Choosing movie versions and resolutions

Emby introduced a new feature that allows you to choose between multiple versions of the same movie:

• Versions with different sizes (GB)
• Versions with different resolutions (1080p, 720p, 480p)
• Versions with different audio tracks (ex. dubbed or original)

This implementation is currently available for some movies, but gradually expands to more and more titles.

Choosing version by file size (GB)

• Some movies have size in GB displayed directly in the version title.
• Recommendation:
  • If you have good internet, choose the variant with more GB → higher quality, clearer image.
  • If you have poor internet or are on mobile, choose the variant with fewer GB → reduced data consumption, faster loading, more responsive.

This way, you decide the balance between visual quality and playback performance.

Choosing audio version

• From here you can choose the audio language of the movie:
  • If you see (dubbed Adelin) → the movie also has version with audio in Romanian.
  • If you see only ENGLISH or ENG written in uppercase → the movie is available only in English.

This way, you have the freedom to watch the movie in the original version or dubbed (where available).

Choosing preloaded resolution (without transcoding)

• From this section you can directly select the desired resolution (1080p, 720p, 480p).
• It's very important to choose the preloaded resolution before starting the movie.

It is not recommended to change resolution from player settings during playback.

• In this case, the server will try to do real-time transcoding, which heavily demands server resources and will make the movie run slowly or even freeze.
• If you do this, Emby will display a Warning message and advise you to select the highest resolution available (1080p / 60 Mbps) directly from the page, before starting the movie.

Setting recommended resolution for playback without transcoding

To avoid transcoding and to have an optimal viewing experience, you need to set the resolution directly from the player before starting movie playback.

To set a recommended resolution so transcoding doesn't happen, you'll need to go to a movie and press Play.
Then, from the Emby player, go to the bottom right to the gear icon (⚙️) and press the Quality button.

From Quality, choose 1080p - 60 Mbps, as indicated in the image below.

It's important to do this before starting the movie and not to modify Quality from the player after the movie has started, otherwise the server will start doing transcoding in real time, which can slow down playback or cause freezes.

Selecting resolution directly from movie page

• Select the desired resolution directly from the movie page, before pressing Play.
• This way:
  • The movie will play in the version already existing on the server (without transcoding).
  • You'll avoid buffering problems, heavy loading or freezes.

Thus Emby becomes much more flexible: you can choose according to situation, device and connection the optimal viewing variant.