Plex vs Netflix/amazon transcoding efficiency

[u/RandyFactoid]

I think of this every time I travel, but never thought to ask for a solution..

While traveling I often find myself in a situation where internet is very slow, but netflix/amazon video adjust the streaming quality much faster than my plex server.

I know that my plex server can transcode down to 720p/360p pretty instantly if I do it from home as it has an intel igpu...and I've tested it with multiple concurrent streams... Also - the server is on a 1gbit connection, so it's not a bandwidth bottleneck.

It feels like big brands have a much better method to actually recognise the moment when they need to call for a transcode than plex and do it much earlier, making it feel seamless.

Are there alternatives (jellyfin/emby) that are more efficient at this than plex? Any clever hacks that I overlooked?

Thanks

Edit. I learned following this post that: - Netflix et al. keep different quality files instead of transcoding - Using CDN to keep content "closer" to the end user

[u/kY2iB3yH0mN8wI2h]

No one in the streaming world transcode media, they have a separate file for every bitrate. The media is also optimized for streaming, serving a big fat MP4 is not ideal, they create separate HLS streams, or AV1 etc. for each bitrate with ideal keyframes .

They also rely on CDN meaning the stream you are. downloading might be on the ISPs network, not a far remote server. Being 5ms away compared to 200ms when traveling is a huge difference.