I've been a Plex user for years and have had Plex Pass a number of times for full years (to use Linux client and now for PS4 client).
It's really disappointing to note that the playback performance on my PS4 is poor compared to the non-supported "Playz" client on my Smart TV. The PS4 is a gutsy machine, but obviously because of the "we must transcode/stream" MKV issue, all of my media that is in this container plays back stuttery and with audio out of sync.
The interface is great, but the fact that you can't direct play these kinds of files on the unit cause me to conclude that it's not worth the early adoption, and if it's not going to be allowed in the future, not worth having at all.
While I'm on it, having the LG logo on the Plex.TV homepage is a bit misleading considering the "Playz" app for LG is not sanctioned by Plex.
Obviously that one is a web wrapper of sorts that plays natively on the LG TV and the PS4 is an app in itself, but the performance difference due to this inability to direct play is huge.
For reference - my server is on a new Intel Netgear NAS (serves perfectly to all other clients that direct play in the network).
everything plays fine on my ps4 i run the plex server on my i7 930 @4200mhz with 6gigs of memory, im pretty sure plex is limited by what can direct play because of sony and what codecs they have included with the system hopefuly more will be included with the next firmware update ps4 has the hardware just when sony finaly decides to include the stuff my wdtv can play everything without any transcoding at all and its hardware has to be alot slower and older then the ps4.
Having a NAS doing the transcoding for a PS4 might indeed not be the best solution right now, a dedicated server, PC or Mac will be able to handle it fine.
It has already been discussed a few times before, but due to limitations of the API's that are available for 3rd party's on consoles like this, unfortunately, it is not possible to direct play these type of files, so it will need transcoding at all times.
Yeah I imagine if your server is an i7 desktop it works quite ok.
It's a bit of a shame that in order to use this app you must have a powerful server.
It clearly is a limitation Sony is pushing as you say. I hope it changes soon. If not - it's pretty useless for those with a NAS.
down the road i would say ps4 will be able to direct play more files i remmber my xbox360 when it was fairly new couldnt play much and they added support for more codecs/file types later on. Your other choice is to use a pc or mac and use a batch encoder and recode all your files to a supported direct play format then put them back on the nas.
I have had a bit of the opposite experience with the PS4 plex over my smart tv plex(samsung plex app). Smart TV i would sometimes get a lag up on some shows, streaming, transcoding, direct streaming, so on. Didnt matter on what container or codec. Im assuming the Samsung TV i have just isnt always up to the task. Also i would often get app crashes or lag ups, and of course every few weeks it decides it not longer wants to remember what servers it has. On PS4, so far, i have not had a single issue. Server is running an 8core(4 virtual) AMD cpu and is fully dedicated to plex and nothing else. All media is 720p or lower.
By this point i have learned that no matter what codec and/or container i use there will always be some device that simply cant play it directly and it will need transcoded or re-encoded. Things are getting better, but aside from x264 in mp4, most anything else is going to have issues on a lot of players, including x264 mkv(depends a bit more on the audio codec used). And just think, in the next year or so we will start to see things in x265 due to its near 50% reduction in file sizes with no loss in quality. So get used to transcoding or re-encoding. Things are better then they have ever been far as video streaming/playing goes, but still far from perfect.
I have had a bit of the opposite experience with the PS4 plex over my smart tv plex(samsung plex app). Smart TV i would sometimes get a lag up on some shows, streaming, transcoding, direct streaming, so on. Didnt matter on what container or codec. Im assuming the Samsung TV i have just isnt always up to the task. Also i would often get app crashes or lag ups, and of course every few weeks it decides it not longer wants to remember what servers it has. On PS4, so far, i have not had a single issue. Server is running an 8core(4 virtual) AMD cpu and is fully dedicated to plex and nothing else. All media is 720p or lower.
By this point i have learned that no matter what codec and/or container i use there will always be some device that simply cant play it directly and it will need transcoded or re-encoded. Things are getting better, but aside from x264 in mp4, most anything else is going to have issues on a lot of players, including x264 mkv(depends a bit more on the audio codec used). And just think, in the next year or so we will start to see things in x265 due to its near 50% reduction in file sizes with no loss in quality. So get used to transcoding or re-encoding. Things are better then they have ever been far as video streaming/playing goes, but still far from perfect.
Pretty much how it usualy goes companies don't wanna pony up any extra money to have codec support for their devices. Having more GNU and open source codecs will help us all in long run with more devices getting more support you would think. Till plex came to ps4 i used to use my wdtv for everything it has full native support no transcoding needed at all but now im really hooked on plex and setting transcoder to auto has kept cpu usage pretty low for my server i run plex on. Im kinda suprised x265 has not gained ground and started to be used more with all the improvements it brings.
Pretty much how it usualy goes companies don't wanna pony up any extra money to have codec support for their devices. Having more GNU and open source codecs will help us all in long run with more devices getting more support you would think. Till plex came to ps4 i used to use my wdtv for everything it has full native support no transcoding needed at all but now im really hooked on plex and setting transcoder to auto has kept cpu usage pretty low for my server i run plex on. Im kinda suprised x265 has not gained ground and started to be used more with all the improvements it brings.
It's not that simple H.265 wasn't available on a chipset when the PS4 hardware was being finalized. 4K video wasn't being talked about because it was way out of scope for trying to bring the product to market at a reasonable price. The first 4K televisions in 2012 from Samsung and Sony had very early H.265 implementations that were likely expensive to produce (but OK when you are making a $6000+ TV).
Fast forward to today....H.265 is on chipsets and is a lot more mature than three years ago. 4K TVs in 2015 will be sold for less than $1000, many PCs support 4K/H.265 and media servers will soon follow. If the PS4 was being designed today, it would probably have all of those things.
That being said, the performance of the version 1 of the Plex app for Playstation (PS3 in my case) is pretty lousy. Lots of bugs to sort out...but I'm sure they will in the coming months.
It's not that simple H.265 wasn't available on a chipset when the PS4 hardware was being finalized. 4K video wasn't being talked about because it was way out of scope for trying to bring the product to market at a reasonable price. The first 4K televisions in 2012 from Samsung and Sony had very early H.265 implementations that were likely expensive to produce (but OK when you are making a $6000+ TV).
Fast forward to today....H.265 is on chipsets and is a lot more mature than three years ago. 4K TVs in 2015 will be sold for less than $1000, many PCs support 4K/H.265 and media servers will soon follow. If the PS4 was being designed today, it would probably have all of those things.
That being said, the performance of the version 1 of the Plex app for Playstation (PS3 in my case) is pretty lousy. Lots of bugs to sort out...but I'm sure they will in the coming months.
Ps4 is not even a full 2 years old yet and uses a gcn gpu so likely it can support hardware decoding even on x265/h265 just when ever sony implents it and the cpu is a amd Jaguar underclocked to conserve power same one used in desktops. Ps4 can play 4k movies thru bluray and netflix so no reason it couldnt do it at some point thru plex or if it got dlna support sony just has to step up its game and add the codec support which i think they will this year.
