Hello all,
I am testing my DS718+ as a PMS, and so far I am liking what I am seeing. I am not going to be doing more than just serving up content from this PMS. I plan to transcode all my content via Handbrake, on a Windows PC, and then just move it to my NAS share.
In doing some testing I am noticing that some content runs as Direct Play while others run as Direct Stream. I am viewing the content on my Amazon Fire TV devices. Should I be concerned at all and does transcoding help this situation? Just trying to understand what kind of load I am going to be putting on my NAS.
Thanks,
Steve
Steve,
As a PlexPass holder and with the DS718+, you no longer need to prepare your media in HandBrake prior to putting on the NAS. The DS718+ has Hardware Transcoding capability which your Plex Pass gives you access to.
DirectPlay means that PMS reads the file and plays completely as-is without modification of any kind
DirectStream means that PMS had to make some minor change to send it. This happens frequently when sending a MKV to an Apple or other device which doesn’t accept the MKV container (file) format. It is remuxed (no content is changed; only the format) and sent out.
Really??? Very nice! How much of a load does this put on my CPU? Are there benchmarks anywhere.
Most of the content I have played off the NAS has come up as Exoplayer V2 Direct Play. The small issue is that every so often the video looks like it has to play catchup…like it does not handle motion well. I am playing it on a 4K TV, so I wonder if the TV is screwing things up.
HW transcode of the video is barely measurable (file i/o load)
Deinterlacing of video (done in software) takes up to 25% typical (you need enough RAM to do this right e.g. 8GB )
Audio conversion (for example: 7.1 -> stereo) up to 20%.
Everything is codec dependent. These are estimates only. It’s so difficult to benchmark but if you read here, you’ll see where some folks have benchmarks the DS916+ with HEVC HDR and gotten outstanding results
Quick question on the DS718+…can I transcode 4K movies or would it be a better idea to transcode outside of Plex?
