I’m new to Linux but I’ve been using Plex for years. Recently I upgraded my ancient macmini server to an Intel NUC i7 here are the specs:
Intel NUC mini PC kit NUC7i7BNH Core i7
8gb ram
1tb sata 6gbs/128mb cache HDD
1tb external usb2.0 hdd
Ubuntu 3.28.1
So the new setup seems to work great. Can stream 1080p with no problem. The problem arises when it tries to stream more than one movie at a time. The second stream always stutters and does not play smoothly. It doesn’t seem to matter if the second stream is hd or not. It happens regardless. I would have thought that the i7 and 8 gigs of ram would be able to handle multiple hd streams at once and I cannot seem to figure out what the problem is.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
You didn’t say if you used multi-streams on your old PMS or if there was a problem there also. I checked passmark for your CPU it’s #6533 and should do three HD transcoding at one time, more direct streams.
May not be CPU or memory issue but the bandwidth limitations of USB 2.0 might not be enough to handle multiple HD streams. USB 3.0 would be a better choice if your machine has a USB 3.0 port and hard drive caddy is USB 3.0 ready.
As a test choose two known HD movies on internal drive and see if there is still an issue in streaming. If there’s still a problem, homenetwork may be the limiting issue. I had to go to gigalan setup with cat-6 cable to get HD multi-streams going smoothly through my own home network.
As an after thought some realtek network controllers are iffy with linux and start flooding the network with garbage. I had to blacklist my loaded driver and install a different one.
AMD Fx-6300 6-Core 3.5GHz Passmark #6383
DDR-3 8-gig
ASRock N68-GS4 FX R2.0
Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Designated Plex Server ‘Linux Mint Mate 18.3’
On the old PMS there was never a problem. I was able to run multiple streams with no issue. However the mac mini was so old that I couldn’t run anything over 720p.
I’ll look into the usb issue, but some of the media is also stored on the internal SATA drive too, so I’ll have to check on that. As far as the network is concerned, I’m running a Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station (ME918LL/A). I know it’s a little older so you may be right about the bottleneck being the network.
One saving grace is you can get for now at least one good HD 1080 stream going, that’s a plus. Good luck on the rest. Maybe the hill ain’t that high after all.
As a non-PlexPass holder, 6000 passmarks will give you 2 1080p transcodes but may not be enough based on::
input codec
Input and output resolution
subtitle usage
what is the Ubuntu version and PMS version because either isn’t version 3.x.x of either. PMS is 1.13.2 with Plex/web version 3 as the web app. I’m asking for the refinement because a lot of PMS versions exist with Version 3 of the web app. You’ll find it under Settings - Server - General
Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark score requirements are a good guideline for the following average source file
Unless your saying a non-plex-pass holder only gets two transcodes at the same time regardless of passmark.
Two transcodes at the same time works well on my machine, three I haven’t fully tested. It was the main reason for me using a lightweight Linux distro was to free up resources for PMS. And I try to format videos in my free time not to have to be transcoded on the fly. I had PMS on a Win 10 machine with about the same passmarked CPU but windows wanted to hog resources at odd times to do windows things. But all in all happy with my Linux Box PMS set-up.
Anyway I think 'drclauw’ was more trouble shooting where his buffing was coming from and using multi-transcodings would be another area for him to check out as using direct streaming only would eliminate another nail in the buffering coffin.
Sounds good to me. Makes more sense out of the process manager built into Linux mint I’ve been looking at as PMS transcodes run. One transcode has all cores floating around 50% 60%, two transcodes bring all cores to almost 100%.
My CPU = AMD Fx-6300 6-Core 3.5GHz Passmark #6383
Wow, thanks for all the responses and help! I really appreciate it!
I’m still testing and messing around with the system. Interestingly, I’ve briefly tested out multiple 1080p streams running from both the external HDD and internal one. First on two tablets and then on a laptop and tablet. Both times I did NOT get the stuttering issue. Perhaps it might be network related after all? The stuttering usually happens when my wife and I both try to use plex from out bedroom (which is right above my office). However, during testing I was in the office (right next to the router) and did not have and stuttering issues. So the mystery continues. I’ll have to continue testing in different areas I guess.
