I’ve had good experience using multiple versions of the same movie for 4K and 1080p\720p devices without transcoding by having Plex automatically select the correct format for the client device. I love this function - way better than having different libraries or having to remember to swap versions manually.
For example if my Abyss title has these versions:
Abyss-4k.mkv
Abyss-1080p.mkv
When I playback Abyss on my 4k TV it automatically plays the 4K file and if I playback on my 1080p TV it automatically plays the 1080p file instead of trying to transcode the 4k to 1080p.
What I’m not sure about is if the same holds true if the only difference is HDR vs SDR format.
So, essentially… if I have a title with these versions:
Abyss-1080p-HDR10.mkv
Abyss-1080p-DV.mkv
Abyss-1080p-SDR.mkv
Will Plex automatically pick the DV file when played back on a Dolby Vision client and automatically pick the SDR if played back on a non-HDR client?
I’m hoping for an HDR\SDR option if available, but a fall back order of DV\HDR10+\HDR10\HLG\SDR would be nice if it that was supported (I think that’s the right Profile 8 fallback order).
I couldn’t find anything in the multiple versions doc or forum searches so thought I’d ask before digging into creating versions myself for testing.
Edit: I did a very quick test with a TV show and it looks like Plex doesn’t take HDR into account for version playback. I’ll see if anybody else has other experiences or test a bit more and maybe throw a feature request together.
How busy is your server when it Transcodes? My little Synology 918+ has done 5+ streams of transcoding without breaking a sweat. I know a lot of people save the same content under different resolutions, but if you have enough horsepower, is the extra storage worth it? I save everything the highest resolution and at home, I never transcode. When I am outside of it, it all depends on the path between where I am and my home.
I have a lot of storage so I don’t worry too much about it taking up space. I started doing system this when I had a Synology 218+ with mostly 1080p\720p clients and transcoding for devices or bandwidth would work okay-ish but not consistently or snappy (depending on what else the server was also doing as well). My newer QNAP TS646 can handle it fine now probably but I have even MORE storage space so I still have multiple versions because it’s still snappier than transcoding and the smaller files work well for offline on tablets with limited space.
Plus in my recent testing, not only did Plex not automatically pick the SDR version, it didn’t try to transcode the 1080p HDR to 1080p SDR… it just errored that it couldn’t play it; which if Plex isn’t really accounting for HDR that makes sense or maybe Roku Ultra being HDR compatible but TV it’s connected to not being HDR compatible threw it off. I could manually pick the 1080p SDR and it played fine but that experience is not going to help with spouse annoyance levels.
It’s not a bad suggestion though, that’s what Plex transcoding is there to solve but that error instead of trying to transcode gives me a bit of pause for that as a solution.
It’s not a big deal though. I was just looking to try and account for the option with some titles that had 1080p HDR.
