I recently finished uploading my library of movie files and have scanned my library in plex, etc. All along this process, I have not messed with any settings, just left the default settings in place.
In reading about optimization, it sounds like when I ‘optimize’ a movie file, a new version of the file is created (essentially doubling the space requirements for that movie?).
My question is:
How do I determine what settings everything was loaded with in the first place?
If there is a way to initially upload files with ‘optimized’ settings so I don’t have to create duplicate files of all movies, then I would gladly spend the time removing and re-uploading everything, in the name of saving disk space.
This could be me misunderstanding how optimized versions affect storage space, so any insight will be much appreciated.
When you create a Plex library, Plex does not do anything to your original files. PMS just analysis the file to determine what codecs are being used. It does not change anything. The Optimize feature allows you to convert these files to a format that has a better chance of being supported by Plex clients and so they won’t need to be transcoded during playback. Keep in mind that any conversion will result in a loss of quality. Your original file still exists in case you want that original quality. In the client, you then can choose which version to play.
If you want to only keep the optimized version, you need to manually take the optimized version, which is saved in a Plex Version folder, and move it to the location of the original, then remove the original. You then need to go into Plex Web, and delete the optimized job, otherwise it’ll try to optimize the new version again.
