hi can someone help me im fairly new to all this media server thing
how important is a decent graphics card when im using the plex server on a desktop pc connected to a 4k Samsung tv that upscales everything
@lrg3384 said:
hi can someone help me im fairly new to all this media server thing
how important is a decent graphics card when im using the plex server on a desktop pc connected to a 4k Samsung tv that upscales everything
0% importantā¦
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@trudge said:
@lrg3384 said:
hi can someone help me im fairly new to all this media server thing
how important is a decent graphics card when im using the plex server on a desktop pc connected to a 4k Samsung tv that upscales everything0% importantā¦
Unlessā¦
You get all your material to Direct Play, have a powerful server box (thatās also your gaming rig), and want to go a few rounds of Doom 2016 while you have Doom (2005) going in the background - then a crappy graphics card will probably get you your head ripped off as it skips frames, lags, and generally misbehaves in the gameā¦ but as far as the Movie goes, if youāre not watching it on the server computerā¦ yeaā¦ not at all important.
thanks guys im only using it for watching films on 1 tv and was just wondering if the bog standard graphics card was ok
I you are going to have both the Plex server (the one that stores the files and their metadata)
and the Plex client (the one that actually decodes the video, audio and subtitle streams into a visible and audible output)
on one and the same machine, then
yes, the GPU plays a, sometimes important, part.
Particularly when we are talking 4K and HEVC video.
Make sure you get a video output which conforms to the HDMI v2.x specification. Important for 4K and the modern surround sound formats.
Make sure the combination of CPU and GPU can together decode 4K and HEVC video.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200288286-What-is-Plex-
im using a basic graphics card which doesnāt seem to be able to support the 4k hevc 7.1 dolby atmos files that I want to watch does that mean that I will need a better graphics card have been looking at the GeForce 1050ti
A nice graphics card is nice. For Gaming and such.
If youāre not watching the stuff on your server computer it wonāt help at all.
The Plex Server delivers or transcodes delivery of material across your network to your device or in this case your TV. That graphics card plays no part in it.
If you have a wire from your computer to a TV Input and have dragged a VLC window over there, or a PMP window, ect - your graphics card has entered the arena.
Otherwise it makes no difference.
@lrg3384 said:
have been looking at the GeForce 1050ti
Yes, thatās one of those they frequently recommend.
You know in theory, you could make do with the embedded GPU in the Intel Skylake CPUs.
make sure though that the output port is rated HDMI 2.0 or maybe DisplayPort 1.2 (but DP requires then an DP->HDMI adapter which may introduce an additional source of trouble, so better avoid that.)
If you are going with a Skylake CPU, donāt use the āembeddedā versions of PMP or OpenPHT. Because these are Linux-based. And Intel hasnāt provided decent-enough drivers for Linux.
@JuiceWSA said:
A nice graphics card is nice. For Gaming and such.
If youāre not watching the stuff on your server computer it wonāt help at all.
The Plex Server delivers or transcodes delivery of material across your network to your device or in this case your TV. That graphics card plays no part in it.If you have a wire from your computer to a TV Input and have dragged a VLC window over there, or a PMP window, ect - your graphics card has entered the arena.
Otherwise it makes no difference.
If the server is going to be using hardware decoding, and itās going to be doing things other than just being a Plex media server, having a secondary GPU could come in handy so if the Plex server is busy transcoding a few movies, the rest of the system can continue to use the additional resources made available by having an external video card. Just something to think about.
Oh yea.
Iāve got an āadequateā AMD Radeon R9 380 that really picks 'em up and puts 'em down while Iām being ripped in half in some game. I donāt need it for Hardware Encoding or Transcoding - all my stuff Direct Plays through PMS.
I donāt think @lrg3384 is going to utilize Hardware Encoding either, but may just think a Graphics Card will help when his TV canāt work with what heās trying to get it to play. I donāt think that any Graphics card is going to help unless you just start watching stuff on the server computer and dragging it over to the TV via an HDMI Cable - then it will do something.
If heās not doing Hardware Encoding through the GPU, or watching stuff via an HDMI cable plugged into the TV - I donāt think a graphics card is going to make one bit of difference - and some of those things are really expensive! Thatās why I do regular hairball maintenance on mine. I donāt need to replace one thatās working so well 'cause I burned it up.
^^^ Exactly. Iāve had a bunch of HTPCs over the years, and Iāve never once needed anything other than an Intel CPU with onboard graphics if all the computer is doing is sending video to my receiver/TV.
Iām sending the video wirelessly via the plex server on the pc to the plex app on a Samsung 4k tv when I have tried 4k dolby atmos 7.1 files they either donāt play or buffer badly is this down to the plex app or my setup its a dell inspiron 3847 with a basic graphics card
@lrg3384 said:
Iām sending the video wirelessly via the plex server on the pc to the plex app on a Samsung 4k tv when I have tried 4k dolby atmos 7.1 files they either donāt play or buffer badly is this down to the plex app or my setup its a dell inspiron 3847 with a basic graphics card
Your video card has nothing to do with that. The Plex client talks to the end devices (TV/receiver) to determine what video and audio codecs are supported and what container it likes, then the client talks to the Plex Server and requests the movie be sent in a way that best works for the end devices. The Plex server then either sends the file unaltered in any way, or it transcodes it (audio, video, or both) and sends the data to the client. If the transcoding is very taxing then you will have the problems you describe. You can post your server logs and we can determine whatās going on.
to be honest I havenāt tried a true 4k 7.1 dolby atmos file for a while because it struggled previously but I will try another 1 soon and see what happens
thanks for the advice as you can tell I am an amateur when it comes to all this
My plex server is a discarded DELL server with six CPUs and 18 gig of ram. The video card is whatever was on the motherboard as the server has no monitor. I access it via TeamViewer from other machines. Streams just fine.
@lrg3384 said:
Iām sending the video wirelessly via the plex server on the pc to the plex app on a Samsung 4k tv when I have tried 4k dolby atmos 7.1 files they either donāt play or buffer badly is this down to the plex app or my setup its a dell inspiron 3847 with a basic graphics card
get off of wireless.
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why do you say that trudge my pc is hardwired to the router to avoid dropouts
@lrg3384 said:
why do you say that trudge my pc is hardwired to the router to avoid dropouts
and wirelessly to the TV as per your other post. youāre playing with high bit-rate files and doing so wirelessly will never make you a happy camper.
I should Update this postā¦ since this page: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/115002178853-Using-Hardware-Accelerated-Streaming says: (I quote)
āIf your Windows computer also has a dedicated graphics card, such as an NVIDIA or AMD GPU, some functions of Intel Quick Sync Video may become unavailable when the GPU is in use. If your computer has one of these GPUs, please install the latest NVIDIA drivers for Windows or AMD drivers for Windows to make sure that Plex can use your dedicated graphics card when Intel Quick Sync Video becomes unavailable.ā
Video boards has special features to convert video, and hardware codecs, is not dumb to think that plex could use it to transcode the video. In fact, could be great. I Have and AMD 8 cores processor, and seems not been enough to transcode a movie to put subtitles on it, for tv. Despite that is an android TV and should the subtitles be supported natively and not needed to be sticked to the videoā¦ but it does it anyway.
OK, so i have a similar question to the OPā¦ I have a PC with 16GB Ram, a GT 730 GPU and i7-3770k CPU used solely for Plex Server connected to a Samsung Q7F TVā¦ My video gets darker and then back to normal oftenā¦ I donāt know if itās the GT 730 or something elseā¦
My questions are: What GPU would give me better playback directly to this TV? How can i make everything play direct without transcoding to the TV?
Thanks.
