Do people keep 4k movies separated from 1080p

[all4dom 101]

I just started adding 4k into my media collection & have it in a separate folder but im wondering should i.just keep everything one. Just cirrious what others are doing. I mostly watch inside i don't think there will be too much remote viewing. Thanks for your input.

Dom

 

[BillybobBilly 18]

Separating based on quality is counterproductive IMO. My users want ease, and gating access to content by virtue of quality just makes the whole process more cumbersome. 

[MBSki 1114]

I keep them together so they show as 2 different versions within the same movie. Having them separate would clutter up the library view.

[bakes82 167]

6 minutes ago, BillybobBilly said:

Separating based on quality is counterproductive IMO. My users want ease, and gating access to content by virtue of quality just makes the whole process more cumbersome. 

Except if you use arrs you keep them separate since they don’t support keeping 2 versions in one folder. Also if you run plex also it’s better to keep them separate to no share it with people who will transcode. 

[speechles 2055]

If it just users inside the household without remote users you are better off join your content into versions. That way each title will show up once in your libraries, search results, everywhere. Once you enter the detail view you can use the version menu to pick exactly the title you wish to play. As long as your titles of your filenames contain resolution and things you wish to see in the version menu you will be okay. It will much more intuitive having everything joined. You add theme music to one folder. Since the rest joined into versions they gain the benefit of theme music now. Same with images and other things. When joined those apply to all the versions now on the detail view. Makes it so much easier to just enjoy the media and press play.

When you join them it simply links the data together. It doesn't merge your actual folders on your hard drive. It just adds pointers to Emby database to show that these are now grouped and should be treated as such. It isn't modify your files or structure.

There exists a plugin to automate joining the movies. The TV episodes will manually join into versions by default.

 

It is entirely up to your situation if you choose to merge into versions. Depends exactly like the point @bakes82brings up. If you have an outside situation that makes it untenable your best course is keep them separate.

Edited February 20, 2024 by speechles

[pwhodges 2012]

You can combine into versions, but still control who sees what by putting the 4k versions into a separate folder (with the same subfolder structure as the main folder) and specifying both folders for the same library.  In the user access tab for each user, you then have the option of denying access to just the 4k folder for that library.  The users denied access to the 4k folder will just see the version in the main folder whereas the other users will see both (all, if more) as versions in the dropdown - the version selected as default will be the best version they can play.

Paul

Edited February 20, 2024 by pwhodges

[tedfroop21 86]

All together now.....

Because you can name the files so its easy to tell which quality file is which,  and because Emby picks the file that matches my devices capabilities,  I see no reason to separate files. 

Perhaps if I had a lot of remote users I might change my mind simply for bandwidth usage reasons but I have no reason to do that now.

[RanmaCanada 496]

Yes because you will have idiots who want to play a DV or HDR movie and not have a setup that is capable of doing it, and then they will be morons and complain that the movie looks like garbage while your server is doing unnecessary work.  You have to remember that most of your users are complete idiots when it comes to playback compatibility.  

it also makes it far easier to control updates for extras and IMAX variants.

[bakes82 167]

I mean I also pref watching in 4K dv or 4k. When you merge them you have no idea if you have it in that quality with out having to look. Easier to keep separate.  Also the drop down list doesn’t always show useful info based on my naming convention since I run multi platforms.  There is also no way to set the order of the items either so it could default to 4K on one and 1080p on another based depending on how they were selected to merge.  I would also say 99% of users are stupid and wouldn’t understand there are multi versions and just press play.

[hthgihwaymonk 34]

I prefer merged together, otherwise, If I watch a film and not finish it - 
My Continue Watching hub then can displays upwards of 6+ version of the film
- 1080p
- 4K 
- 1080p Imax
- 4K Imax
- 1080p Alternate Cut
- 4K Alternate Cut
- 1080p 3D

and that would be just for one film, hopefully I haven't partially watched 4-5 films

Edited February 20, 2024 by hthgihwaymonk

[pwhodges 2012]

15 minutes ago, bakes82 said:

  I would also say 99% of users are stupid and wouldn’t understand there are multi versions and just press play.

And Emby will automatically choose the optimal version for their device.  Seems pretty simple to me.

Paul

[bakes82 167]

19 minutes ago, pwhodges said:

And Emby will automatically choose the optimal version for their device.  Seems pretty simple to me.

Paul

But it doesn’t lol.  The optimal version is based on some Speedtest and if I have a 4k remux and a 4k dv what’s it going to choose?  I also don’t want to watch a 1080p version because the 4k version isnt there yet. You do you, you seem to be the minority.

Edited February 20, 2024 by bakes82

[kikinjo 281]

3 hours ago, pwhodges said:

And Emby will automatically choose the optimal version for their device.  Seems pretty simple to me.

Paul

This is unfortunately not true at all.

[hthgihwaymonk 34]

and I agree that emby does not do a great job of picking the correct version in all instances when content is merged.

For me, if I set max bitrate to 1000Mbps, then my shield seems to pick the 4K version 100% of the time, which is what I want.
For anyone else I share to, those that know what they are doing will set their clients correctly or know how to pick which file version they want.
And for the friends/family that are not tech savvy, after 5 minutes of transcoding 4K, the 4K folders are automatically unshared - problem solved.
 

[RanmaCanada 496]

6 hours ago, pwhodges said:

And Emby will automatically choose the optimal version for their device.  Seems pretty simple to me.

Paul

HAHAHA

I haven't laughed that hard in a while.  Thanks.

[Lessaj 467]

Yea, no, it doesn't lol. It generally picks the highest bitrate option for me (which is usually the 4k HDR/DV version) in my web browser when not only can my browser not direct play it, I don't even have have an HDR monitor.