Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@RulerOf
Last active October 16, 2023 03:53
Show Gist options
  • Save RulerOf/ffd84b87f86ed5d5388e210fd8c865f9 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save RulerOf/ffd84b87f86ed5d5388e210fd8c865f9 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Adjusting Plex Media Player streaming quality defaults and per-stream

Setting a default quality in Plex Media Player desktop

The Plex Media Player desktop application's default quality setting is in different places depending on the interface you're using. The Plex Web UI is used as a point-and-click interface, whereas the Plex Media Player TV UI is used as a remote-friendly interface.

Plex Web UI Plex Media Player TV UI
Plex Web UI Plex Media Player TV UI

Want to change quality for a single playback session? Skip down to Troubleshooting.

Plex Web UI Default Quality Settings

  1. If you don't know how much bandwidth you have, visit https://fast.com and it'll tell you.

  2. Click Settings up in the top-right corner.

settings

  1. Click Quality in the left-hand navigation menu.

Quality

  1. Choose a default quality that's better than the stock configuration of 2 Mbps. For the bandwidth-impaired, keep this number below 80% of your max speed. For everyone else, I suggest 8, 10, or 12 Mbps.

Bandwidth

  1. Ensure that Play smaller videos at original quality is checked, and then click SAVE CHANGES.

Plex Media Player TV UI Default Quality Settings

  1. If you don't know how much bandwidth you have, visit https://fast.com and it'll tell you.

  2. Highlight and then select, or click on your user portrait.

Portrait

  1. Open Settings.

Settings

  1. In settings, open Video, then Remote Quality.

Video > Remote Quality

  1. In Remote Quality, choose a default quality that's better than the stock configuration of 2 Mbps. For the bandwidth-impaired, keep this number below 80% of your max speed. For everyone else, I suggest 8, 10, or 12 Mbps.

Bandwidth

Troubleshooting

Get lots of stops/starts, or buffering a lot? Try lowering the quality. To temporily adjust quality for a single playback session, follow these steps.

Plex Web UI Plex Media Player TV UI
Plex Web UI Plex Media Player TV UI

Plex Web UI Single-Session Quality Adjustment

  1. Open the playback Settings for the video you're watching.

Playback settings

  1. Click on the current playback quality and choose a new one from the list.

Adjust quality

Plex TV UI Single-Session Quality Adjustment

  1. Navigate to the onscreen settings icon while your video is playing and click or select it.

Playback settings

  1. Select/click Quality from the list of settings, and then choose and quality from the list and select/click on it, then back out of the settings menu.

Select quality

@ekk88d
Copy link

ekk88d commented Jan 30, 2022

Thank you so so much for this write-up.

After troubleshooting countless new and experienced Plex users, I have a couple suggestions:

  1. Update the first iteration of Plex Web UI to Plex in Web Browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.). Every reference, thereafter, can just say Plex in Web Browser, Plex Web Browser UI, or something similar. The users should have gotten the gist from that first header with specific browsers referenced.

  2. Plex Media Player TV UI changed to Plex Smart TV App That's how Plex's support refers to it, which brings us to #3.

  3. Please please include the Plex's official Smart TV post in your Troubleshooting section, for example:
    "Q: Are you experiencing a playback error on your Smart TV's Plex app? The most common one is Playback Error - An unexpected playback problem occurred."
    "A: This error, and its similar iterations, are detailed by the official Plex announcement here:
    Important Info for Plex app on Smart TVs"

(In the bottom area of Troubleshooting) "Before reaching out for outside support, Google. /r/Plex, Plex's FAQ Articles and Plex's Forums likely have you covered. If you you're frustrated with your device and Plex's playback, try a different device. Most problems can be fixed by simply changing devices, like switching from the Plex Smart TV app to its web browser player.

Lastly, since each Plex user is starting with only one device, I'd recommend that Plex Browser and Plex Smart TV documentation be split into two separate pages. If we're lucky, maybe we'll get the mobile OS apps also documented on a 3rd page :)

Post-updates, this is excellent material for posting to the /r/Plex subreddit.

@BlaM
Copy link

BlaM commented Feb 11, 2022

I assume that there is no way to change the values that are available in that quality selection drop down, correct? I find that a little strange, because that locks users in to 20mbps / 1080p even when the actual limit is more like 50mbps.

My TV - for whatever reason (cough manufacturing cost cough) only has a 100mbps network interface which can easily play videos with 40mbps 4k resolution, so I would love to have plex play those as is. But some of my "raw" ripped 4k blu-rays have 60mbps or more - and those don't work. So for me an 50mbps / 2160p option would be nice to have.

@RulerOf
Copy link
Author

RulerOf commented Feb 11, 2022

@ekk88d I'm not sure when I'll have time to make your suggested changes. You're welcome to fork the gist if you like. I would pull back changes (these are just git repos with a very different UI).

@BlaM To answer your question directly, no, there's no way I know of to configure those values. However...

I had the same problem. WiFi speed wasn't good enough and built-in ethernet was too slow, so I bought a USB3 NIC and get great performance now. I bought this model and used a USB3 hub too since I added storage to my TV. It's a Sony Bravia with Android TV, and compatible NICs are the ones with ChromeOS support.

@ekk88d
Copy link

ekk88d commented Feb 11, 2022

@RulerOf Thanks, that's the same scenario for me. I wouldn't have an opportunity to fork and maintain.

Time to maintain will remain an unknown, depending on any screenshots that need to get redone because Plex decides to make UI changes.

Just recently, I noticed that the whole search functionality was changed for Plex Web. If I have any enlightenments about new Plex user onboarding, I'll post back.

@BlaM
Copy link

BlaM commented Feb 13, 2022

@RulerOf That's actually an interesting idea. I'm using a Philips TV also running with Android TV. The NIC you used seems to be unavailable here in Germany, but that hint with ChromeOS should be enough for me to find something. Thank You! 😃

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment