See CPU requirements on this page
besides that its really up to your needs.
Buy as much horsepower as you think you’ll need - then multiply by 10.
“It’s better to have and not need, then need and not have”.
It looks like if I want to be able to play back my recordings on the 4K system I’m getting, I’ll need something that can transcode for 4K. According to the chart, that’s got to be at least a Core i7 at 3.2 Ghz. It sounds like it’s the DVR engine that does the transcoding, is that correct? So if I have Roku or Apple TV hooked up to my 4K and Plex as the DVR, is the transcoding done on the DVR or on the playback system?
Since OTA signals are at the basick 1K HD resolution, I was thinking I don’t need much power for the DVR system, but this looks like I’d have to buy the HDHR and something that’s going to be at least $500 to handle transcoding for a 4K TV. And, with that, if I’m watching on the 4K system, it wouldn’t have much power to handle a stream for someone else watching in another room.
So it looks like I’m going to have to shell out something like $600 or more for the tuner and computer just for a start. Is that about right?
Transcoding is done by the Plex transcoder.
Whether your screen is 4K, doesn’t necessarily demand 4K-capability from your Plex server.
You only need a 4K-capable transcoder if you have 4K video files, which need to be transcoded for playback.
If your TV is broadcasting in regular 1080i or 1080p, you won’t need that much computing power.
It can’t hurt to have a capable cpu, though. Particularly without a Plex Pass (because hardware-supported transcoding is only possible with Plex Pass).
My incoming signals are all 1080, so that part is answered easily. But what if I have actual 4K files? Does that mean I need an i7 to handle them? And does this mean upconversion from 1K to 4K is handled elsewhere? Either by the viewer (like Apple TV or Roku) or by the TV?
I figure if I go with Plex, I’ll get a Plex Pass. Do I need to pick out a special video card to handle hardware supported transcoding? I was hoping to just get a mini PC, since that’s a lot easier to fit into an entertainment center or near where the incoming cable from the antenna is.
Definitely not.
Any i5 or i7 (maybe even an i3) KabyLake or newer. From that point a separate graphics card is not needed and actually a bad idea.
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Plex can be simple or you can make it complicated and difficult. I have a simple set up that almost never transcodes. 4K HD-MA 10bit 7.1 channel is my stumbler, if I use DLNA my TV will handle the file but will transcode.
Type of devices is the key, to strive to not trans code. Now if your going to do remote connection, you can always keep your 4K content in a separate Library and label it not for Remote viewing
My setup:
iMac Late 2015 i5, LG OLED 65 B8, HD HomeRun Connect, two USB3 WD External drives.
An inexpensive and simple set up that works well except for the exception above. Then again you could add a 4K eARC enabled Receiver and 7.1 speaker setup with LGOLED 2019 TV which will pass thru 10Bit HD-MA content a super immersive home theater experience.
Can you use your iMac while someone is viewing files on it through Plex? And while it’s recording? Or does it have to be dedicated solely to Plex?
I would really prefer to keep things simple. I found a mini-PC with a 3.2 Ghz i3 that I thought would do well, until I started reading about transcoding, but that doesn’t sound like it’s an issue I thought it was… So I’ll go back and look at mini-PCs with i5s and find something with a bit more power and settle with that.
I really do want to be able to set things up without spending days on it. Get a box, install Linux, put Plex on, hook it up to a HDHR quad tuner, set up a subscription and set the recordings I want.
SE56 would have to answer specifically regarding the iMac. But generally there shoudn’t be an issue.
Plex Media Server is at the end of the day an just app like any other.
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iMac can do all general duties whilst the plex server is in operation without issue. As your proposal would be with a Linux box be very capable, as long as you are comfortable using that OS.
Please note not all smart TV’s are born equal, along with their Plex app, that may change but at present an obvious observation.
I’ll be using Apple TV or Roku for running the Plex app, not a smart TV.
I just realized I have a Mac Mini I had forgotten about. (Long story, but I never got it back online since we moved and haven’t had time to set things up the way I wanted.)
It’s a Mac Mini, Intel Core i5, 2.6 Ghz, 2 cores, 16 GB.
Would that work for running Plex? And, for those specs, would that be a heavy load for it?
It all depends on whether the playback device can direct play the file. If it can then even a potato with 1Gb ethernet adaptor will be fine for running Plex Server.
Seems to me that the current thinking with 4K video files is that if your client can’t direct play them then you should either change the client device, or change the format of the video to one that your client device can direct play.
Just buy the HDHomeRun tuner as you will be able to use it even if Plex doesn’t work out. Sign up for the monthly Plex Pass so you can cancel if it doesn’t work out. Install it on your Mac Mini and see what happens.
I bet it will for the most part work fine, and you can then spread the cost over time ironing out niggles.
That sounds good to me, just watch your 4K content carefully.
What do you mean by “watch your 4K content carefully?” As in watch for issues or glitches?
As stated be mindful of HD-MA 10bit 7.1 channel audio, it causes issues. Then again I have some and use DLNA which PMS trans codes the audio. Or change the format so there no trans coding.
