In the past, I have asked for the video thumbnails for 4K movies to be created correctly, (proper color space conversion) which still has not happened.
Well I have a new suggestion, being the most Plex servers having both a copy of 1080p and 4K files for each movie anyway, why not allow Plex to use the the thumbnails created for the 1080p version to also be used for the 4K file, instead of creating a separate one for the 4K file.
This would save drive space, (not having two different version, one for 1080p and one for 4K.) Doing this would solve the issue of color space conversion of the 4K files, with the side benefit of saving drive space.
This option would be activated automatically, once both files are merged together as different versions of the same movie.
This is simply a dead wrong statement. That kind of negates any real value to your suggestion.
To be fair to the OP we had several years of being preached at that anyone with a 4K copy should also ALWAYS have another lower quality copy.
Yes, but my main reference was to the other way around. I, for one, have zero 4K movies and I do not want them taking up space. Once the resolution hits1080p (and often 720p) it is fine for me. My old eyes cannot see the difference so there is no reason for me to waste the disk space.
I really think that there is no reason for me to have more than one copy of any movie unless, like for Superman II, there are two very different movies. for most movies, if i can find it, I keep only the directors cut or the extended edition. But Superman II exists as two quite different movies so I keep both.
I am not saying that anyone should not keep two or three or even more copies of each movie. I am simply taking exception to the idea that most people have two copies of their movies. In fact I believe that the large majority have only one copy of each movie they have.
Perhaps the OP could have been worded more clearly for sure.
I know he mentions everyone has a 4K copy and a 1080p and you have taken it literally.
To me it’s pretty clear he meant everyone with a 4K copy also has a 1080p copy. But hey-ho.
Wow gang, I feel you’ve overlooked the spirit of what I meant.
I was only suggesting, for those of us that carry both 1080 and 4K files, (for compatibility for those who use our servers) that the Plex server may be able to share video thumbnails.
Of course when not doing this, Plex would behave normally, as it currently does now!
I am fully aware of servers running only single version of video files, (as mine did not too long ago.)
My suggestion was only, to hopefully solve color space issues with thumbnails of 4K files, and save drive space. Video thumbnails use a ton of drive space. When I turned them on for movies, my Plex database ballooned from 20 GB to 85 GB.
PS: this was only a suggestion, to be researched and see if it’s even plausible.
I understand your idea, and it sounds like a good idea. However, the implementation of the idea may not be possible. Right now, Plex must assume that multiple versions of the same video can be wildly different lengths. For example, adding in the half a dozen different versions of Star Wars in each re-release. I suppose you could split them out and redefine them in the library, but I think Plex must assume that two copies of the same video are different sources.
If the sources are different, then the video thumbnail previews may not match from one version to another. Just like a subtitle file not working on all version of a video, these video preview thumbnails are time-coded to an exact spot in a video, so a video with an extended scene in the middle will throw off all the preview thumbnails from then on (heck, even some anime shows can have different start logos, delaying the video by minutes).
Because of this, it makes more sense to just brute-force the thumbnails by generating it for every file regardless of the length. The only option I could see would be to possibly have Plex compare video preview thumbnails from each version, and then determine if (resolution aside) they match eachother, and if so then to delete the duplicate. That, or tell Plex manually on a video-per-video basis whether the versions are identical other than for resolution.
How about a preference option to turn this feature on, for those that do have identical version of movies? Perhaps turned on in the Advanced settings for a given library?
The color space issue for 4K thumbnails still needs to be solved though!
BTW: Thank you for the measured response to my question.
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