Server Version#: 1.16.5.1554
Player Version#: 4.4.1
I have a video file that has dimensions of 1900x816. I see in the media info under the video it says “Display Title 720p (H.264)”. Why am I being forced to watch this video remotely at 720p when it obviously has a much higher resolution? I understand that the bitrate exceeds my 10Mb cap but 4Mb 720p sucks.
Plex Web > settings > web client > general > video quality
remote streams will still be limited by the server upload speed, and if the server admin has set a maximum quality limit.
settings > remote access
Which is set at 10Mb. I set it myself months ago.
increase or remove the limit and try it.
otherwise you need to figure out what is causing the limit- it can be from different places/reasons.
you can monitor the server dashboard and console logs to see if they provide you more information on what the server is actually doing and why.
Maybe this is more of a server problem. It seems to think this video is 720p.
Question:
Is Remote Quality Gone Now?
…'cause I recall having short, heated conversations with ‘Remote Guests’ to PLEASE up that Remote Quality setting from 720/4Mb to 1080/8Mb… and I hate to mention it, but it looks like it’s still there… hidden…
You could try to reanalyze the file (check the 3 dot menu when viewing the video in the library), but most likely because the video is below the limits for it to be considered real 1920x1080.
in other words, 810 height is closer to 720, then 1080
in any case, it isn’t going to affect the actual remote quality, given whatever the client/server settings are.
I have the limit set to 1080p 10Mb. I tried to set it to Unlimited but that had no affect. Because it is detected as 720p I only have options to play it at up to 720p 4Mb.
I actually have a bone to pick about that one too. For 720p videos, particularly broadcast 720p60, 4Mb is too freaking low. I wish there was a 6Mb or 8Mb option for 720p video.
if the client is set to maximum, then the limit comes from the server internet upload limit, or the remote stream limit.
Increase that to say 15 upload, no stream limit
then the file should direct stream the video (audio will probably transcode) you might get buffering, but the quality should be the same as the original.
edit, also what exact client are we talking about here? is this plex web client, or some other plex app? roku/android/ios/etc ?
I have plenty of videos that are 1920x800 that Plex shows are “1080p”. I suspect they base this subjective value strictly on just the width rather than looking at all values including the displayed aspect ratio.
The unfortunate side effect is that it is boxing this video under a much lower quality category that cannot be broken out of by the player no matter how hard you try. If the server says it’s 720p the player will not offer anything but 720p or lower quality options. It won’t allow you to “upscale” a video at all.
yeah, like I said earlier, this particular video appears to be below the threshold to be considered 1080p
you could try re-ripping it and not cropping to lower resolution.
otherwise, as you indicate, plex considers it 720p and doesn’t let you ‘upscale’ it.
setting the client to ‘maximum/original’ should avoid ‘downscaling’ other than what is required to fit within the server limits.
That would be an interesting test right about now - to use a client that still has ‘Remote Quality’ exposed - like the Roku UNO app - and yank that setting up beyond 720/4M.
if the client is set to max/orig, then the server shouldn’t change the resolution unless its required to fit within the server upload/remote limits.
whether that is happening, or this is all placebo effect because of labeling, remains to be seen
This is on the web client. I haven’t tried another.
OK, but what is the actual bit rate of the file as it’s being played?
If it’s under 4M - I would be very suspicious of that ol’ Default Remote Quality limit.
What is the behavior of other 720p video, 1080p viewed remotely?
All good?
I just tried setting it to maximum. It’s weird that it’s showing it’s playing at the original “13.5Mb 1072p”. But the server shows it’s transcoding 720p to 720p. It says the remote bandwidth is 7Mb.
I suspect that the 720p you are seeing is a red herring.
You can know with certainty if you enable ‘debug logs’ on your server
play this video
then inspect the logs.
It will tell you exactly if it was transcoded. And if so, which parameters were used.
But I think it is not transcoding at all.
Not sure how accurate that is, but to Plex it appears you aren’t going to be allowed to put 13.5 tons of cabbage on a 7 ton truck. What happens in the transcoder is anyone’s guess, but Plex is in charge of that.
If you can’t get Direct Play you’re at the mercy of the transcoder and the decisions it makes for you based on the info it has on the original version, the available bandwidth and what it has to do to get that down the pipe to you.
If other titles, up to, say 5M of bit rate function normally, in Direct Play at their original resolution - I’ll retract all conspiracy theories about a hidden Remote Quality setting in the ‘New Experience’.
I’m now thinking NOT having a Remote Quality setting may be a good thing. If Plex-Brain is good enough to send the original file in Direct Play if it can and does so, until it can’t, then does something about it… might work fine. A tad more info in the ‘reason for the transcode’ may be in order, but I like it.
It looks like you might be right. I have the mediainfo cli installed on my Unraid box. If I run it against the init-stream0.m4s file it shows the resolution is 1900x816. Weird that both the dashboard and Tautulli show that it’s transcoding the video. It is transcoding the audio.
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