Does plex *have* to transcode on local files?

General Discussions
1

I like using Plex as a lightweight local player keeping track of which episodes I’ve already seen and newly added etc.

However, it isn’t lightweight. Any way to increase performance?

For instance when I play a video on Media Player Classic, it uses like 1% of my CPU. When I play a video on plex, it uses like 7-8, it also lags when I try and skip ahead, or resume. I assume this is because it’s transcoding my files?

Is this normal? Or do I have some kind of setting wrong?

2

@jmflu said:
I like using Plex as a lightweight local player keeping track of which episodes I’ve already seen and newly added etc.

However, it isn’t lightweight. Any way to increase performance?

For instance when I play a video on Media Player Classic, it uses like 1% of my CPU. When I play a video on plex, it uses like 7-8, it also lags when I try and skip ahead, or resume. I assume this is because it’s transcoding my files?

Is this normal? Or do I have some kind of setting wrong?

CPU usage will vary according to a wide variety of factors but it’s not something that will stay within a certain range. Can I ask why it matters?

3

I can’t see any details about which client you are using. There are several, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

4

@jmflu said:
For instance when I play a video on Media Player Classic, it uses like 1% of my CPU. When I play a video on plex, it uses like 7-8, it also lags when I try and skip ahead, or resume. I assume this is because it’s transcoding my files?

I don’t know what CPU you have but usually the load on the CPU of a non-throttled transcoding session is close to 100%. You can check if the server is transcoding in the web interface to be sure.

5

Using Plex Media Player for local playback is the better strategy. It requires transcoding much less often than a web browser.
(This is a separate download. You install it additionally to Plex Server.)