Server Version#: 4.20.1 ?
Player Version#: 4.20.1 ?
I am just wondering what the video quality is when not direct streaming. If I want to watch a movie on lunch at work, can it be 1080 or 4k? If I share my library with a friend, they are watching at their house, what is the highest video quality they will see? Thanks in advance for answering y’all!
This depends on your internet connection speed up and down at the viewing end. Hardware can also play a part. It best to avoid Trans coding for a good result.
I have experienced the following as a good place to start.
8Mpbs - 1080P or
4Mpbs - 720P
Also noteworthy:
The Default ‘Remote Quality’ setting in the app is either 720p @ 2Mbps or 720p @ 4Mbps (depending), but EVERYTHING 1080p/4K sent to remote client WILL be transcoded - unless you change that app setting. Your server settings do nothing in the ‘Remote Client’ app.
Also - the chances of getting a 4K item to a Remote Client unmolested by the transcoder are:
Slim
and
None
For this reason, you’d probably want to only share NON-4K items with Remote Viewers - or at least have a Lo-Rez Version that can be selected at Playback time.
So - EVERYTHING will essentially be 720? I set it to 720@ 4Mbps - does that even make a difference really? I am a NOOB to the remote sharing stuff…
If you don’t change the Remote Quality setting in the client app - a transcode at 720p is mostly guaranteed.
You can set the Remote Quality in the client app to ‘Original’, but if Plex sniffs an issue with either the server upload, or client download, or the ability of the client to play said content (for one or more of a billion reasons) - it’s gonna transcode.
Most people don’t worry about it - until they find out their server can’t transcode - or - they create and share content for Remote Viewers that can Direct Play and fit into the pipes they have to fit into.
A ‘Plex Pass’ subscriber can utilize the Plex Optimizer (9000) to create ‘Versions’ that can be selected at Playback. These will probably work fine. The ‘Feature’ isn’t very user friendly - if you try to fiddle around with those versions.
You can ‘create’ versions with Handbrake, or whatever you’ve been creating with already, and put those in to a Library to share. If the Remote Viewer can’t see 4K stuff - they can’t try to play it.
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