Greetings all,
Long time plex user but only recently upgraded to plex pass and TV /DVR capabilities. First let me list my specs:
Host:
ESXi 6.5
Dual socket e5-2670’s 8 core / 16 thread each CPU
48gb 10600 ECC RAM
Plex VM
Windows 10 (base windows install with no other programs running except plex)
8 vCPUs
4gb RAM
HDHomerun Prime with cablecard (Verizon FIOS TV Provider)
Now on to the problem I am seeing. Most of my library are high bitrate MKVs 15-20Mbps which does limit my total available streams but usually I can get 3-4 high bitrate ones easily going and if I am using the lower quality files I can get 5-7 with no issues.
When I am using the live TV feature on the Plex app (andriod phone) I am seeing my CPU peg at 100% which obviously is causing some stuttering and playback issues. I have run all the diags I can think of and the physical host has no resource contention issues nor does my storage array ( Freenas with 7 3tb HGST drives in ZFS2 but that is just where the media files live). For transcoding I have a SSD simple stripe that plex points to specifically for this action and this is the only thing it is used for. Connecting plex VM to the freenas and SSD stripe is a 10g SFP+ mellanox connector on both ends (no saturation seen whatsoever).
Are my Xeon processors not good enough to transcode live mpeg2 tv streams or can I get some suggestions on maybe a config issue I might be missing/not seeing?
Thanks a bunch!
Not sure I can help much with settings. I can however verify your hardware. I have a very similar server setup and can undoubtedly tell you it’s a setting issue. Your hardware is more than adequate, i’m using the E5-2660 Dual 8 core CPU’s and easily send multiple live TV streams without even a whisper at the CPU’s. I do not have the transcode /database SSD like you or the 10g SFP to a Freenas box which is much more than whats needed to execute what you’re trying to do (Very nice!). Double check your VM settings and make sure everything is what you think it is. Some of the VM software use’s slider type setting dials and a click of the mouse to close a window might inadvertently move a slider (EX.CPU COUNT ETC) to the minimum. The CPU being pegged is what’s the give away here. I can run 6-8 streams (mix of live and on file) all being transcoded and only 40 - 50% usage at best since the CPU’s will actually pulse and stay ahead of the demand. What about the Tuner how are you getting the signal to the VM, through the NIC or did you route a PCIe? Although the 100% CPU is the telltale here.
Thanks, interestingly enough I was running some tests today and did not see the same issues I was yesterday. This is a new setup as I converted from hyper v to esxi recently. When i converted the virtual drive to the ESXi format it caused some database corruption in my plex media server so had to rebuild it. I thought at the time that everything had completed when i began running live TV streams but maybe I was wrong. CPU only hits about 10-20% on the vm while doing a single tv stream now. Last night it was using around 70-80% so wondering if maybe the guide still had some background tasks running.
To answer some of your questions or to clarify some items though. With it being a vm I provisioned 8 vCPUs to it but that basically turns into 4 cores with hyperthreading with how ESXi handles cpu usage. The tuner is network based running on a gig port to my router and when i use dedicated apps (hdhomerun app for instance) I see no stuttering or issues of any kind.
