A new TV offers the possibility to watch 4k movies to me. I am thinking about upgrading my library but I’m not sure if I want to replace my 1080 collection. I’ve read that some use a separate 4k library.
Do you? How do you deal with it? I mostly add movies with trakt and radarr automatically. Do you use separate accounts?
I honestly can’t tell the difference between 4K and 1080 unless I’m right up to the screen, so I only have a few choice favorites (that are heavy on the special effects) in 4K. It’s such a massive amount more space just for a slightly better picture.
This right here. We can obviously tell a difference but the leap in quality from 1080p (Blu-ray) to 4k is not the leap that dvd to Blu-ray was. I have most in 1080p and my very few favorites or very iconic movies that benefit from the higher res, in 4k.
I remember an article explaining 4k in theater was interesting only if your screen was over 10meter wide, it was maybe 7 or 8 years ago.
Back then the debate for theaters was should be the “next gen” be 48fps, or 4k.
I’m pretty close to this, I still don’t keep 4k, I re-encode to 2k and save buckets of space for the things I want a really nice copy of. Even on my big screen I’m hard pressed to tell the difference.
For me only certain movies are worth the space on my server that a high quality 4k rip would take up. I do most everything in 1080 and specific films in 4k. Besides that most people aren’t going to see a real difference unless you have a good home theater set up
Same here. I don’t bother with 4k for things like comedies where the visual quality doesn’t matter. I’ve set up profiles for everything up to 4k, and select per film as I add it.
Nah. My older 1080p stuff remains, but I just do 4k only now. Media server is powerful enough to transcode to 1080 on the fly for any device that can’t handle 4k, or for slower network conditions.
Typically I only seek out 4K content if it’s an “event” type of movie like a big budget blockbuster or something like that. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I typically don’t have a problem watching my movie collection in HD when I grew up watching beta and VHS cassettes.
I agree. Most movies of mine are 1080p, which look great with high enough bitrate. 4K is for the big flashy movies which clearly benefit.
I’ve replaced all my media with 4K remuxes, when available, 1080p remuxes otherwise, unless it’s a movie I’m only getting by request, then I might get an encode. Felt good to wash away all the 1080p and especially 720p stuff. 4K with HDR makes a HUGE difference. A lot of the time the picture has been remastered (maybe the for the first time, maybe more) and is exclusive to the UHD. Also, you often get upgraded with Dolby Atmos or DTS:X tracks, which rule.
Nop, I don’t have a 4k library. To be honest, my TV doesn’t even know what HD ready is. It can handle 1080i, but full HD, nop. (And I already have a hard time seeing the difference between 720p and 1080p)
I have two libraries for movies because my home theater can let 4k + HDR shine while my Internet connection doesn’t have the upload to send that to family. They get stuck with 1080 and have never complained. My server has the power to transcode on the fly but for now I have the free space to keep both.
TV is almost entirely 1080 unless there is a super good reason to upgrade past that. I’m not actually sure if I’ve ever done that.
Set profiles for the quality of movies you’re looking to download.
I keep multiple versions in the same library. I use Emby, and, as long as my naming is good, I get one listing for each movie, and the ability to select which version to watch.
I download 4K if I can get it. I delete after I’ve watched it.
You have been banned from r/DataHoarder.
If you’re only watching on 1 TV, I don’t think there’s any reason to keep them a separate 4k library. And if your server can handle transcoding easily, there’s still not much reason.
If you have an often-used second (or third, etc) TV with lower resolution and your server doesn’t handle transcoding well, then it’s probably worth keeping them separate.
I’ve also started to disagree with the guide about file size. I don’t think I can tell the difference, and I’m not trying to preserve media for the future. So long as the video has the features I want, I think just about any file size is fine.
Yep. My Plex server can’t handle multiple 4K streams and neither can my ISPs bandwidth. So it’s 4K download simply for stuff we watch at home and the rest of Plex content is 1080p
Personally i get the highest quality i can. Often 4K REMUX . If a device is not capable of showing 4K i just transcode the stream at the server.
when 4K is done well I can’t tell the difference from 1080p. but it’s usually not compressed well, at least in my experience, the pixel density just makes the image dimmer
I think people who have separate libraries don’t have access to hardware transcoding, or prefer not to use it. That’s the only reason I can see for it. My library is fully mixed, if a connection or device cannot support the resolution or codec, my server will transcode it in real time. Is transcoding the best quality? No, but if it’s transcoding because a device can’t handle higher quality I’m unlikely to notice the difference between a 1080p file and a live transcode of a 2160p file. We don’t have a ton of TVs in the house and the main event TV is high enough quality that I’m now downloading most things in UHD.
This is the perspective of someone with a dedicated 24/7 media server with plenty of storage that is easily expanded.
Or we don’t have the upload pipe for it. Or both.
Most people would be streaming to another TV in their home.
The OP and I are talking about hosting video for people outside our homes. I have many friends and family who use my Plex server all over the world
OP doesn’t say anything about that.
I meant the OP of the comment I’m referring to, wrong terminology I guess
You and I are the only two people in this thread, that’s why I was confused.
Clearly I am confused too
