Source
r/PleX•
Airit3ch

Keep two quality of a movie for no trans coding?

Solved

Hey guys! Been a silent watcher of the sub for awhile.

I have one person who also watches my plex at the moment, I very specifically tell him that if a movie is in 4k to set the quality to 1080p (with the speed below my upload speed cap from my ISP) However, I do like to enjoy 4k movies from my home LAN. But when not playing at the original video quality and transcoding starts, the 2700x seems to struggle with only one transcode, and I use my server for other things that can also be slightly CPU intensive. Id like to keep two copies of the same movie, one in 1080p for external usage, and one in 4k for home lan watching while not having to transcode, is this possible?

Thanks in advance!

Posted Dec 3, 2019, 2:45 AM UTC

511
babumyLifetimePlexPass•

Keep all 4K content in a separate library and don't share that library with anyone who has remote access (if your ISP cannot support the upload speed).

There is no other viable way.

DO NOT TRANSCODE 4K

4
JSchuler99•

If your hardware can handle it transcoding 4k is fine. No reason to exclaim it in all capitals.

1
BgrngodSynology 214Play + Intel NUC8i7BEH•

A 4k HDR transcode down to 1080p loses the HDR and looks extremely washed out. A regular old 1080p file that doesn't have HDR will look much better, both direct played and transcoded.

Transcoding 4k is just a mess right now, and will continue to be until Plex supports handling the HDR in some way.

2
Jake07002•

IIRC it severely reduces quality to transcode 4K right now

1
Snidgen•

It sounds like you've covered each of the first 4 questions answered by the "The Rules of 4k and plex".

Edit: I should add that you really do need to keep one or more copies for other device types for their resolution and audio codec - but only if you ever want to watch Star Wars on your phone. Kidding, but you get the idea.

YouTube keeps lots of various resolutions of your video you upload because storage is cheaper than CPU cycles. Same for you.

1
Airit3chOP•

So the fact that the 2700x could keep up with 4k transcoding down to 1080p is impressive on itself haha!

So, I see the stuff talked about, but I don't necessarily see how exactly to do it, is it as simple as after your library detects the 4k version of the movie, but the 1080p version on and plex with auto-detect?

It'd be cool if there was a plugin or something that would take all your videos, and transcode it into various resolutions for direct playback because yes! Storage is way cheaper than a CPU upgrade is!

1
Snidgen•

Honestly I'd just put them in separate libraries. At least that's what I do. I call mine "4K Movies" and the other one is still named "HD Movies". I know which ones I'd want to share ;)

It's much better to direct play to the device if it can handle it. Otherwise to be honest, my hardware has a hard time keeping up with even one stream with some native UHD/Atmos files without a moment of buffering now and then. I hate that. It's not a problem of PLEX, it's just that the conversion in real time takes a long time. That's why YouTube just does the conversions one time when you upload to the various resolutions supported, and stores them. Then depending on the device you use and its bandwitch, you get the target resolution by default.

I don't think PLEX has that capability yet, but I might be wrong. It's happened before. LOL

2
bjzy•

Totally agree. I have a separate library called “4K Movies” that points to a different folder which has only 4K movies. I do not share the 4K library with anyone. Not even my immediate family who live with me. They don’t even know it’s there tbh.

2
Snidgen•

Most of us are just getting the UHD movies that we already have on disk in 1080p anyway. So we already end up with both. As the "Rules" say, if you don't have the space for 1080p + UHD/4K....

2
Airit3chOP•

Thanks for all the information fellas! I appreciate it! My solution will be like doing what you guys said, keep a 4k library for me and me only! Only share the 1080p stuff (until Xfinity increases their default upload speed (10mbps, cmon guys) I've got a GTX 1060 waiting for the day I might need to transcode!

1
logikgear•

If you have a Plex pass you can set the "remote stream bitrate" which will only allow what you set. I have mine sent to 3Mbps (720p). you can also input your internet upstream to help.

0