I think I know the answer to my question. Just recently got Plex going for the Ps4, and I've set my quality pretty low. I'm streaming from a remote server, and don't want to use too much.
Now, when I go to the quality, when a video is playing, it's always more than what I have set. It says whatever it is, and then says "Original" I think next to it. So it's just Direct Playing.
Is that what I have to do in order for it to transcode to a lower, smaller, quality, is turn off Direct Play so it's forced to transcode?
Did you set your quality in the main settings (Video > Local Quality) page, or while watching a show? I had this problem a while ago and wasn't aware of the global setting and found that my setting was not "sticking" meaning I had to change it every time I played a file...
Changed the global quality settings, but it's getting over riden I believe from Direct Play. I go to the video quality, while watching a video, and it's always just showing the Original quality. Some random quality number with (Original) next to it. So I'm pretty sure I have to turn off Direct Play, so that it forces transcodes.
I know for sure that it is possible to force transcoding by changing the global quality setting as I used to have to do it myself... It shouldn't get over ridden once it's changed here. Perhaps try changing it globally and restart the app. When you go to the video quality while watching a video after that it should definitely be what you have set globally - at least it is for me.
Other than that, I guess you could just turn direct play off but then you won't even be able to direct play something lower quality that could be direct played...
