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 |
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Want to change quality for a single playback session? Skip down to Troubleshooting.
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If you don't know how much bandwidth you have, visit https://fast.com and it'll tell you.
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Click Settings up in the top-right corner.
- Click Quality in the left-hand navigation menu.
- 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.
- Ensure that Play smaller videos at original quality is checked, and then click SAVE CHANGES.
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If you don't know how much bandwidth you have, visit https://fast.com and it'll tell you.
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Highlight and then select, or click on your user portrait.
- Open Settings.
- In settings, open Video, then Remote Quality.
- 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.
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 |
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- Open the playback Settings for the video you're watching.
- Click on the current playback quality and choose a new one from the list.
- Navigate to the onscreen settings icon while your video is playing and click or select it.
- 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.
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.