What are the best settings for remote streaming?

Plex Players Desktop Players
1

Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
Player Version#: Firestick, et al
The Server is a Dell server with a 6 core Xeon x5650 with 18 gig of ram.
Media on a synology RAID

I have a lot of movies that are at 1080p. I also share my library with several people. Recently I have noticed that when they play movies it says transcoding 1080p to SD.

Why? I’m guessing it could be my upload bandwidth but I have 20 mbits and the server dashboard is saying it is using 5. It may be their bandwidth but at least one of these folks has some pretty good bandwidth.

So does anyone have a rundown on the best settings on both ends (server and client) to maximize the resolution of streamed media?

2

I set all my clients to ORIGINAL quality for both local and remote, and automatically adjust quality enabled.

I think the default client qualities are like 4meg which pretty much forces transcoding anything with higher quality.

then set your SERVER upload bandwidth appropriately (mine is 10m up, so I set my plex upload to 9m).

If you are 20m up, I’d suggest 18 or 19m for the plex upload bw.

https://app.plex.tv/desktop

settings > remote access > upload bandwidth
limit remote bitrate > original (no limit)

this will allow single streams to use up to the max upload (so they can potentially direct stream without transcoding), while plex will divide up the bandwidth accordingly to multiple clients.

clients with auto adjust will dynamically lower the streaming quality, and if auto adjust is disabled then the client will stop and buffer as necessary.

3

How about transcorder quality. Leave that at Automatic?

4

yes.

if something is transcoding, its because either the client can’t direct play or there isn’t enough bandwidth to direct play, either way you’re not gonna get full quality and automatic gives plex the flexibility to optimize on its own.

its not like the transcoded stream is going to be saved, so no sense in trying to make it high quality, better to let it be fast and dynamic as needed.

5

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