If you are, or think you might in the future, start collecting 4k/uhd/hdr content, then you should read this entire thread @ Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you
the long and short of it is, not all 4k clients are created equal, some work much better than others.
HD audio is a constant problem for anyone without an nvidia shield and an atmos receiver.
Subtitles are another common problem, different clients have different subtitle compatibility
Incompatible subtitles + incompatible (HD) audio = transcoding.
Okay, so going with what I have now should be okay (the new 4K system will have 5.1 sound, not 7.1). It sounds like the issue isn’t so much playing back on a 4K system, but on dealing with 4K video files directly. At this point, I don’t have plans to do that any time soon. Eventually, probably, but that gives me some time to set up a basic system that I can use for now and, later, when I do have time, I can upgrade to a system that can handle 4K.
As it is, I plan to have a DVR in the house, hooked up directly to the antenna. I’m putting another antenna on the barn, but the barn is lower than the house and does not have as good reception. But the barn is also where all the “fun stuff” is, so that’s where the 4K system is. The two buildings are linked by a fiber optic connection, so they will look like they’re on the same LAN. Eventually I’ll add a 2nd DVR down there, which would be the “4K DVR.” But I don’t have to do that for a while.
The HDHomeRun is on the way and when it gets here, I’ll set up Plex on the Mac Mini and install the HDHR, get a Plex Pass, and set it up.
The TiVO was a pain to deal with in several ways, so it’ll be nice to decommission that, wipe the hard drive, and stop that listing guide subscription, then, when all my info is off it, sell it.
Simply put the antenna where the best reception is. Place the HDhomerun close to it, to avoid signal loss due to a long coax cable.
Bridge the rest with Ethernet.
Okay, got it up and running. Last night I was excited to have it working and be with a more open system than TiVO, which tries to make you buy more units for viewing recordings, and MythTV, which does not have frontends or viewers for some important platforms.
Warning: Upcoming rant:
I used to make my living as a programmer. I can roll my own, mess with configs, dig down into a Linux or Mac system and do all I need as root. (I haven’t used Windows, other than an XP virtual machine, in over a decade - don’t know what I can still do there or not.) I can write my own scripts to hack systems and have done that before. (Even wrote a C++ program, once, for an in-car Linux system that would allow control of an HD radio tuner so they could include terrestrial radio on their open source system.)
But, as much as I love open source, there are reasons I just hate it. MythTV provides one example: “Sure, you can use a viewer for MythTV on Roku. Just download these scripts of mine, import them, add ffmpeg to your system, install these server side scripts, these Roku scripts…”
NO!
No and again, no!
There are many times when it’s critical for people to make sure something just works. And right now that’s what I need: Something I don’t have to spend forever setting up. And something I know will work quickly and easily for my wife, so I don’t deal with hacker made scripts that may or may not work properly
Okay, rant mode off.
But that rant is part of the issue. Last night, it was after midnight before I had time to sit down and install Plex on my Mac mini. I had already unpacked and connected my HDHomeRun while I was still downstairs, so that was online. (I downloaded the maker’s viewer software and installed that on my iMac and checked that it was working.) Install - yes, amazingly easy. Then I set it up, it found all my local channels, including one I didn’t know existed!
I set up Plex Pass and started going through the guide to set up DVR recordings. (Note: One thing Plex could do to make this easier is to provide a grid view of all shows found on the guide and, if possible, breaking them down between movies and series - Tablo does that, for an example. Then it’s easy to just go through an alphabetized listing to pick your shows. A user can also check this, from time to time, to find new shows.)
Got 'em all done and, while that was going on, saw two shows record or start to record. (Going through a full weekday and two weekend days on the grid to get all your recordings set takes time!)
But it was this morning, after that, where I started to go mad.
I could play back a show on my iPad, but not the same recording on my iMac, using Chrome. Not even in Chrome on the Mac Mini system Plex is installed on. Couldn’t play it on Apple TV.
Sometimes I got network errors, sometimes recording errors. In other words, I could get two errors from trying to play back the same episode of a show. I added a music library and tried playing back a song. Can’t do it on the iMac, can’t do it on the host system, can’t do it on Apple TV. Could do it on the iPad. (So, yes, if it’s a wired connection, it did not work - even on the host system! Only the wifi connection worked - don’t know if that’s important or not.)
Now I go to Plex, on the host machine with Chrome, on my iMac with Chrome, on Apple TV, and on my iPad and none of my libraries are available.
Been running this less than 12 hours and, already, almost everything I’ve tried to do is giving me errors! Networking errors, failed recording errors (on episodes that have played correctly one time), and unavailable libraries.
That’s not to mention that I downloaded Plex yesterday and had setup errors and had to upgrade to the latest version. Turns out the version on the download page is out of date. Even posts in April referenced upgrading to a version that was newer than the one I downloaded from the official site yesterday (10/21/2019).
That’s a LOT to go wrong on a new program in such a short time!
I’ll be starting another thread with these issues, but that’s later today or this evening, since I have a number of things to do and, considering all these errors, I’m going to take a look at Channels first and see how that behaves.
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