Questions about "Optimizing" movies

Plex Media Server
1

A few questions about optimizing movies:

  1. Is there a difference in quality between using “Optimized for Mobile” vs using “Custom → Universal TV → 4 Mpbs”?

The reason for my question is that I did convert from 4K to Mobile but the quality is horrible (very blocky…looks like 2 Mbps but I confirmed it is 4 Mbps) and is worse than what I normally see when allowing Plex to auto transcode on the fly (stream). So, I believe Plex can transcode at better quality at the same bitrate.

  1. If I optimize from 4K to 8 Mbps, will Plex use the 4K or 8 Mbps file if it still needs to transcode on the fly for a 4 Mbps stream limit? I’m currently limiting remote streams to 4 Mbps but am hoping to move up to 8 Mbps in the near future.

  2. Can I create my own optimizations using Handbrake? Do I need to do anything special such as file naming, metadata or file structure?

  3. If I can create my own optimized files using Handbrake, can those files be HEVC format?

Thanks

2

I optimize my 4K movies to optimize for TV option which gives you a 1080p version of the movie. If I need a lower quality like for remote use it will pick the 1080p version for transcoding. I don’t care if the server has to transcode a movie as it is powerful enough. You might try that and see if it will work for you.