One of my favorite features with Plex is its ability to automatically choose which version of a video file plays depending on the player and system that the app is running on. If a device doesn’t support 4K resolution or the HEVC encoding which is often used with 4K media, Plex will play a 1080p, H264 version of the file if it exists (which is the default when the Optimized for TV optimization is used).
For context, any 4K media I have will automatically convert and produce an Optimized for TV version (1080p) to allow the most flexibility for my users.
However, what perPLEXes (ha) me, is that for some reason, when using the Plex Windows app, it does not automatically select the 1080p version of the file, and instead insists on using the 4K HDR copy. Yes, the monitor I am on supports 4K resolution, but why is it attempting to even play HDR content if the player does not support HDR? Ideally it should take both resolution and color tone (SDR vs. HDR) into account when the app auto-selects a video file. This would make the non-HDR support for the Windows app much less of an issue since it would always just play a file that’s supported.
Perhaps this can be considered a feature request, but I wanted to ask if there is a better way to solve this. It is very inconvenient to select a different version to play for every single episode of a TV show if an entire season is in HDR. It is very confusing to some of my server’s users that “the picture looks weird” when there is a perfectly good version available version for them that isn’t being auto-played. Having better quality for a file available shouldn’t cause this inconvenience.
tl;dr: Please make the Plex Windows app prioritize non-HDR file versions since the app does not support HDR. Thank you!
