I'm wondering if I need better hardware

[OttoKerner]

@millichamp81

I wasn’t personally having problem until I installed the last update

You can go back a version.
Older installers are in the Plex data folder, in the subfolder Updates.
Just make sure NOT to use any kind of 3rd-party “uninstaller” or “registry cleaner” apps.

@millichamp81

I mentioned that I tried using it above. I don’t want to lose any quality but whenever I have used it in the past my file size ends up being substantially smaller than the original. I try comparing the original to the one I get using Handbrake, and I haven’t noticed a difference, but I’m sure it’s losing quality somewhere I’m just not noticing. Maybe it’s a bit unreasonable to ask that, I’m guessing I can’t use one setup in Handbrake for all of my video files.

Correct,

• any conversion is causing quality loss. It is only a question of how much loss.
• there is no universal setting for conversions

It depends a lot on the source material, your quality expectations, the available storage space, and the processing time you are willing to invest.
For the particular movie in question above, see Choppy playback with VC-1 encoded BD rips - #4 by OttoKerner as a starting point.

(File size is not an absolute indicator of quality. Different video codecs require different amounts of storage space to encode the same video sequence, in the same visual quality. It’s totally possible to end up with a smaller file size even if the visual quality is the same, just by using a better suited encoding strategy and investing more time in the processing.)