Server Version#: 1.21.1.3876
Player Version#: 4.34.4
Sorry i am rather tech unsavy - i’ve been using plex for several years now with little to no problems until about a year ago. I started having problem transcoding streams, before this point i was able to have multiple people watching at once with no problem. Now even trying to play a 720 HEVC TV episode without it stopping multiple times is almost impossible. Granted i am using an older PC (Not SUPER OLD) i’ve seen people running servers on dells from 2012 with no problems!
Running on an Intel i5-4440 CPU @ 3.10 GHz
Windows 10 pro
i do have an Extremely old graphics card… Radeon HD 6450
This is a “Haswell” CPU. (8 years old now!) So even with Plex Pass you won’t be able to use the QuickSync unit in it to decode HEVC video, because this generation of CPU doesn’t have support for HEVC in hardware. Intel Quick Sync Video - Wikipedia
I don’t understand why things suddenly fell off about a year ago…before that i was streaming HEVC just fine. I can also run several HEVC videos at the same time on my PC with no problem but i guess that doesn’t translate directly to transcoding ability. So basically you’re saying i need a new PC? Any suggestions for CPU / GPU ? I’d love to be able to run and transcode many streams at once as i give family members access to my plex (I’m going to give in and buy a plex pass, should have bought one for Christmas with the discount but i missed that boat) OR would you suggest building a little machine just as a plex server?
It all depends on the Plex client type and the available bandwidth.
If you play the file in the local network on a PC, using PMP or Plex Player for Windows/Mac, then transcoding is not necessary. Thus the CPU load on the server is only moderate.
However, if you instead use the Plex web app, which doesn’t support HEVC
or when you try to stream remotely when there is not enough bandwidth available, then transcoding is suddenly necessary.
Subtitles can complicate this further, becasue there are subtitle formats, which cannot be played on certain client types and thus require the server to “burn” them into the video picture – which means transcoding.
The best support fro HEVC requires a Plex Pass. Because only then you can use the hardware transcoder which is built into modern Intel CPUs or nVidia GPUs.
If you opt for a Plex Pass, I recommend you a top-of-the-line Intel Core i5 desktop CPU.
(If you also want it to be able to perform HDR to SDR conversion, or you have many movies with a high-end audio stream, you need to add more CPU power, so upgrade to a bigger i7.)
If you want to avoid the Plex Pass, you need even more raw CPU power. You then want a very powerful CPU like an Intel Corei7 or i9 or an AMD Threadripper or one of the higher end Ryzen.
Which probably means the lifetime Plex Pass is cheaper in the end…
Any suggestions for CPU / GPU ? I’d love to be able to run and transcode many streams at once as i give family members access to my plex (I’m going to give in and buy a plex pass, should have bought one for Christmas with the discount but i missed that boat) OR would you suggest building a little machine just as a plex server?