I have some movies in 4k that play great locally. These don’t transcode well on the fly for remote users. I’ve used the optimize version function to create 720p versions of these files. However, when users push play… it tries to play the 4k version.
I understand the play version is a way around this problem, but teaching the wife what to look for and how to use the button is a challenge… and frankly seems silly that it’s even required.
It just seems odd that if I limit remote streams to 3mbs 720p, plex defaultly chooses the 4k file to transcode instead of the 720p version that it has already converted. Am I missing a setting, or doing something wrong?
Thanks for the response. This is basically what I’ve resorted to, but feels like a workaround for something that should work better than it does. I’ve just created a 4k library, and then have been creating 1080p versions to sit in the main library (which transcode to 720p when needed without incident.) This is just way more manual work than I’ve had to deal with since migrating to plex some time ago; I’m spoiled.
If optimized versions let you pick a target, that would be a better fix than all the manual work required with the above solution. I still stand firm in my belief if the requested resolution is available, that should be the favored source to be served up… not the highest quality you own. Seems to somewhat invalidate the idea that “optimize versions” seems to address.