Yes it can be troubling to pin down issues. And farther from the source with wireless may make you have to compromise on streaming levels to that device. My Roku 4 is hard wired and can stream full HD out at highest level to TV, but my Roku TV is only wireless and I have to throttle the 1080 stream down when streaming to it. All my remote streams are set to 3 Mbps 720p because of low upload speeds through carrier and limited to one.
Of course as ChuckPA Team Member stated both our CPU’s are on edge of doing two transcode streams with yours passmarked a bit better, not sure if your formatting videos for direct streaming but if like me best to stay within one transcode and others direct stream area. Some Blu-Ray’s I leave as MKV and transcode for the subtitles and let PMSoptimize them for remote direct streaming.
Happy Plexing, I’ve had more fun getting it to work within the confines of my CPU and home network than using it. But that’s just my nature.
I would also take a look at getting a plex pass - with ubuntu and your i7 processor you could use hardware acceleration which should give you a few more streams using quicksync
With Plex Pass and QSV hardware transcoding, even an i3-7xxxx series can transcode 4K HEVC HDR. In the i3’s case, the limitation you’ll face is a) Number of physical cores available and b) Complexity of audio codecs involved…
I am using a NUC 7 (i3-7100U) and the video is fine. That complex audio codec is another matter in some cases but I’m also using a full raw rip and also a purist with decent AVR & speakers An i5 NUC 7 would crunch right through <facepalm>
Gonna chime In here.
Although I personally only ever Direct Play my media I do share my server with 5 or 6 friends. Because of that I have hardware acceleration enabled. Let me just say that H/A is reason enough for a Plex Pass purchase.
For me it’s the best working feature In the whole Plex eco system. Forget any nonsense about lesser quality with quicksync etc…
If the original file is of a good quality the quicksync streams are excellent even when five stream from my server simultaneously.
Seriously. Your transcode HDD is your issue. Swap it for an SSD and you should be gtg.
Turn on hardware accelerated transcoding and you should be able to transcode as many streams as the HDD can supply.
PLEASE be aware you’ll always be limited to whatever random read throughput the external drive with the movies can supply. This is why I always recommend raid direct attached storage or a 10 gigabit network with a raid array capable of saturating the network for a storage backend.
I respectfully strongly disagree with this post. I have an enormous library and the only reason i switched back to a ssd is because of the size of the library. I was starting to have terible latency and loading issues because of the size of the database that had to be constantly loaded. If you have a reasonably sized library, you really don’t need an ssd or a 10 gigabit network
An ssd is not a bad thing to have however, but it is in no way necessary or even your primary bottleneck at this point
It’s not cost effective yet for home use. It’s still largely Enterprise prices. Wait until end of this year.
Samsung NVME 970 series is just as fast as you’ll get over a 10GbE connection but does not sufffer the latency of a network. (2700 MB/sec) because it’s local
Even a Samsung 850 EVO SSD is more than enough to make any local HD configuration look slow even if it’s plugged into the same SATA-3 port. The reason for this is Zero-Latency (no seek time) . The 850 EVO Sata-3 sits and turns a very nice 400-500 MB/sec. If this is insufficient for use with a NUC, you’re overloading the NUC.
OP: “The problem arises when it tries to stream more than one movie at a time. The second stream always stutters and does not play smoothly. It doesn’t seem to matter if the second stream is hd or not. It happens regardless.”
Me: “Seriously. Your transcode HDD is your issue. Swap it for an SSD and you should be gtg.”
What’s most likely happening is he’s either transcoding or just converting from MKV to an optimized format and the 2.5" rust disk cannot keep up with the random writes and reads needed to stream and transcode / convert multiple videos simultaneously.
I’ve never run into this issue with a FAR slower J5005 Nuc connected over 1GB to an Unraid server. The only difference is that I run an SSD in my Nuc.
My 10GB network comments were unrelated to the OP’s question and mostly a solution to anyone running 4K original content, My solution was simply to replace his 2.5" rust drive with an SSD.
