DSM7 + PMS + MKV = not a good match?

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
1

Hey,

New DS220+ user. Very satisfied with most of my content from Plex. Or, well, at least for the most simple files, own family photos/videos etc. But I tried a movie in MKV, pretty high bitrate/1080p, it just buffers endlessly.

I’ve tried following the guide at Set up Hardware Transcoding for Plex on Synology DSM 7 - YouTube but with no luck at all. Nothing really does it for me.

Plex installed version is 1.24.5.5173.-7000 and I’m running DSM 7.0.1-42218.

Thanks!

2

Generally there should be no incompatibility. From the sound of it, your system might be struggling with some limitations of your setup.

  • the CPU of your DS220+ is a Celeron J4025 – which has sufficient power to transcode some lower-bitrate 1080p files but might indeed get into hot water when it comes to higher-bitrate files. This chip has a capable iGPU for hw-accelerated streaming – however keep in mind that HW accelerated transcoding requires a Plex Pass membership. → https://support.plex.tv/articles/115002178853-using-hardware-accelerated-streaming/
  • with higher bitrate files it’s always worth a short to look into your network setup – 1080p streaming should be fine over 100 Mbps LAN (which is built into many smart TVs instead of higher bitrate ports). WIFI could get better performance under ideal circumstances but there’s many factors that can cause interferences (ranging from walls, furniture, other tech blocking reception to distance and “competing” WLANs).

If transcoding is causing your issues – it might also be helpful to check out the playback capabilities of your clients. If you can avoid transcoding in the first place, this will save you some trouble.
Factors to look at are:

  1. make sure to use original / max. quality streaming on your device
  2. use a player that can deal with the media – e.g. if you’re streaming from your computer… don’t use the browser but the desktop app “Plex for Mac/Windows” or “Plex HTPC”
3

Thanks for your response mate!
I found out that the web player of Plex was the issue here. I downloaded Plex for Mac and everything just went smooth.

Can I do something about that? Or am I just stuck to the apps in Apple TV and/or Mac/PC-apps?

Thanks!

4

Not sure what you mean by “being stuck” with those.
Playing media through your browser has always been a poor choice as this is the most limiting and most limited environment for video playback. All the online platforms you might use that stream just fine using a browser use highly optimized media. Plex can do that too but this will require a sufficiently powerful server platform.

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