Quality Gate is a Jellyfin plugin that caps the video height each user can be served: 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p or 4K, per user or as a default for everyone. The cap is measured on the file's real video stream, so a rename, a re-encode or a symlink does not get around it. Media above the cap arrives as a capped transcode, or as a smaller version of the same item when one exists, and the original file is refused.

Jellyfin's own limit is a bitrate for remote clients, not a height: a low-bitrate 4K file passes it, a viewer on the local network is not limited at all, and a client's quality setting is the viewer's own choice. Quality Gate checks pixels, for every client, on every route that hands out video, with one documented exception.

Features

• A measured cap: 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p or 4K, checked against the item's video stream, never its filename.
• Per-user policies: assign one per user, set a default for everyone else, or mark a user unrestricted.
• A capped user cannot direct-play, stream, download or fetch the original file; one legacy HLS segment route is a documented exception.
• Smaller copies play as they are: keep a 720p encode beside each original and capped viewers get it without a transcode.
• One film, two qualities: optional version grouping shows Film.mkv and Film - 720p.mkv as one film with two versions, in movies libraries, rebuilt on every scan.
• API keys and anonymous requests can be held to a policy of their own.
• Encode priority for quality-gate-encoder: the copies your capped viewers are about to watch are encoded first.
• A different intro video per policy, and a log line for every decision naming the user, the cap and the policy.

Quick start

Needs Jellyfin 12: add this repository under Dashboard, Plugins, Repositories, install QualityGate from the catalogue, restart, and confirm it shows Active:

https://geiserx.github.io/quality-gate/manifest.json

Then open Dashboard, Plugins, QualityGate, add a policy with Maximum Resolution 720p (the only field that restricts playback), assign a user under User Access and save. As that user, a curl on /Items/<id>/Download of a 1080p film must answer 403, and an unrestricted user must get 200 (Getting started has the command).

It is not DRM, and if the plugin fails to load every user is unrestricted, so watch that it stays Active.

Documentation

The full documentation is at geiserx.github.io/quality-gate.

• Getting started: install from the repository or by hand, cap one user at 720p, prove it, upgrade
• Usage: the settings page section by section, with screenshots
• One library, two qualities: a smaller copy beside each original, shown as one film with two versions
• Encode priority: having the encoder make the copies capped viewers need first
• Configuration: every setting, how a user's policy is chosen, and the fields that do not restrict playback
• How it works: the routes covered, the one that is not, what to trust
• Troubleshooting: when it is not behaving
• Development: building from source, tests, releases
• Related projects: the encoder and the rest of the family

Report security problems through the security policy, not in a public issue.

Related projects

• quality-gate-encoder (formerly jellyfin-encoder) does automatic 720p HEVC, H.264 or AV1 transcoding, with optional symlinks for multi-version support
• smart-covers provides cover extraction for books, audiobooks, comics, magazines and music libraries, with online fallback
• whisper-subs generates subtitles locally using Whisper
• jellyfin-telegram-channel-sync syncs Jellyfin access with Telegram channel membership

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. Thanks to Jellyfin and its plugin community.