If you have a wide collection of media you have saved locally, then you have most likely heard about Plex. Just like Kodi, it is one of the best applications you can use to manage, watch, cast, and explore your content. Plex supports a wide range of media, including pictures, music, and video. It even supports a wide array of file formats for every media which you can remotely access for an even better experience.
Compared to Kodi, Plex requires less effort to set up and use. Setting up Kodi will require you to go through a never-ending list of add-ons, settings, and repos, Plex is ready out of the box. That does not however mean that you do not have to tweak some options.
Here are some essential Plex settings that you should be aware of if you want to get the best streaming experience:
Organizing Plex Agents
Plex will automatically add metadata to your content, but you need to format your Plex media files in a certain way for it to work. Plex can add names and posters for your tv shows and movies, but metadata goes way deeper. It can identify what critics thought of the content, the directors, the actors, and even where the content aired. Once the metadata is available, you can use it to find similar shows and movies the same actors starred in.
This will however not work if you have not properly configured your Plex agents. You need to ensure your Local Media Assets fall below other metadata sources. If you do not do so then Plex will use your existing local metadata as the primary source for the file. In most cases, the metadata will be inaccurate.
Restricting Upload Speed
One of the best features Plex has is allowing you to stream your content outside your network. Meaning that you can watch your content even if you are far away from your home, allowing even your fines and family to enjoy your collection.
When you use this feature, you might want to adjust the upload speed especially if your ISP does not offer fast upload speeds and several people want to simultaneously stream content. Limiting the speed will help keep your home network from throttling when users remotely tune in. Remotely accessing your Plex content also opens the door to potential security risks. Consider using VPN for Plex to further enhance your privacy and security.
Manage Plex Transcoding
Plex automatically transcodes to make them playable on other devices. Computers and laptops will often have enough processing power to handle advanced video codecs, formats, resolutions, and subtitles, but mobile phones may not have enough processing power to do so. Plex can therefore modify your videos so that they are compatible with other devices.
The downside of transcoding is that it uses a lot of CPU power. So if your Plex server is not running on a dedicated computer, all your CPU power will be eaten up. Even if you have a dedicated server, you will eventually reach its limits if multiple transcoding is happening simultaneously. The solution is to tweak transcoder settings using any of these three values:
Transcoder quality: You can set transcoding quality to be high or low. The higher it is, the slower the transcoder will be.
Background transcoding x264 preset: The setting controls the speed of transcoding in the background. The slower you set the transcode, the smaller the file size will be and of higher quality. Time will on the other hand be slow.
Minimum number of simultaneous transcode sessions: For most users, this is the most important setting. The more simultaneous transcodes you have running on your pc, the more your CPU will strain. Consider the type of CPU you have, the number of people that will stream simultaneously, and whether it is a dedicated server, then set a reasonable number. You may have to go through some trials and errors to find what works best for you.
Optimize Your Plex Videos
Optimizing is like pre-transcoding. You can select some videos and convert them to another format. If you are planning to watch some videos when you are traveling, you can optimize them before you travel. They will then be ready to play on any device you wish without any transcoding. This feature is also useful when you know a lot of people will be remotely watching videos simultaneously, your CPU will have some time to breathe. You can optimize single shows, serials, or everything in your library.
Specify Streaming Quality
Every Plex application has its settings for streaming quality. You can therefore set streaming quality as you see fit for your devices without affecting the others. The settings you choose specify the resolution and quality of the video you play on that device. The lower the setting, the lower your video quality will be. Your media will however load faster and take less bandwidth. It is therefore worth taking some time to review these settings. You can choose three options:
Local quality: This applies to videos you watch on your local network.
Remote quality: This applies to videos you watch remotely.
Online quality: This applies to videos streamed from private Plex and online channels.
Optimize Plex Database
Plex offers two types of optimization. Instead of optimizing titles only, you can also optimize the whole database. The two operations are completely different. When you optimize the database, you are making Plex to clean up unused data fragments. You should run the tool every time you have made multiple changes to libraries to help the server run much smoother.
Delete Old Artwork
You can enhance your Plex experience by downloading artwork, as having the right posters for your movies and series makes it easier to find what you are looking for. Plex can automatically download artwork, but if you later decide to change the artwork when a new one is released, the old one remains on the server and takes up space. You can save space by manually clearing old artwork.
Read Also:
