Hi all I have just started using this very nice program. I seem to have a problem streaming videos from my HTPC (that has the PMS running) to my ATV 3. I get lots of buffering. Checking my cpu usage it is spiking up and down a lot. This is to be expected. However it is regularly maxing out at near 100% usage. I am using windows 7 64 bit with a Q9400 @ 2.4g. I also have a nvidia GTX 460 in the machine as well. I can overclock the cpu to around 3.4 with no problems. I was sure the any transcoding would be done on the GFX card so I assume I have not set something up correctly. Most of the videos I watch on the HTPC will utilise hardware acceleration. I have coreavc on my computer for the files that don't use it within any of the media players.
I would really appreciate any advice on what I have missed or need to do. I am also going to swap around some of my wifi gear just to make sure it is not bandwidth. I am pretty sure it is no having checked the bandwidth usage during streaming.
Hi all I have just started using this very nice program. I seem to have a problem streaming videos from my HTPC (that has the PMS running) to my ATV 3. I get lots of buffering. Checking my cpu usage it is spiking up and down a lot. This is to be expected. However it is regularly maxing out at near 100% usage. I am using windows 7 64 bit with a Q9400 @ 2.4g. I also have a nvidia GTX 460 in the machine as well. I can overclock the cpu to around 3.4 with no problems. I was sure the any transcoding would be done on the GFX card so I assume I have not set something up correctly. Most of the videos I watch on the HTPC will utilise hardware acceleration. I have coreavc on my computer for the files that don't use it within any of the media players.
I would really appreciate any advice on what I have missed or need to do. I am also going to swap around some of my wifi gear just to make sure it is not bandwidth. I am pretty sure it is no having checked the bandwidth usage during streaming.
Many thanks
John
Plex media server doesn't make use of the GPU for transcoding, its all cpu.
Only clients PMC and PHT use the GPU to decode video.
I'm surprised that your CPU can't manage to transcode comfortably, doesn't sound like a WIFI issue if you are hitting 100% cpu.
Is it definitely juts PMS which is using most/all of the 100%?
Your CPU should be good enough so maybe it is a WiFi, RAM, other apps issue?
When you say 100% do you mean that all 4 cores being maxed out?
Hi and thanks for the replies. Yeah it is all four cores being maxed out. I am obviously using logmein to look at the taskmanager on my Iphone when it is running to make sure it is PMS that is using the cpu at the time of the pauses. I get the same parts pausing when not using logmein.
This is why I posted as I was pretty sure it would have no problem transcoding on the fly. I will post some screen shots later when back home.
Had a quick look on that link and see that FFmpeg is used for transcoding. Coreavc uses FFmpeg to run GPU acceleration. Will take a look at that as well.
Thanks for the advice guys. I will double check to make sure I have not done something silly.
I didn't realise this but apparently the transcoder will actually make use of the CPU even if it doesn't need to i.e. Run the cpu flat out for a short period and buffer the transcode rather than run at (for example) 15% for the whole duration of the movie.
Assuming the above is true then we can ignore the high cpu and go back to potential network performance issues.
As a test I've just transcoded a 1080p MKV to my phone and my server (Mac mini 2011 Dual core i5) used 80-95% cpu, i then started another transcode using plex/web and the server was still using around 80-95% simply divided between the 2 transcodes so it appears the above is normal.
Perhaps connect any WIFI devices in the chain using ethernet for the purpose of testing.
Well I am snookered! I have tried another router. A 300N router and tried with a 300 wireless extender with a lan port and last a cat 6 cable right between the 1gbps router that is connected to the HTPC. I am still getting buffering! There does seem to be a lot people having problems with 1080p playback on ATV3's.
I have now tried switching it to 720P. It runs for longer 15 mins of planet earth 1080P. It then stopped altogether. I was watching the System Resource monitor and task manager and the python script. The memory usage of the plextranscoder just kept rising slowly (memory leak of some sort or intended?) It then just stopped as did the video after a second or two. The cpu usage is now sitting at 0ish after several mins of plexmedia server sitting at around 80 - 90% with nothing happening.
I must have some something really stupid for a simple 720p on the fly transcode to stop!
edit 1 Just tried another one same again. This time stopped at 9 mins......
edit 2 fast forwarded the video by 5 mins then it played for another 16mins then boom the transcoder vanishes from the network activity and the cpu usage for the media player shoots to 100% on all four cores while nothing is happening video stops.
hi, maby a dead thread and off-topic but if you have both the server and the atv connected via gigabit to the router then the media would stream by cable all the way and there should be no network issues, or am i wrong?
