I am new to Plex and I have a question. Here is a quick background before my question:
I installed on my NAS, but ran into buffering issues. After researching online, I determined, the best course of action is to use my PC as the server, leave my media on my NAS and then stream. I switched over, and my PC is definitely strong enough to handle a heavy load so no question there. I still ran into buffering issues, but my next though was how my media was stored. MKV files are huge. I tried a few mp4 files and I believe this has resolved my issues.
Can anyone answer/help:
MKV files, even on a strong PC, cause buffering issues? I barley even notice the resource use on the PC but it still buffers.
What are others doing to get their files? It is extremely time consuming to take a Blu-Ray, rip it into MKV format using MakeMKV, then re-convert that into an MP4 through Handbrake, but that is the only way I know how. Also, while converting to MP4, I lose my subtitles. The files are so much smaller, I believe Plex just can’t fully hand HD MKV files well, but what are others doing here?
It’s not so much about the container (file format) but its content. That being said… mkv files often contain original rips of DVDs, Blu-Rays or even 4K discs – while mp4 files tend to be optimized/transcoded versions. That’s not so much a “rule” but an observation with lots of exceptions
As for a clear strategy, you’ll need to share some more of your use case / setup.
Generally, Plex will transcode your files on-the-fly if the player app is not able to deal with that particular combination of video/audio/subtitle formats (limiting factors can be the coded, resolution, bitrates, # of audio channels…). If you’re trying to play most media using a browser, you’ll experience more transcoding than if you’re using a more powerful player. In my experience, running Plex on a Nvidia Shield or Apple TV will give you the least hiccups – those new players are capable to pass-through complex audio formats (Shield) and deal with image-based subtitles.
Personally I’ve opted to keep most media in its original format. This used to be a bit of a pain in the past – in particular when it comes to image-based subtitles from Blu-Rays or DVDs. I’m not sure if/when my server had to do some major lifting in the recent past (and no buffering).
TL;DR: what client(s) are you using to play your media?
I have no doubt my server is solid. I am streaming on the android app, along with the app in our smart TV’s. DVD files I have ripped to MKV seem to be ok and play with very little to no buffering. Any Blu-Ray rips to MKV seem to really struggle, on both players, along with a PC client player. When I did a test of a blu-ray to mkv then converted that to mp4, it definitely seemed better, but dang, that’s a lot of work and time to convert the mkv blu ray files to mp4… but it would also save me an enormous amount of disk space as well…
I really want to clean up my library in all digital format and chuck disc’s but I have to get a good reliable setup to stream with no problems before I can do that… Any/all advice welcome.
Please check what information you can see on the “now playing” tile while playing that original blu-ray based mkv file.
Maybe you can include how your devices are connected to your router and server (e.g. WIFI vs. wired vs. remote connection)? – Blu-Ray rips will use a significantly higher bitrate than DVDs, they should however be in the range of what a regular home network can handle. 4K rips will be trickier when it comes to that.
If you’re using Plex on a wireless network, there’s many environment factors that will impact/influence your streaming experience (the same can happen if there’s a lot of communication going over the same line multiple times; e.g. TV box streaming from your server while the server is in parallel loading the files from your QNAP over the same line)
As for a solid PC… what CPU model do you have in that machine (e.g. “Intel Core i5-7500K”)?
