0% of the Roku users using my server should ever transcode any media that is on my server. Each Roku is on at least a 100Mbps cable line and the server is on a 300Mbps fiber line. The default remote video quality setting of 4Mbps causes everything to transcode. How to get into settings in Roku Plex channel is NOT obvious and the “Remote Quality” setting is like 3 clicks deep.
It is with persistence and patience that I have gotten transcodes down to 50% by nagging people to change their client settings.
Just take a moment to consider how many old repurposed power-hungry Xeons are running PMS right now and transcoding to trash quality streams to UHD smart TVs for no reason at all. It’s so sloppy that it makes me cringe. Every single streaming service on Roku will use well over 4mbps without changing any settings. Elan said once that they were looking to the auto-quality feature to address this. That was months/years ago, the feature on Android doesn’t work well at all and led to them burying the Remote Quality setting even deeper.
People know when they need to lower remote quality because it buffers. When this default setting is buried the way it is, they will literally never realize they are set at 4Mbps for no reason unless you nag them and send instructions with screenshots. Speaking of which, I had to make instructions and screenshots for Roku, I can’t help people with Samsung TVs because they have multiple interfaces and neither seem to match Roku. It would be cool if Plex bothered to make updated instructions that I could just link them to.
I’m not saying the only solution is setting the default higher, I know that upsets DSL users.
The worst connection in this scenario is Spectrum 100Mbps and time of day has never been a factor. Maybe in 1998, or maybe in some parts of the country. In any case, they can lower their settings if they need to, and there is even a prompt to tell them to do it. This is no excuse to waste so much energy. The concern is not only about my own server, but also the carbon footprint you are expanding as a result of this policy. Anyone “downloading ISOs” will either know enough to stop downloading, or adjust their settings.
Plex instructs you to adjust this setting when a stream fails, but there is no prompt for when you are transcoding and don’t need to.
You don’t have to change the default to auto, and you don’t have to raise the default (but I would). There are other solutions, let’s fix this @elan !
So, I agree with you on the vast majority of what you have posted. I do however also see the product as a global product, and while the US, and most of Western Europe and a lot of Eastern Europe are on pretty decent internet and backbones, the rest of the world (some Asian countries excluded) simply isn’t there yet. I would rather there be a setup process on initial install personally, that asks the user what their connection is like and then it logically chooses based on that, however with mobile being the way it is, that connection is constantly changing (LTE vs non-LTE, 3G vs 4G, 5G coming soon, etc).
The only real way to combat this is to have dynamic streaming information passed between client and server, and leaving the decision up to the server… In a perfect world, it would do that, it could set initial quality by performing a quick speedtest and then adjust as needed during play. I’ve walked all of my users through setting their devices to original, so my transcodes are down to less than 5% but that was a lot of work. I also went through and hardcoded all the “English for non-English speaking” parts of movies, and burned subtitles into my Anime, all while transcoding my Library to x265 (lower bitrates same quality video). In fact I am still in the middle of my Anime (been a project for the last 2 months).
I think it should default to maximum settings for all users, and then it prompts when it doesn’t work, so they lower resolution, that would be ideal…
Yes pls. haha
No really, I appreciate the post!
Speed detection does seem to be the final solution. I don’t think that waiting on that means doing nothing is okay though. How about this idea? When a server owner kills a stream from Plex Web “server dashboard,” just add an radio-switch option to that dialog.
Stop Playback with message.
Stop Playback and request remote quality change.
When you select the second option, you now get a dialog where you select the speed you would like them to set and a box for an optional message. User would then get the following message:
““charliemurphy” stopped your playback and asked that you adjust your Plex settings. You may be causing unneeded server congestion. 20Mbps remote quality was requested.”
Now the client would be taken directly to the remote quality setting with one click. Instead of just “OK” as it is now, they would have a second selection of, “Go to setting.”
This might frustrate whoever in Plex is working on an automatic speed detection system, but it would save kWh’s all over the world right now instead of waiting. To add to this, a Xeon transcoding heats up a room. In places with AC, that wasted energy is more than doubled by electric air conditioners trying to offset the heat. In places like SE USA, that’s a real consideration most of the year.
Yeah, I fully understand what you’re saying… The entire reason for me doing my library the way I have was to reduce transcodes, and allow more streams… I mean even removing the whole “Green energy” Argument, it’s still money savings, and significant money savings at that if you have a larger userbase and content library. It’s one of the reasons I made a “Feature Request” which can be seen here: Dynamic Video, Audio, and Subtitle Selection by PMS/Plex Client, and "Use with Foreign Audio" tweak
This isn’t a solution for everyone, obviously, as most people don’t have large enough disk space to store all of the necessary information, but at the moment I am at 72TB and will be over 130TB by the end of the year, so it’s the way I would tackle the problem if I was Plex. Because mutliplexing takes almost no power to accomplish… and if they would enable multi-video stream matroska files, it wouldn’t even need to multiplex anymore, it would just do everything it needed to do and DirectPlay it all day long…
