Is there any way you could get whoever is responsible for this sort of thing to look into the way it filters things. Just to ensure this is intended behaviour; it feels like it isn’t quite right.
Either way, I appreciate you looking at it for me.
yeah I agree it seems odd. but like i said the server devs I think would know are not on at the moment. I am making a bug report and if not a bug they should tell me the explanation of what is happening.
Would you mind confirming your server version number, and that this is showing in filters in all the apps.
