Server Version#: 1.14.1.5488
Player Version#: 7.10.0.8875
I am running plex server on unraid and on any client that needs audio transcoded it never shows (hw) and I can see that when it is being transcoded the CPU usage spikes. This leads me to believe it is being offloaded to the CPUs. My questions are: Can audio be hardware transcoded? If so can it be hardware transcoded by a VGA card?
Mobo: AsRock Rack EP2C602-4L/D16
CPUs : 2 - Xeon 2650V2
RAM: 32GB ddr3 1600 ECC per CPU
VGA: Nvidia Quadro P4000
Drives: 2- WD RED NAS 5400rpm
Ok, that is what I suspected, but I am ignorant to the ins and outs of pms. The next question needs to be a little information. I have a samsung 4k tv. I attempt to play 4k media, GoT and the new halloween movie. The video is direct play, so the only transcoding is audio. It buffers every 5-6 seconds. This only happens on the TV. The TV is hardlined, I imagine it is a 100M adapterits wifi is only 2.4ghz. Every other device is on 5ghz with no issue. So, my question is could this be a networking issue or a software issue on the TV? If either, should I use another device to play the media and output to the TV?
if your server is not powerful enough to handle the 4k video (direct play) while also transcoding the audio and remuxing it back with the video stream, then that could very well be a cause to buffering.
it shouldn’t take a bunch of cpu to the above, but it is very IO intensive, lots of DISK and NETWORK io going trying to move the bits around.
smart tvs themselves can be problematic, as you say many have only 100m ethernet and 2.4 wifi, which is not very suitable to full bitrate 4k/hdr streaming.
you could try switching audio stream to dolbydigital 5.1 or stereo, this should let your tv direct play both video and audio.
it may also reduce the bandwidth needed to avoid any network overloading and buffering.
for the full 4k hdr atmos experience, you need a playback chain that can handle both the VIDEO and the AUDIO streams.
smart tvs have problems with the HD audio, due to ARC limitations, and network bandwidth limitations, cause all kinds of headaches for folks.
the simplest 4k solution is nvidia shield + 4k/atmos receiver + 4k tv
I think my server is ok
dual e5-2650v2 has about a 19000 passmark
and p4000 quadro is pretty strong.
I read through the link and I fit most of the criteria for being good to go. Just like you say in your response that Smart TVs are problematic and the fact that I only have an issue on my Smart TV using plex player, will lead me to end the search on the problem.
In the chain do you recommend the nvidia shield as the PMS? If my server is adequate then I imagine it can replace the shield. Do you recommend the 4k/atmos receiver because the server will not need to transcode due to the capability of said receiver to support the original format of the 4k media?
I would expect your server is as listed is waaaay better than the shield as a server.
But the shield would be a lot less cost in electricity per year.
the shield is also limited in storage for the 16gig version.
You can use an external drive for storage though. (ssd recommended if you are gonna use for plex server)
what the shield does best is client for 4k, since it can direct play nearly any video/audio content along with subtitles. (there are limits of course)
Yes a 4k/atmos recevier is pretty much required if you want to direct play 4k+HD audio. Otherwise the HD audio will either need to be transcoded, removed or remuxed from your files, or manually selected in plex via the pre-play or pause screens ( you should do this before doing anything else, switch to a DD/dts 5.1 or stereo audio stream).
Of course a receiver will not solve or prevent any mobile or remote transcoding needs, if used for that purpose.
Keeping a separate 4k library will help avoid transcoding for remote/non-4k clients.
Yeah I bet it is way less. max TDP is 400w. But, trending shows 30w from p4000@3% load 4 high bitrate bluray streams transcoding to 720p to kick on hw transcode. I don’t have any metering for CPU but it runs at about 1-2% load because the p4000 is doing most of the work.
I think it will end up working out since the TV is the only place I have the issue. I am still interested in the shield because of the ease of use as a player. I could run a 100ft hdmi cord from the server to the tv but I would still need to use a keyboard and I would rather have a remote for ease of use. My last question is have you used the shield as a player as a client with a separate server and had good playback with 4k? of course with the 4k/atmos receiver involved
TeknoJunky you have been a fantastic help. I really appreciate you taking your time helping me out. I am going to purchase a shield and a receiver for my TV.
Ok, I got an Nvidia Shield hooked up and updated. Before I say it fixed the problem I will need to ask a question. In the now playing on the server it shows the 4k content being played, when I hover over it, it says direct stream but there is no other info. Is there a way to see more information on it?
Side note the GUI is nice for the Shield and the response in it is so fast probably the best I have used yet.
you could look into a 3rd party app called tautulli that will give you more details on the active streams and also more detailed reporting about your content and and users (ie play history)
as far as direct stream, that means that plex is changing the container and not the actual codecs.
ie changing from mkv to mp4 or something of that nature.
changing container does take some cpu, but its not bad like transcoding.
can you post a screen shot clip of the little status window when playing?
Why doesn’t Plex use HW to transcode audio? I’ve tried searching around for a answer, But I haven’t really been able to find a definitive answer as to why… Other than “Because the CPU transcodes the audio”… Is this a limitation of Plex? Or is it that a GPU is just not capable of transcoding audio, At all?
There are no hardware units capable of transcoding audio. It wouldn’t make much sense to develop them, since transcoding audio is much less demanding than transcoding video. A regular CPU can do it really well already.
