Today I have no mechanisms for selectively disabling transcoding on my Plex server. If even a single client tries to play a Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray Remux file it will destroy my server (a Dual socket Xeon server) for everyone. I can put those files in another library and only give selective access, but then I would still have to trust my users to not ever use a non-direct-streaming capable device for ever.
What I need for this to work properly is:
- A mechanism for me to say on my server that for example VC-1 and H265 codecs shall never be transcoded, perhaps filtered by resulotion
- A message informing the client that the file can't be played back (this probably already exists) and ideally saying that you must use a direct stream capable device and informing you of what codecs in the video that prevents you from direct streaming the file on the current device (the last part is only for user friendlyness and not really necessary)
This gives me two benefits:
- I can ensure only formats that my server can transcode fast enough is transcoded
- All titles are still visible for everyone
- It will give users an incentive to aquire direct streaming capable devices which is a win for all parts
- Transcoding is still available for all the other content
